Apologies for the mini-break. I know I started off by writing a number of blogs in a short space of time and then went AWOL. I promise you this was not intentional and was work related. I was put on a new engagement on very short notice. It has been an intense couple of weeks having to deal with a very difficult Client but I now have some breathing time which I have decided to use writing this. The only upside to this is I can say I have more examples for my interview on ‘dealing with difficult Clients and how I handled the situation..’
I was invited to interview with McCombs and scheduled the online video interview for Tuesday (23rd October). McCombs allows you three options to interview – On campus, Alumni or online. On campus was not a possibility as I am located on a different continent, I initially opted for the Alumni but when I tried to find one in my area none came up so I was left with the online option.
I had a conversation with a family friend who is a current first year student at McCombs to get an insight into the culture and his experiences at McCombs. I cannot emphasise how useful this is. Speaking to the admissions officers is one thing as they will always tell you the positives of the school but having someone who will be frank with you is invaluable. If you are wondering, he had mostly positive things to say about McCombs. His only concerns were not specific to McCombs but the MBA in general. These included the workload – especially for those who do not have an economics or finance background
McCombs send you a link which can be activated at the time scheduled for the interview. You are not able to access the link beforehand. This obviously got me nervous as I wasn’t sure of its compatibility with my laptop (it is a work laptop so there was a risk of it being one of the many links that are blocked) and wasn’t able to test it before hand. I took my personal laptop with me as a precaution.
At the time of the interview I was able to log in with no issues. The internet connection was intermittent on my end which got a bit frustrating but I had already explained this to the interviewer beforehand and she was understanding. The interviewer was a second year student who made every effort to put me at ease. She asked the usual questions:
- Tell me about yourself, walk me through your resume
- Why an MBA?
- Why now?
- What are your short and long term goals?
- How will McCombs help you achieve this? Why McCombs?
- Tell me about your proudest achievement (could be anything, not just workplace related)
- Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a challenging situation at work and how did you resolve it?
- She then left time for questions
I thought the interview went really well but as is always the case, one won’t know until decision day! So far I have been impressed with the interviewers from Tuck and McCombs. They were both warm and friendly and made every effort to keep the interview as conversational as possible.e
A Nomad's MBA Tale... 