Saturday, February 24, 2007

Preparing for the MBA Entrance Interview - part 2: Common Interview questions

In these posts, we will discuss some of the most common b-school/mba entrance personal interview (p.i.) questions.

q.1 Why MBA? / Why do you want to pursue Management as a career?
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No interviewer worth his professional/academic experience will accept you as a likely candidate if you go wrong with this one. So you must get this right, without fail.
This question may come disguised also - for example, if you are an engineer, the interview panel may want to know as to why you don't plan to do a Masters in Engineering or Technology. Why not GATE or GRE? But essentially they just want to know that - that why is it that you want to do an MBA?
Where do interviewees go wrong with the answer? - They miss the wheat for the chaff. While it's alright that you do want to make a lot of money in life, please understand that money is an end and not the means. It's not that one cannot make loads of money without doing an MBA - please understand the question clearly: they are asking "why you have chosen this means - that is, management". Similary, lots of other students say that they want to become CEOs or achieve other such exalted corporate positions. Again, the same problem - becoming a CEO is an end, not the means. Getting it?

To understand the question completely and give a suitable reply, you need to understand what becoming a manager entails. What are the roles of a manager? What skill sets does he need? You must know for your own sake the definition of a manager - do you think you have the required skills? Do u think the ones that you don't can be acquired? Can some of your existing managerial skills be refined? As you hunt for this answers, all the while asking yourself as well, the answer to the "Why MBA" will become clear to you.

I don't plan to give you an answer - that will defeat the whole purpose. But think of it like this - people do an MBBS to become doctors, not to become the Medical Superintendent of AIIMS. But will AIIMS ever give the post to a non-MBBS? Why not? Does every MBBS stand a chance of going to the very top? Think about it..and the answers will come flooding in.
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You may write to me should you need a bit of help - but please write only after you have gone through the process i mentioned.

1 comment:

Palanivel Raja said...
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