Interview process - Ivey MBA - University of Western Ontario

by: George Kesselman
Ivey MBA - May 2007 Cohort

Reading other MBA blogs and Journals I realized that some people find MBA Interviews one of the most painful parts of the admissions process. Based on that, I decided to expand a little bit on the interview process and the questions one can expect.

One of the most interesting things about the interview process at Ivey was the fact that there actually were two admissions interviews. First interview was conducted by a member of an admissions team and another by a member of career services. I was told that the main purpose for the second interview is to determine how employable you are going to be at the end of the program, and also to confirm that you have a clear career focus, which is especially important for one year MBA programs. I think that it's a really good idea and it is unfortunate that there few other school that go through the same rigorous process to select their students. One thing that for example surprised me about Schulich MBA at the University of York, Toronto was the fact that they've told right when I met them as long as I have the 660 GMAT I'm in, no interview no nothing... that's good and not so good at the same time. It guarantees you entry but doesn't provide any assurance that the caliber of your MBA classmates is going to be up to any standards. They might have been able to wing the GMAT but they have a limited practical experience and lack of communication skills, for example...

Both interviews at Ivey were over the phone and the first interview was with a Manager of Admissions. Since I was provided with her name ahead of time I was able to do a bit of research and find out that the lady actually taught some undergrad courses at the university level and was in her late 20s. Based on that information I put together couple of relevant questions that tied together her experiences teaching undergrad business courses as well as the MBA program. During the interview she asked me the usual questions about the resume and my essays. It felt like she spent some time reading through my background and had a pretty good handle on it. One of the most interesting questions that was addressed to me was modeled after the approach that the school is using to "cold call" students in class when talking about different challenging situation. In this particular case I was asked what are some of the biggest challenges that the industry I'm working in is facing and possible ways those could be addressed. This question makes sure that you can really think on your feet. I found that I had to stall the conversation for couple of seconds to summarize the answer in my head before presenting it, and the interviewer approved of my approach saying that it's OK to think about it for couple of seconds. Overall interview went well and it lasted exactly 30 minutes. I found it was very well structured with excellent and honest answers to the questions that I had in return: for example I've asked the interviewer why she did not go through the program herself, and her answer was that the Undergraduate HBA program at University of Western was fairly similarly structured to the old MBA program and that it did not make that much sense at the time :)

My second interview with a member of career services took place 3-4 days after the first one. This one felt more like a job interview based on the short-term career goals that I've outlined in my admissions essay. It was a lot of questions like: What were the main reasons you moved from this position to that, what were the main skills that you've learned in that particular job that you think would be most applicable to the field that you've chosen to pursue upon the graduation from the MBA program. I would say it was the easier of the two interviews. The interview lasted 30 min and included a question period during which I clarified the finer points about the differences in early placement between the students that are graduating from the last intake of the two year Ivey MBA program and the ones graduating from the first intake of the new one year Ivey MBA program. Again I was given excellent concise answers. And was told to expect the final decision within next 3-4 weeks.