I know it’s been a while since I’ve wrote a substantial blog entry. But this one is going to be a doozy : ). I just got done with the Columbia interview this morning. The following is a summary of the whole process.
After a bit of research on the nine potential alumni interviewers, I decided to go with a woman who works for the NY Fed. Her career has mostly been in finance, so we have that in common and can talk shop. To prepare for the actual interview, I read ClearAdmit’s CBS Interview Guide (thanks CA btw!), practiced on the phone with my bschool consultant as well as practice last night with my Columbia friend. So I felt kind of prepared given the short time between my invite and the interview itself.
The next morning, I arrived at my interviewer’s office downtown –your standard 15 minutes early. It was kind of a pain getting into the building itself. I think I must’ve saw like four Federal Reserve Police officers in front of the building. Anyway, after I signed in, my interview came out to greet me. She brought me into her office, which was btw kind of on the warm side. And five minutes after I sat down, I was sweating buckets – oh no! She started out by introducing herself and telling me her background. It turns out that she’s an avid cycling too just like me- bonus! I told her about the bike tour my team and I just did this Sunday. And I even showed her a photo of our team at the Finish Line. She seem to like that, especially the fact that we were wearing matching uniforms – I’m glad that I brought it.
To keep it relatively short, I’ll try to stick to the questions I thought were relevant. She asked me about myself and I told her my story. Of course, she asked me the expected “Why MBA?, Why now?, Why Columbia?’ questions. I thought I did a good job answering those. I did get tripped up when she asked me the ethical question. Instead of asking me for an example, she asked me what my personal opinion was in regards to ethics. If you have been following my blog, I did write an entry addressing this issue. Simply put, I believe that either you have ethics or you don’t. It can’t really be taught. But I felt that that answer was too simple and she might not like it. So I went with something else – tying it in with how Columbia is being very proactive about this issue in light of the current environment that we’re in. After I answered, she offered her opinion, which turns out to be exactly what I had in mind in the first place – she believed the same as me. I should’ve just spoke my mind! But I did try to parlay that and said something along the lines of “I totally agree, but I also think that teaching ethics can reinforce one’s values.”
Towards the end, I got to ask her questions, which opened her up more. I think that my questions cause her to remember the fond memories she had at Columbia. We had our moments every now and then, laughing and smiling. All in all, the interview lasted about half an hour – I would have liked it to be little longer as I was just cooling down and getting comfortable. I did notice that she was taking a lot of notes on my resume. That’s a good sign right? I believe she said she’ll submit her feedback either tonight or maybe this weekend. Of course, I’m going to send her a thank-you email tonight. That’s a definite must!
So my last thoughts on the interview? I am satisfied with how it went, but I think I could’ve done better. There was room for improvement. Anyway, we’ll see what happens come the following weeks.
Read the full article: The Interview