Behavioral MBA interviews: “tell me about a time…”
Some schools interview behaviorally: a few “tell me about a time…” questions, each followed by probing until the interviewer can see what you did, what you were thinking and what happened. Stanford calls its own a structured behavioral interview, to understand “what you have done and how you have done it”.
The questions are not hard to predict. The depth is what makes it hard: one story examined for ten minutes shows whether you were the person who acted or the person nearby.
The schools
| School | Who interviews | What they have read | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stanford GSB | Trained alum or admissions | Your résumé only | 45–60 minutes |
| Yale SOM | Second-year, recent alum or admissions | Your résumé only | 30 minutes |
| MIT Sloan | Admissions committee | Not known | About 30 minutes |
| Tepper | Admissions team | Not known | Not known |
Unmarked entries are from the school’s own site. * Reported by applicants; the school does not say so itself. “Not known”: neither says. Each school’s page has the detail and the links.
How to prepare
- Choose six to eight real situations (leading, persuading, failing, working through a disagreement) and know each in detail: when it was, who was there, what you chose and why.
- Answer in the first person. “We decided” hides the thing they are listening for.
- Expect several follow-ups on the same story: what you would do differently, what the other person thought, what happened next.
- At MIT Sloan, a short written piece is due no later than 24 hours before the interview. Do it early.
A guide for these interviews: How to Answer “What Kinds of People Frustrate You?” in an MBA Interview.
What Dean rehearses
Dean follows up when an answer stays abstract, which is the heart of this format. But its questions come from one consultant's sheet, not from these schools' own question banks, and it runs for twenty minutes against their thirty and more.
Start a mock interviewSee a sample report
Other kinds of MBA interview: Interviews where they have read your application · Blind interviews with students and alumni · Interviews with other applicants · Alumni interviews, often in your own country. Every school.