ISB Hyderabad Interview Tips

SERVICE		CHARGES
ISB Interview Preparation package		INR 5000 or USD 115

* Interview package contains Sample questions, tips,2 mock interviews and detailed feedback.

1) Apphelp sends you a set of questions that you need to prepare.
2) You share your submitted application with Apphelp
3) First telephonic interview is conducted after which a feedback and set of inputs is given
4) You work on the feedback and areas suggested
5) Second telephonic interview is conducted after which a feedback is given to prepare you for the final interview.

ISB Interview dates

Following are the tentative interview dates in cycle-1:
City .......................................................... Dates
Delhi ......................................................... 25 - 30 September, 2010
Kolkata ...................................................... 29 - 31 October, 2010
Hyderabad & International ........................... 1 October - 5 November, 2010

Following are the tentative interview dates in cycle-2:
City ...........................................................Dates
Delhi ......................................................... 3 - 9 January, 2011
Kolkata....................................................... 15 - 17 January, 2011
Hyderabad & International............................ 11 January, 2010 - 06 February, 2011

ISB Interview Tips

Interview is the penultimate state of getting into ISB and hence probably the most critical part. Once you get a shortlist for interview, the situation is a level ground for all to play.

ISB interviews are generally very conversational in nature and the primary intent is to assess an aspirant as a person. Aspirants can rarely expect to be grilled by the ISB interview panel. The interview panel consists of 1-2 members of the adcom and 1-2 alumni.

The interviews last from 20-30 minutes. Apphelp recommends the following strategy to prepare well for ISB interview.

1) Read you application & essays well & multiple times. Most of the questions are from what you wrote in the essays. So, make sure that there is nothing mentioned in your essays and application which you are not prepared on.

2) Study about your company, industry and competitor. You are applying for MBA. So, its normal to expect that you have information about what your company does and who are the competitors.

3) Prepare good replies to standard ISB interview questions like Strengths, weaknesses, team work, ethical dilema, achievements etc.

4) Last but certainly the most important, get atleast couple of mock interviews done. Reading something and preparing is different. But, speaking out in front of someone is totally different. Mock interview especially if done by ISB alumni can help you prepare responses to questions as you get feedback on your responses. Also, thing like communication and articulation can been seen and improved.

Some key questions and strategy to answer them is as follows:

Tell me something about yourself
First of all, it is important to understand that this question is different from “Walk me through your resume”. Also note that this question is fairly open in nature and hence gives you the opportunity to mold (to some extent) the interview in the direction you want.

You may start by stating a 2 line summary of your resume. For example “My name is Rakshit Singhal. After graduating as a chemical engineer from DCE in 2003, I have 6.5 years of experience in manufacturing sector.”

Then talk about something which is not mentioned in your CV and is of course very genuine. The best thing is to talk about your personality traits and support them with some examples/ anecdotes. For example, a sample answer could start as “I see myself as a person with strong determination and will power. Also, versatility is a trait I relate to as a person…. Then you may add a few lines to give small examples from personal/ professional life to support these traits”. The duration of this answer should be generally kept between 60-85 seconds. You should pause after that and if you assess that interviewers want more on this, please add a few more lines.
Other ways to answer the second part (as in preceding paragraph) are:

• My key strengths are “X, Y and Z”… (this may prompt the interviewer to ask about weaknesses. Be prepared)
• I am passionate about XYZ and ABC things/ activities
• I have always been a creative (or some other GENUINE adjective) person.. etc etc/ I love to do XYZ and ABC activities

Why MBA? Why Now?
Majority of interviewers want this answer from you. And you must be crystal clear about the same.
Strategy is to say how MBA will compliment your current experience and skills and how will this connect to your future goals. Hence there are three steps (with examples) to answer this question.. (you may combine some of them to frame your answer)

• Past experience: I have gained technical, project management, team working skills so far. I have primarily worked in operations and marketing
• What will MBA provide (to compliment what you have): Holistic business perspective, problem solving tools, network/ learning through experience, knowledge of new domains (Finance for example)
• Career goals (why would you need the additional skills) : I want to work in a General Management consulting firm after MBA (short term) and wish to start my own company 10 years down the line (long term)

Why now part can be related to years of experience or type of experience and skills acquired
Why ISB?
It is imperative to be very clear here. You may be choosing ISB due to combination of following reasons:

• You wish to settle in India
• ISB is a very good brand (FT 12)
• ISB has rich diversity/ experienced people/ great faculty
• It offers a 1 year program (which is also more affordable vs foreign b-schools0

Extracurricular activities/ hobbies/ areas of interest
ISB seeks diversity. Hence, extracurricular activities form an important part of your profile. Any particular type of activity is not important but what matters is what you are passionate about. It may be cooking, blogging, reading, writing etc. Be sure that you have good knowledge about your areas of interest.
For example, if you love to read books, be prepared to answer questions like: (a) Which was the last book you read (b) what are your favorite category of books (c) who is your favorite author and why (d) what do you think of XYZ (a recent event related to some book such as “3 Idiots/ Five point someone” controversy etc.

Apphelp wishes all ISB aspirants best of luck for their ISB interview.

Read ISB Interview Experiences Round 1 2009 - For class of 2011