My two INSEAD interviews were very different. The first one was with a younger alumnus who used to be an MD and worked in Pharma industry before joining McKinsey. The second one was a very senior alumnus who used to be the president of a huge international cosmetics company’s Taiwan Branch.
The first one was very casual and because he knew that I will use English with the second one (the second one is not a Taiwanese), he used Chinese during the interview. He seemed pretty casual and did not ask many questions. In fact, I don’t feel that he asked any question but just brought out question-like conversations as follows:
- What do you want to do after graduation?
- Why you choose INSEAD?
- The life style of management consultant is very exhaustive, are you sure you can maintain your sports habit?
He spent most of the time describing why he chose INSEAD other than Harvard (he got both offers) and how he received countless interview opportunities during INSEAD. However, because of his background, I found them hard to apply to my case (I am a Deloitte auditor). Also he seemed not very interested in knowing me, which, though spared me from being asked tough questions, made me a little bit sad. His point was that, with an extremely niche skill (ex: his MD) one can work at McKinsey and leads a balanced life (thus, vice versa).
In the end, he did give me guidances regarding how to better present myself for the second interview (such as being more concise and structured in answering questions) and he also warned me not to take out the prepared list of questions for interviewers because that would make me look unprofessional (a really good suggestion).
My second interview was the next day to my first interview. We met in a Starbucks near his house because he will fly to Singapore after the interview. I was more nervous about this one since he is a very high profile business person. I arrived an hour before the scheduled time and started to walk around the neighborhood to go through my prepared answers. That’s in a wealthy area of Taipei. Good for rehearsing on the street.
He came right on time and offered to buy me a coffee. We have greetings for about 5 mins and the interview started. Questions were:
- Why MBA? Why INSEAD?
- Which other schools have you applied and why?
- What’s your career goal?
- What is the highlight of your career? (he then kept on asking very detailed questions about the nature of the project I mentioned, the role I played, the various parties involved, the nationality of the client…)
- You are an auditor, which kind of industry did you involve in most? Why did you move around different industries?
- Your leadership experience are all professional, why not extra-curricular ones?
- Tell me about your most challenging international experience. Why was it challenging?
- Do you have club experience in university? High school? (I did not expect that I would be asked about high school!)
After these questions, I got the opportunity to ask him questions. I then asked three:
- What role does INSEAD play in your life? (he met his wife and his in-law family in Fonty!)
- For my future career aspiration to conduct corporate restructuring and M&A projects, which courses or skills should I acquire now? (keep on with my IPO projects at hand, try to think like a shareholder, PE club, and corporate finance classes..)
- How did you conquer cultural barrier and advance to the top position in a French MNC? (language and understanding what others are thinking about)
During the interview, he was very forthright and told me that my profile is not as international as most INSEAD students (my longest overseas experience was only 3 months in Australia) and my extra-curricular leadership experience was much less than impressive. However, he seemed delighted to know that during my backpacking in Australia, I had sent out tens of resumes only to land a restaurant assistant job. He said it was a real international experience. (surprisingly).
My overall impression about him is that despite his high profile, he was very patient and had a profound knowledge in the capital market. He definitely made me feel very good about the possibility of getting into this school!
A final feedback from my two interviews:
First, do prepare for those standard MBA interview questions but don’t get over prepared about other less-frequent ones. Second, be sure to have several mock interviews before the real ones (and let the interviewer ask a wide range of questions). Third, have a sound sleep the night before because you will need a clear and fast-running brain during the interview.
Best of luck to me and everyone!
(Update) Result: Admitted!
