The HBS Interview – Two Real Life Experiences

 If you received an HBS interview invite or are just curious what the experience is actually like, you’re in luck! We got the scoop from two former clients who travelled to campus for their HBS interview (and were ultimately accepted). Note that HBS is still offering a Zoom option this year, but they are also returning to in-person interviews on campus and in select cities worldwide. Zoom is fine if an in-person interview isn’t feasible for you, but, in our experience, nothing beats a true face-to-face connection. 

HBS Interview Experience #1 – Rachel

At her scheduled interview time, each interviewer came into the waiting area. They called their assigned candidate. This was kind of like a doctor’s office…or a spa. The interviewer called Rachel in. During the first five minutes, she expected someone else to enter. HBS is known for two-on-one interviews, after all. That never happened. It was a one-on-one! Later, Rachel learned that almost everyone interviewed one-on-one that day. Candidates who interviewed the following Monday faced higher odds of a two-on-one. The dean also serves as an interviewer. If you interview with him, expect a two-on-one. The second interviewer primarily takes notes.

Opening the discussion, Rachel’s interviewer invited her to sit down. They did not sit across the table. Instead, they sat in chairs turned towards each other. This felt very casual. She explained the process. She talked about reading all of Rachel’s application materials. Most candidates feel great hearing this. Rachel felt the same — someone had invested as much in reading her app as she had in preparing it! The interviewer explained what would happen after the interview. She would prepare a report. Rachel would submit her reflection. Then the admissions team would review the application in its entirety.

Then they moved on to the questions. Rachel estimated how she spent her interview time. Approximately 5% went to a large extracurricular from college. 85% covered her career in consumer packaged goods (CPG). 10% focused on her goals. Here’s a sampling of the questions they asked:

Question Categories

• The interviewer noticed that she mentioned a very large college leadership commitment in only one bullet point, so she asked for more information
• How did Rachel decide to work for the company she worked for right after college (Rachel very effectively parlayed her college experience into how she chose her career)
• How did that company meet or not meet Rachel’s expectations and what advice would she give someone looking to work there – the good and the challenges. Note that the interviewer cited a specific story that Rachel had given in her essays, which made Rachel feel good – she had caught the adcom’s attention in the essay!
• Describe in more detail the challenge cited in Rachel’s latest job. This question referenced the descriptions that Rachel put into the application form itself, where the application asked her to cite a specific accomplishment and a challenge for each position she listed
• Explain how Rachel’s company tackled the latest trends in health and wellness (her company lacks recognition for healthy products)
• How is Rachel’s company’s relationship with Wal-Mart and how does she navigate meetings with them
• The interviewer noted that both of Rachel’s recommenders cited similar pieces of feedback, so she asked Rachel for examples to explain her areas of weakness. Rachel had not seen her recommendations, so initially this was stressful as she hadn’t been aware of what they had written
• Describe your career interests (note that she was not asked “why MBA” or “why HBS”)
• Did she want to work for a big or a small company after graduation (Rachel wondered if they had a bias towards big companies, but in our experience, they are simply interested in how you’ve thought about this)

So, what advice does Rachel have for you? Her number one piece of advice was to schedule your class visit and such for another day. She felt like after the interview all she could think about was the interview itself and writing the post-interview reflection. She was glad that her class visit was the next day because she felt like she could really engage versus just worrying.

She also said to relax. Rumors have it that sometimes HBS has pretty aggressive interviewers. Rachel talked to many people during her two days on campus and only one person had a more “hostile” interview (e.g., the interviewer asked him how he thought his goals could possibly be attainable – they told him his goals seemed unreasonable, etc.). Everyone else with whom Rachel spoke had a friendly interviewer.

HBS Interview Experience #2 – Former Client, In His Own Words

I showed up a few hours early, signed in, and grabbed a coffee and breakfast (which I felt too nervous to eat). I went through my whole application online. I also reviewed my resume on my laptop. I had heard that anything is fair game at HBS. This differs from some other schools.

There, only the resume is fair game. Once I felt confident, I went to the pre-interview room and immediately started talking to my fellow interviewees, which really helped me relax and get a better feel for my fit for the school. Then, 15 minutes before our interview time slot, a Taylor Swift song came on. This served as the signal. A smaller group of us headed upstairs to the interview rooms.

Once up there, I immediately made myself a cup of chamomile tea. I was the only one. Then, we all started chatting again until we each got called in for our interviews.

I had two people present in my interview. The first one introduced herself as the actual interviewer. She explained that the other person was a representative from the career office. This person came to observe. They would take notes and opine on my candidacy. However, this person would not ask any questions. Still, I made sure to address them both when answering.

Before the interview started, my interviewer said that she wanted this to be a discussion rather than a formal interview. She said that she found my essay very inspiring and thanked me for sharing my story. She asked me to expand on my essay. She wanted me to reinforce how I turned my life around and what I learned. Next, she asked me to clarify my academic background. I have an unconventional path to graduation.

After my personal and educational background, we moved over to my resume. She asked me to expand on a deal I had listed. This included my leadership role. It also covered how I sourced the deal. Then she asked me about the performance of my group, how we did last year, and what we focused on this year. This would likely stump most banking associates. However, it was fair game for me. I had written on my resume that I handled business planning for my group.

Then we moved on to my extracurriculars. There was an awkward moment where she thought I had contradicted my application, but I quickly provided context and we moved on. She asked, “why an MBA, and why now”, and then “what are you still working on” (i.e., your weaknesses).

Then, she ended with “is there anything else we didn’t touch on?” Rather than use this prompt to ask a question, I used this to tell her “why HBS”, since that did not come up in the application or interview, but I thought I had a few unique reasons to justify my fit and I wanted to show how much time and research I had dedicated to learning everything about the program.

When we were done, the representative from the career center walked me out. I took this time to talk to him about the case we discussed in my lecture visit and mention that the company we discussed was one of my dream employers. I also knew that the founders of that company attended HBS from my own research, so I made sure to mention that. I doubt it tipped the scales, but I wanted to get in everything I could.

We hope you found those real life HBS interview experiences helpful! If you will be interviewing and feel a mock interview would help you prepare, please don’t hesitate to reach out. And good luck!