Ya sure: WHARTON INTERVIEW:
My wharton interview was in Dubai. I could not book a slot in mumbai or new delhi. As expected it was all behavioral. It started with a normal chit chat with the interviewer. Then she asked me to walk me through my resume. Then she told me that we ll stick to the 30 mins time limit to be fair to all the candidates. Then after a few cliche questions why mba, career goals questions, she shifted the focus to my experiences. I dont remember the exact questions, but they revolved around a leadership experience, challenging experience as a leader, strengths I had gained through my sporting career, what would be challenging for me at wharton , what feedback did I get from the alumni I got to interact with (I had mentioned that in my essays), so even though they say it was a blind interview it didnt seem like. There was no grilling, very friendly, very much based on my profile & experiences.
ISB interview:
Panel of 3 conducted my interview. And this was a completely different experience from what I had at wharton. Though there wasnt any direct grilling. They went deeper and deeper in the application. Raised questions from my essays, reco letters, goals mentioned etc. After 15 mins of these questions, one guy asked me to take a pen n paper and told me he ll give me two business problems to solve. Then he asked me to calculate the target market size for the male grooming/service industry in India. (My experience is in our own business, which is in the beauty care industry). I had done my homework here but made everything sound very spontaneous. Next he asked me a couple of questions from the manufacturers side, retailers side etc. Our business is based in pune and i was entirely aware of our ecosystem. But he then asked me some derivative: He asked me ok Aniket, imagine that I m a wig manufacturer and i have lots of hair with me and lots of money with me, and all the machinery needed to manufacture the wigs. I am the only player in the market. Tell me how many wigs maximally can I deliver in four metro cities in India in a month. This was a crazy question and no one could answer it accusrately. I managed to give a very detailed, logical, systematic answer and then he was like okk good, great etc. He told me later that he wasnt really interested in my answer but was interested in how I got there.
SO my takeways for ISB interview:
1) Know your application cold. Except for recos, as you dont know whats in there.
2) Know in depth about your industry. Your competitors. Scope. Growth rate. Impact on other situations etc. Your industry means the industry in which you are working as well the industry in which you wish to go.
3) If you are good at mental math, no issues. They do check your analytical skills through guesstimates. Do not be afraid that your guess will go wrong, just give proper logic. How you reached that figure.
4) If they try to provoke you, just smile and say thats what i want to learn here, isnt it sir. They are good at every damn field. Trust me. Dont bluff, but dont hesitate to defend too.
5) Be confident, if you become nervous, your answers will get worse. If they try to dig in deeper, that means they like you and are trying yo test you under pressure.
All the best..
