In Part I of this series, we asked you to think about how to adapt one sample
story to three distinct MBA interview questions. In Part II, we're going to
show you how to use almost exactly the same story to answer three different
questions, just by tailoring the conclusion.
The three distinct MBA interview questions at hand are:
Question 1: Can You Tell Me About a Time You Demonstrated Leadership?
Question 2: Can You Tell Me About a Time You Overcame a Challenge?
Question 3: Please Tell Me About a Time You Worked Well on a Team, and What
You Learned.
Our sample answer without the conclusion was:
"Sure, that's a really interesting question, Mr. Interviewer.The biggest
challenge I've overcome was the time that I started a nonprofit in college to
collect used musical instruments to donate to a needy school with gifted
musical students and not enough musical instruments. I drove all over Taipei
to collect the used musical instruments. I established a not for profit
organization to make the donation legally, and also worked with my schoolmates
to put on a charity concert where we raised enough money to buy a brand new
Tuba - the most expensive musical instrument. This experience helped me to
realize how valuable and rewarding it is to help people less fortunate than
myself, and that I can be successful in leading my peers to have a positive
impact on society."
Sample Conclusion Question One: Leadership
This was a critical leadership experience and I learned a great deal about
myself in the process. One important thing I learned was how to best interact
with a team while trying to motivate them to do something they were not being
paid to do. I realized that I prefer positive reinforcement to negative
reinforcement, and prefer to include people in a team environment to motivate
them to help each other rather than to demand they complete tasks. I believe
that I can develop this positive style of leadership at your MBA program when
I take _______ course on leadership, and intend to pay it forward by using my
leadership skills to make an impact in more community activities during my
MBA studies.
Sample Conclusion Question Two: Challenge
What surprised me is that the biggest challenge I faced in this entire
experience had nothing to do with motivating people as a leader, or finding
resources. The biggest challenge for me was in finding the inspiration and
idea in the first place, and once I had that everything else naturally fell
into place. I know that by attending your MBA program I'm pursuing the
strongest passion I've ever had in my life. I truly believe that my life will
fall into place after graduation, with some careful planning, just like my
musical not for profit fell into place after I found the inspiration to start
it.
Sample Conclusion Question Three: Teamwork
Achieving success in this project was truly a team effort. During the course
of organizing the charity concert with my peers we met many times to discuss
different ideas and how they could be effectively implemented to have the
maximum impact on donations. I learned that people from backgrounds different
than my own had unique insights to contribute that really helped us reach our
goal, and that I enjoy the collaborative teamwork process a great deal. In
fact, since then I have gone out of my way to volunteer for group projects at
work because I feel that I'm not only helping the company meet its goals, but
educating myself about how to interact with and learn from other people in
the long run.
Conclusion
Notice how all three of these answers fit neatly into place at the end of our
sample story? They build off of each other, and many of the conclusions
continue to touch upon multiple points from the questions (leadership, teamwork,
overcoming a challenge). Although your story will different, the principle
behind these questions is similar.
When you practice for your interview, keep in mind that you will want to try
to use your best stories. Thus, find a way to make your best stories fit
multiple questions. Like these stories above, you'll find that many stories
have elements of teamwork, leadership, overcoming challenges, etc., and that
you can make slight adjustments to the stories to directly address the
question.
I hope this was helpful for those of you preparing for MBA interviews. If you
have any additional questions about preparing for your MBA interviews, feel
free to reach out to me, David, at [email protected].
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David Johnston
[email protected]
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