Kellogg: Interview Transcripts & Notes
Kellogg Interview Reports
1. Tell me about a typical day and your role in the team
2. Tell me about your leadership style
3. Tell me about a time you received constructive feedback
4. How would your colleagues describe you
5. Why an MBA/Why Kellogg/Why Now
6. Anything else you'd like to add
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, Rd 1 Interview, remote
A few additional questions that stood out beyond the standard questions:
- what attributes would your coworkers and friends use to describe you
- what is your biggest. Achievement and how would you describe the legacy you will leave behind at deloitte
- a few questions to get at my character and how I interact with friends outside of work and school
, Rd 1 Interview, with AdCom member, remote
- Resume walk down
- Short term / Long term goals
- Why MBA / Why now
- Why Kellogg
- How would your colleagues describe you in 3 words?
- Why did you choose consulting?
- Why are you different from other ABC Co. consultants?
- What’s your favorite thing about your job?
- What is your least favorite thing about leading?
- How has your leadership style changed between college and now?
- Tell me about a time you overcame adversity
, Rd 1 Interview, with AdCom member, remote
- Tell me about your background
- Curious about my work experience - how I got to where I am from an undergrad business degree
- Was I in a rotational program - if no, then why did I choose to transition between roles?
- Tell me about a good leadership experience you had + leadership style.
- How would my colleagues describe me?
- Tell me about a time I had to work with a difficult person.
- A project that I am most proud of.
- Feedback I got and how I responded to it.
- ST/LT goals.
- Why Kellogg?
- How will I make an impact?
- Is there anything else I want to go over?
Interview with second year student, remote
Interview lasted about 40 minutes including me asking her questions.
- How did you land at UC Berkeley? How did you pick your undergrad majors?
- How did you land your job at ZS post-undergraduate?
- Walk me through your responsibilities at Lyra. She double clicked on this question a fair bit, asking:
- How do you interact with different teams?
- What is the product of your team's work?
- Where internationally is Lyra expanding?
- Tell me about a time you received constructive criticism
- Tell me about your leadership style / how your lead teams? - I feel like I could have answered this a bit more specifically. I had practiced a version of this question where I was asked for an example where I led a team. However, the fact that the question didn't call for an example, I talked more about my leadership style. I feel like I could have connected it back to a real world example.
- Anything that we didn't cover that we should discuss?
Questions for her - We had time for two
- What advice would you give someone like me in terms of setting up for success in first year?
- There are countless examples of students making a lasting impact on the Kellogg community. What are some recent examples that have stuck with you?
Interview was with an admissions member, conducted virtually, lasted about 45 minutes, these are the questions I remember:
Tell me about yourself
ST/LT goals
Plan B if your first plan doesn't work out?
Why Kellogg?
Biggest accomplishment?
Lots of "tell me about a time" behavioral questions that were about conflicts within teams
What is your leadership style?
What differentiates you from other applicants?
Times you were a leader
Anything you'd like us to know that you were not able to discuss in your application?
Interview Report, Kellogg Future Leaders Deferred MBA
Interview was with an admissions member, conducted virtually
- Why this major
- Why Michigan semester abroad,
- responsibilities in the last internship
- responsibilities in previous internship
- Time where you worked well on a group
- time where a group did not work well
- What does being resilient mean to you?
- Sets of three (this is a classic Kellogg interview feature): 3 adjectives to describe you and examples, how would your teammates describe you, 3 bad things your groupmates would say about you
- describe how you act with your teammates if you are a leader
- what leadership activities was most valuable to you in college
- what other leadership activities were valuable (and explain them)?
- what did you find out during college that you did not know before?
- why Kellogg?
- why mba?
- what do you plan to bring to Kellogg and the program
- Kellogg has strong teamwork values, why would you be a fit?
- anything you want to add? [client discussed “why deferred MBA”]
- questions for me?
It lasted a bit more than 50 mins.
Interview with Kellogg Alum:
- Tell me about yourself
- Biggest accomplishment
- Time where I stepped up to a leadership role
- Any barriers I ran into when working on a global project
- A time that I worked with a team where we didn't agree
- A time I received feedback and what I did
- Walk me through why business school, why Kellogg, post mba goals
- What would I pivot into if I can't do Tech
- What clubs or activities would you join?
- What classes seem interesting to you
- Any questions for me?
The entire interview was 45 min
In person interview, second-year student
- Introduce yourself/talk about Resume
- Why Kellogg
- Why an MBA
- Long term/short term goals
- What has been your greatest accomplishment?
- Tell me about a time you worked in a diverse group of people.
- What makes you different from other applicants?
- Anything else you would like me to know?
- Questions for Interviewer
Zoom interview, Alum interviewer
- Walk me through your resume
- Describe how your day to day job looks like.
- Describe how you function within a team.
- What is the most challenging part in your job? How do you manage those challenges?
- What is your proudest achievement?
- Do you lead people? What are the challenges of leading people for you? How do you manage those challenges?
- What are your hobbies outside of work?
- Describe a moment you influenced your leadership to do something different.
- What are your strengths and weaknesses? How do you deal with your weaknesses?
- When did you have a difference of opinion and how did you deal with that?
- How do you define leadership? What are the most important traits of a leader?
- Describe a time you received feedback from your manager and how you dealt with that.
- What are your short and long term goals?
- Why MBA now? Why Kellogg?
- How will you contribute to Kellogg?
- Anything else that you want to share with me?
- Any questions for me?
Zoom interview, Alum interviewer
- Walk me through your resume
- What was your biggest accomplishment in your current role
- Walk me through a typical week in your role
- Talk about a team situation where differences existed between team members
- Talk about a time you were a leader on a team but you were not assigned to be the leader
- Tell me about a time you had to pick yourself back up
...with follow up questions concerning "impact" on almost all those questions.
Then we switched to
- Why Kellogg?
- Short and long term goals. How does Kellogg get you there?
- What do you foresee to be your biggest challenge in an MBA program?
- Anything else you want me to know?
On campus in Evanston, Adcomm interviewer
- Walk through resume
- Long term / short term goals
- Why mba / why now
- Achievement I’m proudest of
- Three strengths & two weaknesses
- What’s my Leadership style
- Leadership achievement I’m most proud of
- Team where everyone was different- how were they different- what happened- outcome?
- What’s my plan b if "dream role" after mba doesn’t pan out
- Why Kellogg
- What would I get involved in
On campus in Evanston, Adcomm interviewer
- Tell me about why you chose your undergrad and about your experience there, and then walk me through your resume
- Why MBA?
- Describe the Team structure at your firm
- Walk me through a typical day at work
- When do you demonstrate leadership at work?
- When have you worked with a team or a person that is different than you ("diversity" question - told me I could interpret diversity however I wanted to..race, religion, background, diversity of thought, etc.)
- Why Kellogg?
- What would you get involved in at Kellogg?
- How has your leadership style evolved from undergrad to current day?
- What is one thing you would want to focus on in terms of leadership style at Kellogg?
On campus in Evanston, Adcomm interviewer
- Dove very deep into my resume, probably 15-20 minutes -she stopped me for every job and asked very pointed questions such as purpose of my company, size of my company, metrics I was evaluated on, specifics about my current work
- What do you think has been your greatest impact at your current job?
- What teams are you on in your current job? Who is on your team with you?
- What would team members say you bring to the team?
- How would teammates describe you?
- Tell me about a team you were on with diversity. What made it diverse? (Then followed up about challenges/successes on the team).
- What are your short / long term goals?
- Why do you need an MBA?
- Why Kellogg?
Blind interview with a member of the admissions committee
- Walk me through your resume.
- How will an MBA help you?
- How has your leadership style changed over the years?
- Tell me about a time you received feedback from your.
- What are your hobbies outside work?
- What Kellogg clubs/activities are you interested in?
- Do you have any questions for me?
- Is there anything further you want to add that we didn't cover?
Kellogg R1 Interview In-person in Evanston with admissions staff)
- Walk me through your resume.
- What is your short term goal? Long term goal? Why an MBA?
- Tell me about a time when there was an individual on a group that was problematic. What did you do to make sure the project continued to go smoothly?
- What would your teammates say is your greatest strength? What would they say is your weakness?
- What kind of manager do you admire?
- What's your leadership type/how do you act when you manage others?
- What are some leadership skills you need to develop?
- Why Kellogg?
- What are some clubs you're interested in joining?
- What do you think would be your biggest contributions on-campus?
- Do you think you need an MBA to achieve your career goals?
- How would you accomplish it without an MBA?
- Any questions for me?
Kellogg R1 Interview Questions (In-Person in Evanston)
- Questions I was asked:
- Where are you from?
- Why Notre Dame?
- Why chemical engineering?
- Why Epic?
- Talk about switch from technical services to business intelligence project manager
- What's the most rewarding part of your job?
- What's the most challenging part?
- Why an MBA now? Why Kellogg?
- What would your teammate say is your biggest area for growth?
- What is your greatest professional asset?
- What's the most challenging part of working on a team?
- Talk about your extracurriculars, both now and undergrad
- Any questions for us?
Video Essay
- Tell us about an extracurricular activity you're involved with and what you enjoy about it.
- What path are you interested in pursuing, how will you get there, and why is this program right for you? (This question is the same for every interview.)
- Tell us about a time when you received criticism you did not agree with. How did this make you feel?
Video Essay
• Tell me about something nice you did for someone recently.
• What path are you interested in pursuing, how will you get there, and why is this program right for you?
• Tell us about a time you worked on a project with someone with whom you did not along. What was the outcome?
Video Essay
- Who inspires you at work?
- Tell us about a time where you disagreed with someone at work and how you handled it.
- Why Kellogg?
Video Essay
- If you could eat one type of food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
- Tell us about a time you were on a dysfunctional team and how you handled it.
- Why Kellogg?
Video Essay J
- What was the biggest problem you faced in school or at the workplace and what was the outcome?
Video Essay
- What do you like most about yourself?
- What path are you interested in pursuing, how will you get there, and why is this program right for you?
- Tell me about a time you didn't get along with a colleague at work. How did you approach this and what was the final outcome?
- What's on your bucket list this year?
- Tell me why you picked your undergrad/major
- Tell me about KPMG
- Why did they promote you so quickly?
- A situation where you had to think strategically
- A situation where you had to make a difficult business decision
- A situation where you demonstrated leadership
- What do you do in your free time?
- Why MBA?
- Why Kellogg?
- ST/LT goals?
- What clubs do you plan to join in Kellogg?
- Anything else to share?
- Any questions for me?
Video Essay
- Who do you admire as a leader and why?
- What impact do you hope to make at Kellogg?
- What type of food do you love?
Video Essay S
- How would your friends describe you to someone who hasn't met you before?
- What do you think would be the biggest impact you'd make at Kellogg?
Video Essay
- Tell me about the biggest or most challenging decision you've made at work.
- If you could go back 10 years in time and give yourself advice, what would it be and why?
- How and why did you choose your college major?
- What are some of your goals?
- Why are you interested in going to b-school?
- Why is now the right time for you?
- How did you decide to apply to Kellogg?
- Are there any things about the Kellogg program that concern you?
- What are you most excited about?
- Walk me through your two most recent jobs.
- Help me understand why you switched jobs.
- Do you have any questions for me?
- Tell me about your current job.
- What do you like most about it?
- What do you like least?
- What are your short and longer term career goals?
- What skills do you feel you need to reach those goals?
- What strengths will you leverage?
- What do you bring to the table in terms of the Kellogg class?
- What other schools did you apply to?
- Describe your favorite project at work.
- Why did you enjoy it?
- Were there any negative aspects to the project?
- What do you think you learned?
- Why do you want to go to business school?
- Why Kellogg?
- What do you do in your free time?
- What are your three best attributes?
- Three weaknesses?
- How would your best friend describe you?
- How would your boss describe you?
- Walk me through your resume.
- Lots of questions about specific resume points
- Why is now the right time for business school?
- Tell me about yourself starting with college graduation.
- Why did you switch from first job?
- What did you learn there?
- Is there anything you would change about your actions at first job?
- What is the hardest thing about your job?
- What is your favorite thing?
- Have you ever truly failed?
- How did you feel/react/learn?
- Why does an MBA make sense for you?
- Tell me more about your longer term goals.
- What do you think it will take to reach your goals?
- Why Kellogg?
- What do you like to do outside of work?
- Tell me more about your involvement with x.
- Tell me about the people you work with there.
- How are they different than the people in your office?
- How do you interact with them differently?
- How do you make time for extra-curricular engagements?
- What’s your favorite book?
- What activities do you plan to do at Kellogg?
- Why are you applying to business school?
- Why are you applying to Kellogg?
- What do you think about our Dean?
- If you get in how will you contribute?
- Why should we make a space for you in the class?
- What activities are you excited about?
- What classes are you excited about?
- What do you like to do in your free time?
Off-campus interview w/ alum for Full-time MBA
Walk me through your resume.
Why an MBA?
Why Kellogg?
Tell me about a leadership experience.
What is your leadership style?
What is the biggest risk you have taken in your life?
Tell me about a problem you encountered at work and how you fixed it.
Tell me about a time that you worked well in a team.
What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses?
"On-Campus Interview Full-time MBA program"
- Interview lasted about 45 minutes.
- Asked about extracurriculars on my resume
- What clubs at Kellogg are you interested in?
- Resume Walk
- Why MBA
- What are long and short term goals
- Why Kellogg
- How has your leadership evolved
- How have you worked on something strategically
- Describe your team experiences
- What would your team mates miss about you when you are gone
- What would your team mates think that you should have done differently
On-Campus Interview for Full-time MBA program with AdComm Member
I interviewed with a member of admissions staff. The interview lasted almost exactly 30 minutes and moved at a pretty quick pace.
- Walk through my resume, but try to speak to any personal preferences that I had that impacted my path and the skills that I developed with each position
- What were the most important aspects of my undergraduate experience?
- Asked some clarification questions about my positions and the organizations that I've worked in
- Compare my progress to that of my peers
- Speak to my strengths as a professional, as well as my weaknesses
- What do you hope to do after gaining an MBA?
- Describe your leadership style?
- What do you like most about your job? What do you like least?
- Why Kellogg?
- Do you know what extracurricular involvements you might like to pursue at Kellogg?
- Why an MBA and why now?
- What do you like to do outside of work?
- Anything that you haven't spoke to that you'd like to highlight?
- Any questions for me?
Good luck to all.
On-Campus Interview with AdComm Member
Overall it took about 50 minutes. Interviewer was very kind and definitely tried to make sure I was at ease the whole time.
Main questions:
- Why my undergrad? My major?
- Walk me through your professional career.
- What was your biggest achievement at xyz co?
- How would your co workers describe you?
- What would they want to change about you?
- (As a follow up to issue raised) How do you manage that perception?
- (As a follow up to my specific work situation of working on three separate teams): Is your current situation permanent?
- Short and long term goals?
- Describe a time I led well
- Describe my leadership style
- A time when I worked well as a member of a team
- Why Kellogg?
- If I were a student, how would I benefit the school and classmates?
- What would I do outside of class?
Then we discussed my questions about the school.
Good luck to all!
Had my interview on campus with an admissions committee member. 35 minutes, very friendly and cordial.
- Tell me about yourself.
- Why did you choose your undergraduate school? Why did you choose your major?
- What has been your experience leading teams at work?
- Tell us about a time when you resolved conflict on a team.
- What are your favorite activities outside of work?
- Why Kellogg? Why MBA? Why now?
- Tell us about any experience you may have working with colleagues abroad. What are the challenges / benefits?
- Do you have any questions for me?
We had a casual conversation about the weather in Chicagoland that day as well as whether I was flying back home after the interview or sticking around for the weekend. I told her I was sticking around for the weekend with friends and we talked about what I like to do in Chicago.
Hope this post helps.
Update: Admitted
On-campus Interview with Adcomm member The interviewer was extremely nice (as was absolutely everyone else I met at the school - both in and out of the admissions office). When we sat down she explained the process and that she had only seen my resume. Throughout the interview she was very engaged and encouraging, nodding her head and taking copious notes. Here are the questions I can remember from our conversation:
- Walk me through your resume.
- Tell me about your current team. What is everyone's role?
- What is the team dynamic?
- What are some of the strengths you bring to the group? What are some of the challenges?
- What are some of the challenges in working with the junior analyst?
- Taking off from my answer to the last question (we had dealt with a challenge through a conversation) - Was there any feedback she gave you that surprised you?
- Taking off from a leadership experience I discussed - Did you find it hard to make people take you seriously because you were younger?
- How has your leadership style changed from college till now?
- Why a JD/MBA? Why Kellogg?
- What would you be involved in at Kellogg? What would you do for fun?
- Is there anything that your team will miss about you when you leave? Anything they won't miss?
- Is there anything else you would like the Adcomm to know about you?
She asked if I had any questions but also said that she would understand if I didn't have any because I spent the entire day at Kellogg talking to students. I asked two questions, and we wrapped it up. As I was gathering my things she asked what I was doing that evening, and we had a brief conversation about a friend I was meeting for dinner. The conversation was ~35 minutes. Good luck to future interviewees!
1. Describe a time when you influenced someone and how their actions changed as a result?
2. Describe a time when you had a personality clash with a coworker.
3. Describe a time when your expectations differed from a coworker's and how you worked through it. (She wanted to specifically know about a time when my expectations of the amount of work or quality of work needed on a project differed from a coworker's.)
- on-campus with a member of Ad Com Feb 5
- she was extremely welcoming so it put me at ease a bit
- lasted about 40 minutes with me doing most of the talking; ran out of time for Q&A re: Kellogg
- Walk me through your resume.
- Why did you choose your school?
- Did you accomplish your goals as IFC President?
- Why Kellogg? Why MBA?
- What would you do at Kellogg (i.e. what major and clubs)?
- Are you happy with your leadership development at xxx?
- Have you ever had a disagreement with a team member at work?
- How has your experience been on the Board of xxx?
- How would your co-workers describe you? What negative things would they say?
- What do you do outside of work?
- What are 3 most significant/enjoyable extracurricular experiences on your resume (post-grad)?
Off-campus interview with alum; Round 2 720/3.50 GPA Top 20/5+ years work experience/Midwest
The interview lasted nearly 90 minutes; it was very laid back and conversational. We initially discussed his experience and background...probably for about 20 minutes. Then we started into his questions...
1. Walk me through your resume 2. Why an MBA? Why now? 3. What about Kellogg interests you? 4. Outside the curriculum, what about Kellogg interests you? 5. Please describe a conflict you faced in a professional setting, and how you resolved the conflict. 6. What questions do you have for me?
This interview was a piece of cake. The interviewer had a guide sheet from the school that he scanned at the end to confirm he had covered all bases.
My day started with signing in at the admissions office in the 2nd floor of the Jacobs hall building.
There was a list of classes that one could sign up for and a student guide would escort to the classroom.
I signed up for the 8.30 class, 'Marketing Management' by Prof Hennessey.
I really enjoyed the class. It was interesting, interactive, straightforward and I understood most of the discussion despite of not having much marketing knowledge beforehand. Class lasted 1.5 hours.
I had my interview with an Admissions officer at 11.00am. The interviewer was friendly and the conversation lasted about 40 minutes. I was asked the following Qs:
- Why did you choose you undergrad school? Do you think you made a good decision going to that school?
- Describe your work at ABC? What did you enjoy about the work?
- Why did you switch between jobs?
- Work at XYZ? How did your responsibilities grow?
- What happened in January?[ I lost my job ]
- What did you do from Jan till date?
- What would team mates say your 3 strong points are?What would they want to change about you?
- Why the shift to marketing?
- Team conflict situation, how did u resolve?
- Why MBA?
- Why Kellogg?
- Talk about your extra curricular involvement.
- Anything else you would like to add?
- Questions for me?
I learnt some interesting facts from the Info session and lunch with students.
- Class bidding: How students bid for classes.
- How teams are assigned in the first two quarters.
- Strong CMC- ease of access to alumni network.
- Treks to companies.
- More about the MMM pgm.
- TG Fridays
The 4.00pm WBA(Women's Business Association) chat with a couple of 1st years sharing their experiences at K was informative.
I interviewed with an Admissions officer. She was very friendly and conversational, no pressure questions or anything out of left field.
Questions:
- why an mba
- walk me through your resume, starting with college
- why the dual degree in undergrad
- tell me about a team success and why it went well
- what is your greatest accomplishment at your current company
- what would your colleagues say about you
- what would your colleagues want to improve about you
- what would you contribute to Kellogg
- any questions for me
- Is there anything that we haven't covered that you wish to cover
I am applying in the first round. The interview was blind and the admissions officer hadn't seen my resume or any essays yet (which, of course I hadn't submitted because I procrastinate). The interview lasted about 40 minutes. There was also a second year JD/MBA student in the interview as well. The latter did not ask any questions but just took notes.
The admissions officer first started out with some light conversation about when I got in, where I stayed, etc. Then she asked me to tell me about myself and walk through my resume. She asked why I am working for my current employer and then asked how my college decisions got me to where I am. I was also asked about my leadership style. There were many times when I would be in the middle of giving my response and she would ask for a specific example. She also asked about my leadership examples. In fact, now that I look back on it I would say most of the questions were probing at leadership, but I am also applying at 23, so this is much younger than the average candidate.
The last questions were asking me what my coworkers would say about me, my 3 weaknesses, why Kellogg and why an MBA now, and tell me about a time you had team conflict.
I wore a suit. The alum wore business casual clothes. The interview lasted an hour and five minutes. The interview was very conversational. He said he noticed application volume was up significantly.
- What other schools did you apply to?
- Why did you apply there?
- Why are you applying to Kellogg?
- Tell about a team situation in which you had a conflict?
- Why an MBA?
- Tell me about your background.
- Why an MBA?
- Why now?
- Why are you interested in Kellogg’s MBA program?
- Why are you interested in the full time program?
- How will you contribute to the Kellogg community?
- What are your short-term and long term goals?
- How will Kellogg help me achieve my goals?
- What do you enjoy the most about your current job? What frustrates you the most?
- What makes you unique relative to other applicants?
Had my interview last night at a local Starbucks. I wore a shirt and tie, interviewer was wearing slacks and a button down. Very casual, we actually are from the same state and went to rival colleges so there was a bit of fun banter here. Spent first 10 minutes talking about similarities, people we knew in common, etc. Then we got to the questions.
- Tell me about a tough decision you have had to make.
- Why did you move from your past job to your current job?
- Why Kellogg?
- Why MBA?
- Most significant professional accomplishment?
- Tell me more about your extracurricular activities
- Tell me about a team situation
- Part of my application that I am most concerned with
- If you are admitted to more than one school, how would you choose between your options? (this one caught me a bit off guard as I had not seen it in any forums...I focused on the student community, and which program I thought would help me become the best leader)
- 3 Strengths and 1 Weakness
- Any questions for him.
All in all, think it went very well.
- Tell me about your undergraduate experience
- Tell me about your move to United States
- Why did you choose your first company?
- Walk me through your experiences at company X?
- Why do you think you have been so successful at company X?
- Do you get to choose your assignment or they are assigned to you?
- Why do you want to leave?
- What if you cannot get a job at your desired company after MBA? Do you have backup places?
- What will you contribute at Kellogg?
- Anything else you would like to add?
- Do you have any questions?
Interview lasted for 45 minutes.
- Tell me about your undergraduate experience
- What is it like working with your family?
- Describe yourself in a paragraph.
- What do you do for fun?
- How would you contribute to the Kellogg community? What activities would you be involved in?
- When I walk away from this interview, what do you want me to remember about you?
- What is your greatest accomplishment?
Interview lasted 45 minutes.
- Tell me about your background
- Why MBA, why now, why Kellogg?
- What would you get involved with while at Kellogg?
- Tell me about a teamwork experience when you were a leader; when you weren't a leader
- What would you contribute to the classroom?
- Tell me more about microfinance, how did you get involved?
- What would you specialize in at Kellogg?
- How would you manage running your business and focusing on your MBA simultaneously?
- What are your 3 most significant work accomplishments?
- If there is a takeaway from this interview, what would it be--what should I tell the Admissions Committee?
- Do you have any questions for me?
- Long-term goals/why you are shifting from medicine to management?
- Why Kellogg/why now?
- Leadership experience.
- Tell me a time when you worked in a team and team failed and you failed to motivate people.
- Extra-curricular activity outside work.
- What would you bring to Kellogg?
- Strengths.
- Tell me about your background (i.e. where you grew up, why you chose your undergraduate institution).
- Why you chose your first job?
- Why did you change jobs?
- What are your career goals?
- Why an MBA?
- Why Kellogg?
- What will you be involved with at Kellogg?
- How are you going to ultimately make your decision on what school you attend?
- What do you do outside of work?
- Tell me about yourself. Where did you grow up?
*Walk me through you resume, starting with your undergraduate institution. *Why your undergraduate institution? *How did you get your first job out of school?
- What is one common misconception of you?
- What has been the most difficult person/personality to work with?
- Give me an example of a time you led a successful team.
- Why Kellogg?
- Why an MBA?
- How will you contribute to the Kellogg community?
- What do you do outside of work?
- What are your short term and long term goals?
- What are your current responsibilities?
- Why did you choose your undergraduate institution?
- Why did you choose your major?
- How did you end up at your first job out of college?
- You seem to have been promoted quickly - tell me about that?
- At your current job, do you work mainly alone or on teams?
- What do you find is the greatest challenge in managing people?
- How many people report to you?
- What would they say about you as a boss?
- Tell me about a time you worked on an effective team.
- What kind of feedback do you get from your boss?
- What are your short and long-term goals?
- What are you greatest strengths, and where do you have room for improvement?
- Why an MBA?
- Why Kellogg?
- What do you do for fun?
- What class did you visit? How did you like it?
- Why do you need an MBA?
- Why do you want to pursue your long term and short term goals?
- Why Kellogg instead of other schools?
- There're a lot of activities here, how will you choose which one to participate in?
- How would people describe you?
- What's a common misconception about you?
- What makes you a good leader?
- What is your leadership style?
- Why are you interested in developing nations?
- Other than the Ski Club, and the Global Health Initiative, what are some things about Kellogg that you want to participate in?
- What's the weakest part of your application?
- What would you like to add that you haven't told us in this interview or in your essays?
- Any questions for the admission's committee?
- She started off with Why my current entrepreneurial venture?
- What are the challenges that you are facing?
- What stage of growth it is in?
- Why MBA?
- Why not a one year course in org behavior or something?
- Why Kellogg?
- then there was a folllow up question about what I liked the most about the Kellogg culture.
- What would I bring to the Kellogg community?
- thereafter she asked me if I wanted to ask some Q's.
- Talk though you resume
- Why did you pick your undergraduate institution?
- Tell me about your current position
- Describe your career progress
- Describe Goals / Why MBA
- Why Kellogg
(30 - 45 minutes)
- Run through your career progress.
- Tell me about x specific project. What was your role and how did you go about doing Y and Z?
- Tell me what kind of leader you are.
- What are the qualities of a good leader.
- Tell me how you usually interact with your team.
- Have you managed people.
- Describe a situation where you lead a team. Professional.
- What is one thing that you could do differently in your professional career.
- Why do you want to get an MBA?
- Why Kellogg?
- How are you going to make an impact at Kellogg.
- What activities are you interested in.
- What do you like to do in your spare time. Tell me about the volunteer activities.
- Take me through your resume (start with Cornell and tell me why you chose that school).
- Tell me a little bit about the difference in responsibilities between an Account Coordinator and a Senior Account Executive (advertising specific question).
- As a Senior Account Executive, what do you think the Account Coordinators in your group would say about your management skills (this was the oddball)?
- Why an MBA?
- Why Kellogg?
- Talk me through your resume
- Describe to me your reasoning behind transitioning positions within your company
- Why do you need an MBA?
- One of the reasons you mentioned was to increase your network, tell me about your current network?
- If you could sit down with someone right now who was currently working in your future desired position, what questions would you have for him/her?
- What skills are you lacking, that you need to acquire?
- What will you do if you are not admitted?
- What do you do outside of work?
- Do you have any questions?
- Started off by asking me to run through my resume. Was definitely interested in why I made the transitions that I did.
- Asked if I managed any people.
- Asked about what I'd bring to Kellogg (did not ask why Kellogg; that may be because I made connections to Kellogg in many of my responses)
- Asked about why an MBA now.
- Short-term/long term goals.
- Asked about a leadership experience
- Asked about the percentage that I work in teams at work.
- Asked whether or not I have had any direct feedback from people in team projects, at work etc (may be related to that 360 review initiative, not sure).
- Talk about a strength (ability to pick things up quickly)
- Talk about a weakness
- Asked me if someone were to describe me or point out something interesting about me, what would that be. This was the last question and she phrased this as a 'fun' question that she wanted to ask.
- Tell me about yourself.
- What's different about leading a cross functional
team?
- What makes a good leader of a cross functional team?
- Tell me about a leadership experience.
- Tell me about a conflict in the workplace.
- Why MBA?
- Why Kellogg?
- Why now?
- Any questions for me?
- How many schools are you applying to?
- What do you think about going to school in Chicago?
- How many schools are you applying to? Is Kellogg your top choice?
- Name a time when you faced a difficult situation at work.
- How will Kellogg's MBA help you achieve your long term goals?
- Will I pursue my long term goals right away or is there a short-term
goal in between?
- Specific resume questions (summer experience, my website)
- What unique characteristics would I bring to the Kellogg community?
- Any leadership experiences that I have had outside of work.
- Walk me through your resume
- Why do you want to get an MBA?
- Why do you want to go to Kellogg?
- Tell me about a leadership experience
- Do you have any questions for me?
- Tell me about yourself...
- What's your career goals
- Why MBA
- Why Kellogg
- What are you trying to get out of the degree
- Have you had to deal with people on your team not carrying his/her weight, what did you do?
- If you are interested in Entrepreneurship, do you have business mentors now as your network?
- (So, I said yes to the last question, and mentioned that my boss, Scott, is a Stanford alum...)
- Why Kellogg vs. Stanford (Yikes! I repeated my answers to "why Kellogg", the student initiative, teamwork culture, and she seemed very happy with that.)
Then we just chatted, about Chicago, Memphis, etc.
And at the end, she mentioned that she likes to just chat to people, instead of driving a very formal interview.
- Walk me through your resume.
- Career goals, etc.
- Why MBA, why now?
- Tell me about some of your key experiences as an undergraduate.
- What would you do differently if you had your undergraduate experience to do over again?
- Tell me about your business.
- What do you like to do outside of work?
- What do you think are the most important qualities of a strong leader.
- Tell me about a time that you exhibited the characteristics of a leader.
- I went through your resume and I can see that although you are relatively young you demonstrated an impressive career progress during your employment. What characteristics enabled you to progress rapidly?
- Describe a crisis management situation in work.
- Describe a time you experienced a difference of opinions at work and how you dealt with this situation.
- Describe somebody whose leadership style you consider a role model to be followed.
- Why MBA, Why Kellogg, Why now?
- Describe a leadership experience outside of work.
- What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
My Kellogg interviewer was mildly obsessed with the fact that I graduated recently from school and that I would be entering B school with only two years of work experience under my belt.
- Why Kellogg?
- Where else are you applying?
- Do you realize that it will be harder for you to compete for jobs coming out of B school since you will have less experience?
- How will an MBA help you?
- What organizations would you join at Kellogg?
The rest was just general chit chat.
Interestingly, he didn't ask me any leadership example, or why I chose a particular major in my college.
- Tell me something about yourself
- What is your negotiation style (follow up question based on my job description)?
- Why MBA and why Kellogg?
- What would you do if you don't get in Kellogg this year?
- What are your extra-curricular activities (things you like to do over weekends)?
- My views about Sprint and Nextel merger and how would it affect nextel
PTT offering?
- Any questions for me?
- Tell me about yourself.
- Why management over communications?
- How has your communications background helped?
- What are the qualities of a leader?
- When have you demonstrated these qualities?
- Can you be a leader as a subordinate?
- Tell me about the Sarbanes Oxley Act?
- How has the Act influenced your work?
- What is the typical seniority structure at your company?
- How many other schools are you applying to?
- What other schools are you applying to?
- Why are you applying in Round 2 over Round 1?
- Tell me about a time you had to make a tough decision.
The interview was really informal - besides a few questions, I think he was adlibbing all the questions based on my responses.
- When I spoke about expanding my family business, he asked me to be more specific and talk about products and ideas
- He was really interested in knowing about how ideas and research are transferred into *My greatest leadership experience to date
- What kind of an internship will I pursue?
- What has been my greatest failure to date
He never really specifically asked me "Why Kellogg", although he did ask me what other schools I was applying to. We spent the bulk of the time on career related stuff in general. I kinda brought up the topic about Kellogg when he asked me if I had any questions, and that’s when he started talking about Kellogg.