HBS R2 Interview Advice?

I signed up to have my HBS interview in mid-Feb and have been trying to prepare by talking to as many alums as I can get to listen to me. Many are a few years removed and have advised me to try to get as fresh a perspective as possible since the school "changes their interview style often." Despite the possibility of them being outdated, I have a couple of mock interviews lined up. Much of the content on this site and the web in general has been useful, though new and recent advice/perspectives are always helpful.

Have any of you been in touch with current/recent alums and/or have any words of wisdom? Things like what to expect, how to prepare, etc?

 

Another HBS round 1 admit, focus on knowing your story, being relaxed, and be ready to answer questions out of left field. Focus mock interviews on current students if you can, and don't discount the value of using Sandy for mock interviews. Good luck, hope to see you on campus this fall. PM me if you would like to chat on the phone about more specifics on my experience. I interviewed in NYC in November.

 

Didn't do a mock interview, R1 admit. The Harbus guide was helpful and thorough, but a lot of my interview was stuff that I could've only prepared for by having a "real" application.

By that I mean I spent a lot of time having a detailed conversation about something I worked on and the industry I wanted to enter after HBS, down to what I thought of specific companies and executives.

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petergibbons:

Didn't do a mock interview, R1 admit. The Harbus guide was helpful and thorough, but a lot of my interview was stuff that I could've only prepared for by having a "real" application.

By that I mean I spent a lot of time having a detailed conversation about something I worked on and the industry I wanted to enter after HBS, down to what I thought of specific companies and executives.

+1 for the Harbus guide, definitely worth the money.

 

Yes, buy the Harbus guide. Not just saying that because @"petergibbons" said so The thing about the Harbus guide is that can be overwhelming, so make sure you read between the lines of the guide, which is to answer the questions honestly, and be succinct. The HBS admissions interviewers know exactly what questions they want to ask, and they will move onto another question if you are going on too long.

Betsy Massar Come see me at my Q&A thread http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/b-school-qa-w-betsy-massar-of-master-admissions Ask away!
 

Congrats on the interview invite!

Like any industry, there are usually a select number of firms that are market leaders.

And there is often one firm or org that is the standard bearer or bellweather that their competitors are often compared against. In other words, they serve as the primary reference point.

With business schools, it's HBS. One can argue whether Stanford is better than HBS (and that Stanford is more selective than HBS), or whether schools like Wharton or Booth provide a more robust academic experience, but HBS is sort of the baseline.

In world politics, it's the US as the one country everyone uses as a basis for comparison for just about anything (wealth, social mobility, crime, culture, etc). Same with the US dollar in global finance. Or the US military as the standard in which other countries measure themselves against.

So in investment banking, that bell weather is Goldman Sachs. The rankings of which firms did the most deals can change from quarter to quarter (or from one country to the next), but they are usually in the top 1-5 in just about any category. They are the one firm everyone compares themselves to in order to measure their own success and progress, even if Morgan Stanley and JPM are close competitors. Regardless of whether one thinks Goldman is the "best" - they are usually top of mind.

In mgmt consulting, it's McKinsey, even if BCG and Bain are arguably just as good (if not better in some areas), and where some boutiques excel in areas over these big firms.

If you look at most situations, there's usually that bellweather, and then a cluster of close competitors. In baseball, it's the Yankees (with the Red Sox, Dodgers, Cardinals behind them). In soccer, it's Brazil and Barcelona that other national and club teams tend to measure themselves against. In basketball, the Lakers are the marquee franchise even if their team sucks. In football, it's the Browns (kidding).

Whether it's sports, companies, consumer brands, countries, etc there are usually a small minority of orgs/groups that tend to get the most visibility and have the biggest influence in shaping the direction of their industry/group.

Whether it's banking or anything else, think of the 80/20 rule: that 20% of the group contributes 80% of the output. And in banking, it's a few firms that handle the lion's share of deals.

Alex Chu www.mbaapply.com
 

If you want a deep dive, the question is: why are these firms or orgs top of mind? Why have they become market leaders?

And while every industry or circumstance is different, the one thing that seems to be commonplace is that it's not due to one person or outsized leader/personality, but oftentimes a strong system in place that allows talented people to thrive, which then attracts the most talented to these very orgs that transcends whomever is the current "leader". The system can survive multiple generations of people who come and go through the org. Whether it's sports or business, the orgs that tend to be consistently successful tend to have strong cultures/systems that aren't at the mercy of whomever is in currently in charge. And this comes into play in banking as well with Goldman - they've been able to retain their market leadership (along with Morgan Stanley, JPM) while other firms have come and gone (go back to the early 1980s until now, and you'll see a lot of names that are no longer around or have been swallowed up like Salomon, Drexel/Lehman/Bear going bust, First Boston almost going bust then getting bought by Credit Suisse before going sideways, DB trying to buy everything and anything to get into investment banking, and so forth - but Goldman is still one of the top dogs).

Alex Chu www.mbaapply.com
 

good job on the interview! :) HBS likes to probe it's candidates, so it's hard to give you a set of template questions that you could study. they'll likely ask about your background regarding facets w/in your application that interested them, but weren't fully fleshed out (of course the 400 word limit has something to do w/ this). They could ask you small facets about your job or specific projects that you worked on. They could ask you about your interests and what you do during your free time, and then use some follow up questions to really get into detail and test how much you actually know - don't try to bs! you have very good chances of admission now that you have the interview likely around 50%-60%. (although HBS is doing some weird stuff this year, given the surge in applications, with fewer admittances and tons of waitlist candidates in order to manipulate their acceptance rate/yield) Good luck!

 

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