[原创]Fresh Insead Interview Experience

RickZhen

Just finished my second interview 20 mins ago with a Supply Chain Manager at Nestle. Italian, 30+, tech background. He is pretty busy and the interview has to be scheduled at 8am in the morning.

Questions from him were not very 'standard', or he mixed the orders and the phrasing to make it feel that way. Right after settling down he mentioned he had no time to read my profiles, so I had to give a 5min self-intro. After that he started to question based upon my intro:

1. Why did you do decide to do your master program in tech?
2. Why happened exactly when you quit your first job?
3. Why do you think embedded system is going to be hot?
4. Why MBA?
5. You seems to know quite a few alumni from Insead. What did you hear from them about Insead? (I think I answered Why Insead question along the way)
6. What else did you feel about them other than their enthusiasm?
7. Why now?
8. What's your plan after the MBA program?
9. Tell me your opinion about how to manage a team. Give some details about your project management experience. 
10. Your interest? What do you read usually? Which news headline captured your attention recently?
11. If you didn't come to Singapore, where would you be today?
12. Do you plan to go back to China?
13. You mentioned about Lenovo. Thinking it as an example, why do you think their international branding effort is not successful?
14. Why do you think Google has a better brand image than Microsoft? How did they manage to achieve it?  
15. If you are going to make a news headline years later, what do you hope the title would be?

Overall speaking it's more serious than my first interview, probably because it was conducted in an office setting. The interviewer kept asking questions and taking a lot of notes. We spent quite some time on my team management experience, and my interaction with Alumni. He did not leave time for any questions from me. Instead, he emphasized that he needed to convey the very accurate information about me to the Admin com, so he spent around one minute to make sure all the questions had been answered.

Although no Q&A session for me, he did give me an advice and he spent quite sometime on it. He was asking about the new Insead campus (Singapore). When he found that I only visited there two years ago, he suggested me to go there and take a look. He felt that although I had contact with alumni, I should really go there to take a look since I am so near. (I'm getting a bit regret that I didn't do it ... ) At the end of the interview, he talked about it again and suggested me to take a look before the school starts.

In the end, he had a short summary about the interview, saying MBA is a major decision and he believed that I have taken enough consideration on it. He believed that the purpose of the interview was not to stop me from entering. (Indeed he didn't intentionally pose any difficult questions) So what he would do is to faithfully report my motivation and strength.

Similar to my first interview, we ended the conversation with "I hope to see you again in Insead." 

Time to start my work, will post my first interview experience during this weekend.  

nnm

sinocheetah

It seems to be a positive implication. I think you've done a good job.

My interview has been scheduled to 02 June, two weeks away. Keep your finger crossed and wait for the good news.

inseadsh

Good luck, Rick!

RickZhen

My first interview was with a BD manager at American Express. Belgian, 30+, tech+consulting+entrepreneurship background. The interview was conducted at a coffee nearby his office. We quickly settled down with two cups of orange juice.

He seemed to be quite systematic. In the very beginning he briefed the schedule for the interview. He would ask me questions for around 45 mins and leave 15 mins for me to ask questions. He then put his phone on the table so that he could always keep up with the schedule.

Comparing to my second interviewer, he was much more prepared. His ice breaker was that "I have looked through your application and you experience seems quite interesting." He started with a 30 sec self-intro, and in return, I was asked to give a self-intro as well. After that it was a mix of standard and non-standard questions, more like casual talk:

1. Why MBA?
2. Why now?
3. Why Insead?
4. What will you do if you don't enter Insead?
5. What will you do after Insead?
6. MBA is a big investment. Why don't you put the money on entrepreneurship instead of MBA study? (entrepreneurship is the theme of my app)
7. How do you define an inspiring leader? (We talked quite a bit about leadership. I used one example when I had to work with some aggressive people. He was very curious to know the details, especially how I handled that.)
8. You hobbies?
9. What are the countries you have been to? How about South East Asia countries?
10. How do you think EU should handle the rising China?
11. What's the implication to China if Brown is elected as English PM?
12. What do you read? What is the most recent book you have read?
13. Given the chance, would you go for the exchange programs to another campus or to Wharton?
14. Have you seen any Insead deans? Who are the profs you know?

A lot of time was spent talking about alumni since he happened to hear about one of my alumni friends. He also shared with me his experience in a few entrepreneurship courses. He came to know quite a bit about a management associate program which I was very interested to pursue after MBA, so again some advice from him.

As planned, he reserved 15 mins for my questions. We had a discussion on how to balance the diverse choices and career focus, since he worked in many different industry/function. He strongly recommend to have a broad exposure if I would like to pursue entrepreneurship in the future. Another question was on culture, as I was curious to know what he saw as the difference between traveling around many countries and having friends from many countries without actually being there. He was asking for more but I didn't ask any other questions.

The overall atmosphere was quite pleasant and comfortable, but I was a bit too rush sometimes. He stressed a bit on the question "what if you don't get in", making me concerned about his supportiveness. Anyway, when we said goodbye he did mention that he hoped to see me again, nice gesture.

So these are my two interviews, one a bit casual and open, another more serious and focused. My general feeling about the alumni is that they are quite approachable and helpful, especially when they shared useful information about the school life and the career options afterwards. Neither of them gave very strong signals such as they would offer recommendations, but I guess they would not give strong objections either. As Sino said, I'm done. Just put my fingers crossed and wait for the email.

sinocheetah

Rick, you live in EU? I believe you can make it ultimately.

inseadsh

nnm, I suggest you "essenc-ize" this post. Rick has done a very good job of sharing his wonderful interview experiences.

RickZhen

以下是引用sinocheetah在2007-5-18 22:37:00的发言：
Rick, you live in EU? I believe you can make it ultimately.

thank you Sino, I live in Singapore. I guess the EU question is just to check my awareness of current affairs. In fact I didn't know much about Brown, so I ended up talking a lot about Sakozy.

I believe you are doing a thorough preparation. Just relax during the interview, all the best! 

RickZhen

以下是引用inseadsh在2007-5-18 22:44:00的发言：

nnm, I suggest you "essenc-ize" this post. Rick has done a very good job of sharing his wonderful interview experiences.

thank you for recommending inseadsh. I would be happy to share more experience if I could get the letter, or lessons if it's another way round 

[此贴子已经被作者于2007-5-19 0:00:22编辑过]

stringscn

Great sharing!   And good luck!

The question of "What do you read? What is the most recent book you have read? " reminds me to do more preparation before relative interviews (for now or the future).