Interviewing w/ UNC Kenan-Flagler? Here’s a first hand experience and some tips to help you prepare.
I’ve done many many interviews before, for internships, jobs, scholarships, etc etc. I have to say this is one of the better ones I’ve done. Although I always feel I could’ve answered some questions better or differently after playing the interview back in my mind later, I was quite happy with how it went. I think I did a little shadow boxing on my way out of the building to the parking lot a la Steelers coach Mike Tomlin (Brad Pitt also does this in couple of his movies although I can’t remember which ones I’m thinking off at the moment. Mr. & Mrs. Smith?).
Anyway, pretty standard interview. Nothing to trip you up. The interviewer does not view your application until AFTER the interview, so all they have to base off of is your resume#. I thought that was pretty cool. I thought the interview might ask for quite a bit of leadership experience since that’s what UNC focuses on but that wasn’t the case. I did prepare mentally some examples but they never came into play. I interviewed w/ John Hughes (no, not THAT John Hughes), Assistant Director of MBA Admissions. It felt like a true conversation, like just two dudes talking. It’s suppose to be 30 minutes but we talked for almost an hour*.
# – Because of this, make sure you know what aspect of your resume you want to highlight
** – There were couple of reasons I scheduled my interview late. 1) Primacy and recency theory, that you tend to remember the first one and last one, in this case interviewees, better. All the ones in the middle are kind of a blur. Of course, you want to be remembered for the right reasons. 2) The interviewer doesn’t have to worry about the next guy coming in after you, we can go over a little if we like. 3) It gives you plenty of time to get to the interview site, in case flights get delayed or canceled. 4) You get the chance to sit in a class and tour the school so you can better tailor your responses and jot down questions you have to ask the interviewer later. BTW, you do run the risk of interviewer’s mind wandering off, getting ready to go home and finish the day or he’s tired if you’re boring. By the same token, I would almost never schedule an interview right before lunch if I can help it.
Intro:
John came to get me in the waiting area, a little before our schedule 3:30pm. We started talking about UNC and UT (Texas, not Tennessee) and our connection with Mack Brown, the former coach of UNC. I thought he was gonna talk about the basketball game earlier in the season where UT beat UNC but I didn’t want to go down that direction…
John shared w/ me some of his background**, what he’s done professionally, where he went to school. Since both his undergrad and MBA were in California I asked if he grew up there which he responded “yes, Santa Monica.” I’m not stranger to Santa Monica, 3rd & Promenade, Ocean Ave, etc so build a little more rapport there.
** – They gave me John’s card when I first got there but I didn’t have the time due to class visit and building tour, but I would’ve tried to look up some info about John if I could. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. I don’t think it mattered that much in this interview, plus there’s like a gazillion John Hughes out there. The KFBS website did have a short bio for all the members of AdComm though.
We talked quite a bit about my family business, where I grew up, how we operate and what my roles were.
Did you enjoy your experience at UT, would you do it again? – Surprisingly, this one threw me off, and yes, b/c it was SO EASY. Of course I did. I took a second to see if there was a trap in there somewhere.
How did you decide on going to UT? - Just want to get inside of your decision making ability and process. This one came up in my mock interviews before. Always steer this towards academic or professional reasons.
Tell me about [blank] position w/ [blank] company. – Same intent as the one before. I forgot to wrap this one up with what I learned from that position.
How would your manager describe you in two words? – It does test your listening skills a bit, if you used 3 words that’s a big no no b/c clearly you weren’t paying attention/listening. It makes the interviewer wonder your ability to follow directions. I said “coachable” and “self-reliant” after clarify with John that I can use a hyphenated word as one word (technically it is anyway when you use word count feature in Word), but I wanted him to know that I was listening.
What do you enjoy most about your job? – Just getting at your personality more, what you like and intent and if matches up with why you wanted to get an MBA.
What function of the job do you like best? – Same as the previous question. Since I wanted to pursue marketing I said the sales and marketing side and got into about my approach and why I like sales and marketing. I then found out John was an executive at Avon and has done work w/ Southwestern Company. Can we say brownie points?? If I had known this before hand I would’ve adjusted some of my responses.
How often do you travel overseas for work? – Getting at your responsibility levels and time commitment. I actually don’t go overseas that much b/c most everything is on auto-pilot by this pt since we’ve been in business for so long, but I did bring in international projects I’m working on.
How many people are on your payroll? plus a couple of other questions to determine my capacity with the family business, like if I had other siblings and if they were involved w/ the business, if the business was just founded by my parents or were there other relatives that are part of the bigger family enterprise. – This line of questioning had John coming to the clear conclusion that I’m in charge of everything and asked if verify that. Softball question, of course it’s a lot of responsibility and leadership rest on my part.
When you graduate, do you want to go back to the family business? – basically ST and LT career goals. I haven’t gotten the chance to talk about my short term goals at the point so I clarify on my intended career path.
Why UNC? – This wasn’t until pretty late into the interview. Again, focus and lead out w/ academic and professional reasons. I think when I was in high school I interviewed w/ a Duke alum and I said something about basketball… so stupid. Leave athletics out of it.
If you were working for me and I tell you that you’ve done a great job and to take today off, but you have to promise me not to think about work. What would you do? – Trying to see if you actually have a personality would be my guess why this question was asked. I said I’d go out and ride my bike and enjoy some reading.
Conclusion:
Don’t tell me your GMAT score, but I want to ask you a question, are you happy with it? – oh man, this question was so money. I was really excited he asked his but you still have to be a little careful. At first I thought John was gonna ask me a GMAT question like what’s the probability of getting heads at least 3 times after flipping a coin 4 times. I did work really hard on getting the GMAT score I have, but I wouldn’t it mind being higher. The question can be hard b/c it’s so easy to just blurt out your score, which you have already been instructed not to… I appreciate the AdComm for this questions b/c I got to show that I did my due diligence and I still have a positive mental attitude despite not getting the score I wanted.
Anything else you’d like me to know? – This is pretty common, too. If there’s something you’d like to mention, a strength, special circumstances etc now is your chance. If you didn’t, don’t waste this opportunity to reiterate your fit with the school!
Any questions for me? - Always, ALWAYS have a couple of questions prepared for the interviewer. I asked John about the direction and vision for KFBS and I also asked what his personal definition of leadership was.
I actually redirected that question back to John as well, to see if he has a clear picture of my background, my goals and how KFBS fits in. If he doesn’t I want to make sure he understands why he should admit me. It also shows confidence. I already aced all your questions, you got anything else for me?
Boy, that was a long post… sorry about that. If you stuck w/ me all the way to the end whether you’re interviewing w/ UNC or not, GOOD LUCK!!
