The HBS interview can seem like a daunting obstacle to getting that prized letter of admission. Understanding the purpose of the interview can help you ace it. Acing your HBS interview won’t guarantee you a spot in the class, but will ensure that you don’t get rejected on the basis of lack of verbal communication skills. The HBS interview is only one of many data points in an applicant’s profile that the admissions committee evaluates. More often than not, it’s really just a check box. The check box is to make sure that you are a well-functioning communicator. There really isn’t much upside to the interview, only downside. In other words, you could ace the interview and still not get in. But you can’t fail the interview and still expect to get in.
The purpose of the HBS interview is to test for a few things. First and
foremost, it’s the school’s way to test your ability to communicate well. Not just well, but being able to communicate effectively in a high pressure situation. Too many times have admissions committees seen amazing candidates who are rock stars on paper completely freeze in an interview setting. Being a great verbal communicator is such an important skill and a critical factor for success in business. If you ever meet an HBS grad, more likely than not, he or she has the gift of gab. Or at the very least, he or she can speak confidently and articulately. Whether or not HBS grads are the smartest is one question. However, the average HBS student is probably a better communicator that the average student from another school. So to recap, first and foremost, the HBS interview is a test of one’s verbal communication ability.
The purpose of the HBS interview is also to test your ability to excel in high pressure situations. If you can’t even demonstrate that you can perform well under pressure in a school interview, how could you interview well for jobs? The HBS classroom experience is also completely centered around communicating and defending your point of view on different business situations. If you are too afraid to speak to one person in an interview setting, how could you muster the courage to speak in front of 90 other intelligent students?
So, how do you prepare for the HBS interview you might ask? For one, even if you’re not a confident person, put on a show for that one interview and just act confident. Get your friends to give you a pep talk. Remind yourself of all the things that make you special, unique, and great. Remind yourself of your strengths. Find a way to give yourself confidence. Secondly, know your application cold. There’s nothing more embarrassing and nothing that destroys credibility more than a lack of confidence and conviction about what you wrote in your own application. If you wrote about a career vision that’s not really true, convince yourself it is so that you speak with passion and conviction. Have great reasons for all the things you did. Thirdly, practice practice practice. The interviewers often ask random like “What was your favorite book?” just to throw you off and see how you react under pressure. So practice, practice, and practice. Find out the 100 questions other people have been asked before and rehearse your versions over and over again, so that in the actual interview, you know exactly what to say and can deliver it with confidence.