Blind MBA interviews: when they have only seen your résumé
Many schools interview blind. The person across from you is often a second-year student or an alum, and what they know about you is your résumé, and at some schools not even that. At Darden the interviewer has read neither your application nor your résumé.
It is closer to a conversation than a cross-examination, but it carries more of your story than you might expect: the essays you spent weeks on are not in the room, and what the interviewer writes up afterwards comes from what you said.
The schools
| School | Who interviews | What they have read | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kellogg | Alum, student or admissions | Your résumé only | 30–45 minutes |
| CBS | Second-year, alum or admissions | Your résumé only | 45–60 minutes |
| Booth | Student, alum or admissions | Your résumé only | About an hour |
| Haas | Student or alum, or recorded | Your résumé only | About 45 minutes |
| Tuck | Trained second-year students | Your résumé only | 30–45 minutes |
| Johnson | Admissions, staff or second-years | Your résumé only | About 30 minutes |
| Anderson | Mostly second-year students | Your résumé only | About 30 minutes |
| Ross | Mostly alumni | Your résumé only | About 30 minutes |
| Fuqua | Admissions, alum or student | Your résumé only | 30–45 minutes |
| Darden | Admissions or second-year | Nothing, not even your résumé | Up to 45 minutes |
| Goizueta | Not known | Your résumé only | About 30 minutes |
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
- Have a walkthrough that places each step in time and reaches what you do now. A thin one usually skips one of the three.
- Tell the story from the beginning. They have not read your essays, so why an MBA and why now have to be said, not assumed.
- Expect behavioral questions (a time you led, a time you failed), and answer with one real situation rather than a summary of your strengths.
- Bring questions for them. A student or an alum is also there to represent the school, and what you ask is part of what they notice.
Guides for these interviews: How to Walk Through Your Résumé in an MBA Interview · How to Answer “Why This School?” in an MBA Interview.
What Dean rehearses
This is the kind of interview Dean is closest to: one person, a conversation, the walkthrough first. Dean has your CV if you give it one, or nothing at all if you skip it, which is the position a blind interviewer is in.
Start a mock interviewSee a sample report
Other kinds of MBA interview: Interviews where they have read your application · Behavioral interviews · Interviews with other applicants · Alumni interviews, often in your own country. Every school.