Interview Preparation

Interview – Concepts
innovation

eBook01
 Table of contents

Chapter Topic Page

No. No.
1 Introduction to PI 1-7
1.1 What is an Interview?
1.2 Why are Interviews conducted?
1.3 Evaluation Parameters in an MBA
Interview
1.4 Types of Interview Formats
2 How to prepare for an MBA Interview 8-10
2.1 Know Yourself
2.2 Know the audience i.e. Interviewer
or the Panel
2.3 Illustrate
2.4 Technical Parameters
3. Types of Interview Questions 11-15
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Personality Assessment
3.3 Career Planning
3.4 Academic & Extra-curricular
3.5 Current Affairs
4. Sample Mock Interview 16-19
Chapter 1: Introduction to PI
“One important key to success is self-confidence. An
important key to self-confidence is preparation.”
–Arthur Ashe
1.1 What is an Interview?
So, you have qualified for the selection process of your
dream B-school and performed exceptionally well in the
written tests; what next?
“The Interview”
The interview may simply be defined as a “conversation
with a purpose”. It is a powerful practice to achieve an
accurate appraisal of the candidates in terms of their
aptitude as well as attitude.

1.2 Why are Interviews conducted?

The interviews are conducted with the objective of
assessing the candidate’s suitability for the specific MBA

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program. They enable the interviewers to gather an
extensive range of open-ended, qualitative data which
can provide insight into the applicant’s motivations,
feelings, ambitions, attitudes, etc. They allow the panel to
paint a picture of the candidate as a person in real life
and match the personality traits with the institute’s
expectations.
What’s in for the Interviewer?
 Assess the candidate’s personality traits
 Ensure that the information on the application form
is genuine and coherent with the candidate’s
claims
 Check if the candidate is the right fit for the
institute
 Gauge the candidate’s level of general awareness
as well as self-awareness
What’s in for the Interviewee?
 An opportunity to express themselves and prove
their mettle beyond their application form
 Know more about the insitute, its facilites and
student culture.
 Demonstrate his/her passion through exclusive
traits, hobbies and interests.
1.3 Evaluation Parameters in an MBA Interview
Interviews are conducted to assess the suitability of
candidates for the MBA program in B-schools. The
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interviewers intend to evaluate the candidates on the
basis of their personality traits, knowledge, skills and
experience. Candidates are asked variety of questions
based on their career goals, education, personal values,
hobbies, etc.
A candidate’s performance is generally evaluated on the
basis of following parameters:
Personality: Questions based on personality traits are
commonly asked in interviews and hold a major portion
of questions in MBA interviews. The interview panel
attempts to gauge your ability to answer in a coherent
manner. Your answers also reflect your clarity of mind,
self-awareness, strong and weak points of your
personality. For instance, one of the most frequently
asked questions to examine a candidate’s character is
“Tell me about yourself”. You need to answer these
questions in an optimistic and confident tone to make a
good first impression on the panel.
Clarity of goals: The interview panel intends to probe you
on your short-term and long-term career goals. Questions
based on your career objectives are frequently asked in
MBA interviews such as “Why do you wish to pursue
MBA?” or “Where do you see yourself in five or ten years
from now?” Your answers are evaluated for your
suitability to the institute and translucency of your
ambitions. You need to answer these questions in a
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manner that links your academic background and
interests to your career goals.
General awareness: You are required to be aware of the
current happenings, changing scenarios in political and
business world, society, etc. GK-based questions assess
your ability to process current and past information.
These questions could be objective such as “Who is the
speaker of Rajya Sabha?” or “Where is the headquarters
of World Bank?”. Alternatively, questions could also be
based on latest events or a socio-economic/ political
issue seeking the candidate’s opinion on the topic. For
instance, “What has been the impact of GST on Indian
economy?” or “Do you believe right to freedom is a threat
to nationalism?”.
Subject Knowledge: This is another crucial area in which
the candidate is assessed for his learned skills and
abilities. You should be prepared to answer the
fundamental questions related to your academic areas.
The interview panel frequently poses questions from
your favorite subjects in order to check your honesty. A
mechanical engineering student could be asked to define
the Reynold’s number, while a student with a background
in political science may be questioned on Karl Marx’s
understanding of Human Essence and Alienation.
Your answers are generally evaluated in terms of the
following:

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  Conceptual Clarity
 Ability to draw from examples
 Ability to relate with everyday life
Communication skills: It is essential to use appropriate
and effective language to ace your personal interview.
You need to be brief and precise while answering the
questions. The way you answer is as much important as
what you answer. Also, you need to be a good and active
listener to answer the questions well. In case the panel
contradicts your answers, you should be polite and
confident while stressing upon your viewpoint. Your
communication skills are checked on the basis of
following parameters:
 Ability to express your views and opinions
 Command over language/wit & humour
 Command over voice/voice modulation
1.4 Types of Interview Formats
An interview can have almost any format. You can either
have a single interviewer, a panel of interviewers or have
a candidate complete multiple interviews with different
individuals. Each format has its pros and cons.

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 Types of
Interviews

Individual Group Multiple-Round

Interview Interview Interview

Generally, the following types of formats are followed:

Individual Interview: The individual interview comprises
of a candidate with one single interviewer.
An individual interview allows a more in-depth
conversation with the candidate, allowing the interviewer
to assess the candidate in a much better manner. The
interviewer is able to have more prolonged and deeper
conversation – and thus gain more insights into the
candidate's abilities and skills – through this interview.
The negatives of an individual interview are that the
person interviewing might not be the only person that the
candidate might have to work with, and other members
might not be able to know much about the candidate.
Moreover, the interviewee is susceptible to personal
biases of a single interviewer.
Group Interview: Group interviews consist of a panel of
interviewers – more than one – interviewing the
candidate. This form of interview is the most prevalent in
IIMs’ admission process.

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Group interviews allow more than one interviewer to ask
questions to the candidate. This allows multiple people –
who will eventually work with the candidate – to assess
the candidate, and check his/her suitability.
The negative bits of a group interview is that it, at times,
lacks an in-depth one-to-one conversation, that is only
possible if the interview happens with only a single
panelist.
Multiple Round Interview: In this format, there are
multiple rounds of one-to-one interviews.
The advantage of this approach is that the candidate is
judged through multiple one-to-one rounds of interviews,
with different panelists. This allows each panelist to
thoroughly assess the candidate on multiple aspects
with in-depth conversations.
However, the negative of this is that this slows down the
interview process, since the candidate has to go through
multiple rounds of interviews with different sets of
people.

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Chapter 2: How to prepare for an MBA Interview?
Interview is the best opportunity for you to highlight
yourself as a standout candidate. So it is important to
make sure you know your unique value proposition and
that you can bring out the same in the interview. Your
performance in the interview determines your chances of
selection to a large extent. So it is absolutely critical for
you to devote a lot of time and effort on interview
preparation.
2.1 Know yourself
To form a winning strategy for interviews, the most
important strategy is to first rediscover yourself. While it
may seem like a no-brainer, it may be important to
highlight here that people tend to ignore what seems
obvious. So, a few moments to explore your own
strengths and unique characteristics will go a long way
in improving performance in the interviews.
This will also help you in preparing a good introduction to
begin the interview. You may do a SWOT analysis of self
to understand all relevant information.
Seeking answers to some of the following questions can
help you to know yourself better:
 What do I identify as my main traits?
 What is the one thing that makes me different from
others?

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  What are my strengths and weaknesses?
 How would the way my family/ friends describe me
differ from the way stranger judges me?
 What are my core values I learnt within my family
or at school/college?
 What activities do I pursue with utmost passion?
 What kind of legacy do I want to leave behind me?
2.2 Know the audience i.e. Interviewer or the Panel
It is a little tricky and may need effort in terms of
understanding the profile of interviewers or the culture of
the B-school. If you get information regarding the
interviewer or the panel beforehand, it is advisable to
have a look at their profile. However, the best way may be
to understand the mindset of the interviewer(s) during
the process. The most effective way of learning this is
via practice through mock-interviews.
2.3 Illustrate
It is one thing to tell a story, quite another to back it up
with examples. So if you are suggesting that you are a
team-player, better illustrate how you arrived at this
conclusion by giving example of you being part of a team
in sports, event organizing team etc.
Examples are critical to develop your claims and give
them wings.

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2.4 Technical Parameters
Research about particular B-schools and the
programmes offered by them to get a better idea of what
you are opting for. This will give you confidence going
into the interview and prepare you for questions. Being at
the end of the interview, express your gratitude to the
interview panel and recap the crucial points, if asked to.
Post-Interview: At this stage, you need to review your
interview and look for the areas of improvements, if any.
 Re-construct your interview and identify its positive
and negative happenings.
 Try to identify the causes of the negative parts and
list out the improvement areas.
 If required, seek help for corrections and practice
for the same.

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Chapter 3: Types of Interview Questions
Candidates are assessed on the basis of their personality
traits, knowledge, skills and experience.

The interviewers ask questions based on career goals,

education, personal values, hobbies, etc. Work on the
following areas before a Personal Interview (these topics
are accompanied with a list of things you need to keep in
mind for scoring well in respective areas):
3.1 Introduction
This may seem trivial on the face of it, but may be the
most important question to prepare for an interview. A
good introduction may set you up nicely. Introduction is
where the panel gets a first look at you and starts
building up your personality. The question type in itself is
vast and you can cover a lot of information in this area. It
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is advisable to cover more in your introduction than what
your resume suggests. You may mention your positive
traits in this section. You may also drop subtle hints on
certain unique characteristics of your personality which
may attract the attention of the panel.
This may be an opportunity for you to give direction to
the interview through subtle hints at your achievements
or distinctive personality traits.
Be a story teller! It is your opportunity to tell your
personal brand story and who better than yourself to do
it.
3.2 Personality Assessment
Interviews often feature questions on areas such as
strengths, weaknesses, role-models, etc. These self-
assessment questions are based on your “self-
awareness levels” and the degree to which you know
yourself. A self informed “you” may find it easy to share
examples for your strengths and weaknesses. It is
important to note here that examples of weakness
should always be followed with corrective steps initiated
to overcome the weakness.
Such personality assessment questions require deep
self-evaluation. Therefore you should give yourself
appropriate time to understand intricate details about
your life and prepare suitable responses.

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You may be given a particular situation or case study to
solve. This section tries to test following aspects in a
candidate:
1) Analytical abilities
2) The methodology adopted to handle situations or
tackle problems
3) The speed with which data is organised in your
mind or paper.
3.3 Career Planning
The questions regarding short to long term goals is a
routine one and hence it is important for you to have this
sorted out. A clear and logical guide to your future plans
is well appreciated as it shows a mature and sincere
thought process. The important consideration here is
that you should not appear to be over-ambitious or vice a
versa. Additionally, you will be asked questions regarding
your work experience and the organization you worked
at.
There is no definite answer to career question and it all
comes down to an individual’s ambitions. Some may
want to be CEOs and the others entrepreneurs. All are
right answers as long as they are backed with logical
thoughts. While you can always state that you wish to
start a business, but if you have no inkling of what you

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are going to do or you do not have any basic plan to back
up your claims, this kind of a statement can be hard to
justify in an interview. The focus, while discussing your
long-term plans, should always be on the skills you wish
to acquire rather than the posts and positions that you
want to occupy.
3.4 Academics & Extra-curricular
This is when you portray your overall academic skills and
give an impression of a well-rounded personality.
Academic skills (exhibited by your performance in
exams) coupled with extra-curricular and academic
activities provide the panel with a fair idea about your
skill set.
Academic learnings may be checked through focus on
your favourite subject or course in general. If asked
about a favorite subject, you should share the one you
are most comfortable with. Your ability to answer subject
related questions in simple layman language will reflect
your conceptual clarity with the subject. Your
internships, projects etc are also important source for
questions. Your knowledge is co-related with your
performance, and this gives the panel an idea about your
learning levels. Extra-curricular activities are also
important. These may be evaluated on the basis of their
significance and level of accomplishment. Performance

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in competitions is a logical proof of your passion and
excellence.
Do a thorough revision of your subjects with absolute
understanding of the most obvious questions. Also, give
due focus to your extra-curricular achievements.
3.5 Current Affairs
Questions on current affairs can become an Achilles heel
for many students. These questions act as a check of
your knowledge, awareness and ability to process
current information and environments. To successfully
operate in any condition, you need to know the changing
business and political scenarios, and knowledge in areas
such as politics, economy business society and culture
is essential.
It is important to have your own opinions on news and
not just what is being presented in the media. And never
back yourself in a corner with strong one sided opinions;
always leave room for feedback. This is a very important
quality.

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Chapter 4: Sample Mock Interview
Q.1. Tell me about yourself
Answer: Good morning Sir.
First of all, Thanks for giving me an opportunity to
introduce myself.
I'm Vijay Dinanath Chauhan. Born and brought up in
Hyderabad.
Coming to my education qualifications, I have completed
my schooling from Army school R K. Puram and
Intermediate from Kendriya Vidhyalaya Bolarum and
lastly I have pursued my graduation from St.Mary's
Centenary Degree College Secunderabad. I'm a fresher
and I don't have much practical knowledge but I am
eager to learn new things at different positions.
As far as my family background is concerned, we are 4
members in my family including me. My father is in Army,
my mother is a primary school teacher and my younger
sister is pursuing graduation.
Coming to my career goal, my short term goal is to get
admission into the MBA program offered by your reputed
Institute to learn more about management and thereby
pursue my long term goal of a successful career in
financial management.
Coming towards my strengths, I have strong logical
thinking, always love to do smart work, good leadership
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skills, have good time management skills. I am very self-
motivated. My weak point is that I believe on someone
very easily and I am short tempered person but I am
working on that to improve this.
Apart from studies, I'm very good in the field of sports. I
am a football player and have played Nationals and
represented Hyderabad. I am an also an avid reader.
That's all about me Sir.
Thank you.
Q.2. What kind of books do you read? What was the last
book you read?
Answer: I like reading books from multiple genres, but I
am particularly fond of reading non-fictional, historical or
documentary books. The last book I read was Sapiens: A
Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. It is an
excellent thought provoking epic narration of nearly 13.5
billion years of life’s existence on earth. It also talks of
three major revolutions shaped by humans - cognitive,
agricultural and scientific.
Q.3. What are some of the other books written by Yuval
Noah Harari?
Answer: Yuval Harari is an Israeli writer, historian and
philosopher. He is also the author of the Homo Deus,
Money, Out of our Minds and most recently 21 Lessons
for the 21st Century. Most of his books revolve around his

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interest in studying how the humans have reached their
current condition and what lies in their future.
Q4: Who has inspired you in your life and why?
Answer: Of all the people who have inspired me, I have to
say that Jonas Salk ranks at the top of the list. Not only
was he a brilliant scientist, but more importantly, he used
his genius and dedication to develop a product (in the
form of a life-saving vaccine) that saved thousands of
lives and prevented untold suffering, instead of seeking
personal profit like so many others would have.
Q.4. Give us a reason why we should admit you?
Answer: Sir, I am a confident and dynamic individual who
is very focused and committed to my work. I have proven
this through my excellent academic record as given in
my application. During the captainship of my National’s
Football team, I developed healthy leadership and team-
building skills. I believe given my past accomplishments
and my profile, I would be an appropriate fit for your
prestigious institute. I would endeavor to bring high
laurels to your reputed name.
Q.5. What is your career goal? How do you think MBA will
help you achieve your dream?
Answer: I aspire to become an Investment Banker. I was
inspired by the famous Warren Buffett who is considered
as one of the most successful investor in the world.
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Since I am a fresher, graduated in mechanical
engineering, I have had no exposure to the area of
finance. Through MBA, I wish to acquire prerequisite
financial knowledge and practical experience through
internship and establish a firm foot in the sphere of
financial management.
Question: Warren Buffet is also an acclaimed
businessman. Have you not considered becoming an
entrepreneur?
Answer: Opening a business wouldn’t be a good fit for
me because I do my best work in stable jobs with well-
defined responsibilities. I also enjoy working in positions
that let me learn from my co-workers and managers.
Q.6. Can you work under pressure?
Answer: Yes, I work well under pressure. We had to meet
tight project deadlines during the course of graduation.
But I believe that by simply reacting to a situation, we are
just creating the pressure. Instead of reacting to a
problem, I would review the facts at a heightened pace
and respond to the situation with a solution all while
keeping a clear head.

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