Previous article of the “From Moscow to Stanford” MBA prep series.
What questions can be asked at a behavioural interview with Stanford GSB and other MBA programs? Any story from the candidate’s life. I will provide some examples.
Questions asked at a Stanford interview
Sources: Clear Admit, Adam Markus, interviews with students and alumni. The list is not exhaustive.
RESUME
- Tell me about your background/walk me through your resume.
- Tell me a bit about yourself
- What extracurricular activity are you most proud of?
- What did you take away from your undergraduate experience?
- What do you like to do outside of work?
- Tell about a time you streamlined operations/made things more efficient. What did you do? How did you measure its success? What metrics did you use?
- Tell me about your international experience.
- What is your favorite place you’ve traveled?
- What is your company’s strategy? Is it succeeding?
GOALS, REASONS FOR MBA, REASONS FOR STANFORD
- Tell me about a specific time when you realized you needed an MBA.
- Why a Stanford MBA?
- Why do you need an MBA?
- Why now?
- Why Stanford?
- How would you decide between schools if you got into multiple MBA programs?
- What will you bring that is unique to the program?
- How will you contribute to Stanford?
- What are your short-term goals? Long-term goals?
- Where else have you applied? How have those worked out?
- Explain how you are ready for academic rigor.
CHARACTER & CHALLENGES TO YOUR BELIEFS AND VALUES
- Tell me about a time you faced an obstacle and what did you do about it?
- Tell me about a time you faced an ethical situation.
- Tell me about a time you had your beliefs challenged.
- Tell me about a time you had to stand your ground and how did you do it?
- Tell me about a time your values were challenged and you had to consult your moral compass?
DIFFICULT WORK RELATIONSHIPS
- Tell me about someone difficult to work with that was in a position above you and what you learned from it.
CRITICISM AND FEEDBACK FROM OTHERS
- Tell me about a time when others have pointed out a weakness of yours.
- Tell me about the most valuable piece of feedback you’ve ever received. How did itchange your relationship with that individual? Why was it important?
- What is a valuable piece of feedback you have received?
FAILURE
- Tell me about a time things didn’t go according to plan and you failed? What did you learn from it?
- What did you learn from a failure?
- Tell me about an individual or group failure.
- Tell me about a time when you failed. What did you learn from that event and how have you implemented what you learned from that failure?
- How do you deal with failure?
BOOKS YOU’VE READ
- What is your favorite book that is not work related?
- What are your 3 favorite books?
INSPIRATION, PASSION
- Tell me about what inspires you.
- Is there anything you’ve done merely out of passion?
- If money were not an issue, what cause would you pursue most vigorously?
- Tell me about a time you wanted to give up but found the motivation to keep going.
- What is your greatest accomplishment?
- Tell me about a time you had to make a trade-off between two equally attractive opportunities.
TEAMWORK
- Tell me about a time you worked with a difficult team member or manager.
- Tell me about an individual or group failure.
- Tell me about a team experience.
- Have you ever led a team?
LEADERSHIP
- Tell me about a time when you had to lead a team of individuals. What did you learn about yourself? What did you learn about leadership?
- Tell me about a leadership experience.
- Tell me about a time you knew you were an effective leader and how did you know?
- What is your leadership style? Give me an example of how you’ve led that way.
- When have you led peers and how?
- Tell me about a time when a leader fell short and you had to step up and lead.
- Tell me about a time when you’ve been challenged as a leader and what you learned from it.
In my next article I will write how to use this list wisely to prepare for an interview.
Thanks for reading,
Victor Rogulenko
