Fridays With Sandy: MBA Mock Interview [Episode One]

[Music] hi I'm John burn with poets and quants we have a new feature today we're gonna call it Friday's with Sandy at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time every Friday we're gonna bring you Sandy Kreisberg aka HBS guru who live from Boston sometimes so do a handicapping or two other times you might just talk about the hot news of the week today given the fact that it's a season for a lot of admission interviews sandy is gonna do an actual live mock interview with someone in LA Dennis Lee is his name and he's he actually is going to apply to several top business schools in the fall of this year and he takes his GMAT next month sandy over to you Thank You Dennis can you hear me yes okay this is Janice I'm sandy this is gonna be a mock interview let's just get right into it okay Dennis let's pretend this is your business school interview very often the first question is introduce yourself to your classmates yeah definitely so hi everyone hi my name is Dennis Lee I am from Los Angeles California and originally we went to school in UC Berkeley graduated back in 2015 and currently I am working as a branch manager with Bank of America also in Los Angeles and during during my career I have switched between roles between investment management and also retail banking management and part of my job is to make sure the operations run smoothly within a bank so when you walk into a to a normal bank you did you you were great right at the beginning you know this douche is softer your classmates you want to make it contained and you want to make it neat hi I'm Dennis Lee I went to Berkeley I was a econ major for the past five or six years I've been working at Bank of America my and my current job is doing this I'm eager to meet all you guys and I'm also interested in Taekwondo and I'm a big you know Los Angeles Dodger fan okay you get it yeah that's the way to do it okay okay now a more that is often their opening question a more complicated version of that is another very common question is hey hello how are you could you tell me what you're doing now yeah yeah absolutely so currently I am a branch manager with Bank of America part of my main duties include making sure the operations run smoothly in a bank so I basically manage everyone in within a financial center making sure that all the personal bankers are doing your you're talking like your memorized this on a card and you're trying to remember what you said okay one of the things they look for in an interview is your ability to be conversational okay make it sound authentic the reason admissions committees often tell people that they flunked the interview is because they sounded scripted okay realize we've got this technological mediation here which makes it harder but try and make an answer like conversational like you say you're a branch manager in a bank what what branch you know so the answer would be sure I'd love to tell you what I do right now I'm the I'm the branch manager of the Palo Alto branch of Bank of America and that that has a number of roles it's a medium-size branch there are 15 employees my duties are to keep the branch running to oversee the employees and I also do blah and blah you get I didn't yeah yeah try it that way okay yes not to tell you what I do on a daily basis so currently I'm a branch manager in Acadia city within the larger radii Los Angeles region it's actually a very large sized branch and with a lot of affluent customers mainly customers from China or from or you're talking you're you're making a classic mistake you're trying to excel in everything okay let me just broadcast some more helpful information to the purpose of an interview for most business schools is to reject people okay it's not to accept people I'm talking to you and I'm talking to all the folks out there what they reject people who can't speak English that's not your problem your English is fine they have another filter to reject people they reject people who they feel are scripted or they wouldn't want to sit next to or that they would say boy whenever this kid gets called on I'll take a snooze so you don't want to sound that way either okay so your job in the interview is to answer their questions and don't don't try and sell yourself and don't accept lent me too much let's try a real simple answer first question hi Dennis how are ya I'm sandy I'm from the admissions committee let's get gon tell me what you're doing now yeah sure sandy alright nice to meet you currently I'm a branch manager with Bank of America in Los Angeles area actually in Acadia and I actually currently manage a fairly large sized branch and with a lot of affluent customers and my daily jobs is to manage all the personal bankers and tellers in a bank and make sure everything runs smoothly good that was a good answer thank you and crisp yes John agrees ok thank you ok good that's the way you should be answering ok another question they often ask right off the bat and this is a tough one this is really tough hey hey Dennis good to see you I've got your resume here could you just kind of walk me through it absolutely absolutely yes so as you can see I can after graduation from UC Berkeley I started with a role with financial management with Prudential Financial so in that role I couldn't I was trained for how to make advice on investment and for retirement and estate planning and actually I was sure a couple months after I started that role I was offered a position system manager with Bank of America that's when I made that switch from investment management to retail banking management in a state with Bank of America ever since and currently I am a branch manager and managing essentially everything with a financial center with Bank of America okay you got better the beginning of that was a little rough and you keep making this mistake of trying to explain everything open now I in all honesty when when they this is for the folks out there in all honesty they often ask in an interview to walk them through your resume you never get through it they interrupt so I was being hard on you by not interrupting should happen both to you and to anybody out there a good way to do it is just be real fast you say hi my name is Janice Lee I'm from California I went to UC Berkeley loved it there I was a Poli Sci major and since then I've had two jobs my first job after graduating Berkeley was with Prudential Financial I was a financial analyst where I met with retail clients and did estate planning or investment advisory and that lasted for X months and for the past y months I've been at Bank of America in retail banking in several roles and currently as you can see on the top line of my resume I'm an assistant vice presidential an assistant vice president and a branch manager you see how that's a contained package yeah good okay let's get let's let's break out your resume by chunks here very often there's a module where they say let's talk about college tell me about your decision to go to Berkeley yeah well Berkeley is one of the top schools in California and for me for me there was really no choice when I when I got off a letter from Berkeley I that's my dream I applied because I had several of my closest friends from high school went there and they they kept constantly kept telling me about the experience and that made me being fascinated by that school what are they saying they said that there there are so many educated people there with different ideas do you live to Berkeley you mean when I was in college or when you well we're talking about your decision to go to Berkeley so when you were in high school and apply Los Angeles but I made frequent visits to the school while still in high school and uh and that made me interested yeah yeah so how many friends did you have there before well trying to focus in on is your decision to a both apply and then after you got admitted your assistant or a decision to attend now I realized we're cutting the onion pretty thin cuz her first response was why did I go to Berkeley I live in California is a good school I applied it was cheap what else you wanna know okay that's an acceptable answer actually or you know a less vernacular version of that well did you apply anyplace else yes UCLA basically a couple schools and within the UCS good so that that's your I answer I went to high school the perfect answer is when if the question is tell me about your decision to go to Berkeley the perfect answer is I come from California I went to high school in a city called whatever the California schools were on my radar go into something in the UC system was a real plus because of the financial angle my choices were Berkeley and this other place I applied to I spoke to people at both places I visited and when I got the acceptance letter I went to admitted students day and it just seemed great my parents supported it I was very excited okay get it that's yeah that's the perfect answer okay they've often got a question what was unexpected once you got there uh doing many things well I think the most important being that it was a very diverse culture it was something that I did not have where I grew up from and when i was i grew up from like the greater LA area but i grew up in a small town called tional hills it's somewhere in LA area it's it's the diversity of various diversity but obviously there's nothing compared to abate the Bay Area or particularly in in Berkeley so you're you're doing an acceptable job of digging yourself out of a little hole I don't think saying the I mean was that true that you were on it the diversity of the Berkeley student body was unexpected what had you been funding I like a more shocking answer well right this this this question is a little annoying actually a good answer is what was unexpected was how many people at Berkeley come from New York cuz this is both true and something you hadn't and it's possible you hadn't met those people went or you didn't know but you know I you know I was living in a dorm and you know 20% of the people came from the New York area that was just done they turned out to be great but see that's a that's a simple honest answer what you're trying to do it is you're thinking about how do I make points hmm so you think oh I'm gonna I'm gonna go for diversity because everybody loves diversity but you know just just speaking for myself here I think my answer is better because this yeah limited it's honest you're not trying to sell you know okay what was your favorite course in Berkeley my favorite course was the core is taught by a Robin Wright at the former Secretary of Labor yeah it was it was on a policy in society they he only teach this course once every year so it was actually arguably the most popular course on campus and what did you like about it I many things one being that he not only he talks about the world actual course and the content of the course but he also shares some points of views regarding regarding the current social status okay cool what do you think that yeah how would you grade that is an answer it could be better well why I think it was yeah the question was what's your favorite course okay this course about public policy with Robert ROG that's an acceptable answer robert rice is a celebrity the interviewer would probably know who Robert rice is that's fine after that you had nothing to say you were just yeah you were just gone well it was I liked the content a lot of people you're not convincing me it was your favorite course oh good answer okay you want me to tell you a good answer or do you think you know yourself okay you can also you can chew I'll ask the question again if there's another course that comes to mind good well how come I don't know I'm sorry come on having this in a trial run here okay yeah you go well for one thing he was a really exciting professor there were a lot of kids in the class they had different political views he often had yet he was you know he had guest lecturers that were very exciting from his friends in government and the actual content of the course we got to read X&Y now you may not remember what you got to read but this is something worth maybe prepping for like what's your favorite course and you know and and it was and and then there was a you know it was a big course so there was a Teaching Fellow and my Teaching Fellow she was great she was very exciting and there were two papers and boy she was tough on those papers so it was my favorite it had everything it had a star professor it had exciting students who were very politically engaged with the material and and you know I got to write two papers which you know I'll be honest with you it wasn't a lot of fun but tremendous educational experience and the feedback on the papers was great well that they won't let you get that far they'll interrupt you but over art folks out there that's a good answer okay what if you had ten minutes to talk to the the Dean of your college about your experience okay what would you say yeah he's interested in he's easy interviewing you know fifteen students so he wants you to give him specific information based on your background you know as you know as a Poli Sci major this was you know here's my advice as someone who came from a small town here's my advice what would you say I would say that from my experience I have a lot of different points of views they can bring to the table in business school I'm sorry let me repeat the question you have 10 minutes to talk to the Dean we're still in college of Berkeley or the present Berkeley or whatever Yohe he wants you to reflect on your experience and tell him something that he can use cuz he's the Dean he's looking for information he's looking for advice he's looking for your feedback okay okay and just to clarify this is like potentially after graduation from talking to okay okay III would I would talk to Dean II and express my gratitude in the program being being one of the top one of the top programs in the world in United States suppose you said hey thanks give me something I can use yeah that truly am give me a lot of them it brought me outside the box on my thinking and on my watch something he can use we're just telling him how thankfully is authentic for you are it's it's not a good answer okay yeah I will also say that in terms of let me give you an announcer okay here there's a lot you know but the most valuable course is for me whether smaller courses if you could offer more of them or the most valuable part of my experience was my senior year seminar or you know people always said you know when I spoke to people in my major they said you know I wish some of the courses were more geared toward operational politics because a lot of the people will Poli Sci majors they were actually interested in being political operatives so if they were a course is about that taught by people with real experience in campaigns okay those are things he would go wow those are great ideas you know I mean you know well yeah that's those are exciting ideas you know I'm not gonna institute it tomorrow but those are things I'm gonna kick around I'll get it yeah definitely thank you you like those ideas oh yeah right okay but the important thing is that's the way you've got to approach the question from your from your own experience okay well it didn't somebody asked this to Donald Trump recently if you could do something different about your college experience what would you do differently first I would always focus more on my GPA then on my extracurricular activities okay let me say something that's the very counterintuitive answer and possibly dangerous one okay you can see why right right yeah he's gotta get great GPA three point six it's not a problem that - so okay scratch that yes I don't scratch that that's an excellent phrase for the folks out there excellent phrase if you have an interview and you're going down the wrong road say scratch that the interviewer was totally credited he'll go fine there the interviewer is not he's not there to screw you he's not there - it's not a gotcha thing he's willing to give you the benefit of the doubt it's it's a pretty stressful Asst it's a lot less stressful in this little rodeo we're doing now okay so if you had your college what are you what would you do differently if you had your career to do over a couple things but first being that I would take more courses that are exploratory for me so I would I would take couple courses in marketing and and also in design just to just explore different fields that I may potentially be interested in an excellent answer for the folks out there although other answers are depending on whether this works for you I wish I had learned how to code that's a very common answer wish I'd taken more computer science classes another answer is wish I'd spent a junior year abroad did you do that good job abroad how come I wanted to focus on my major classes okay that's an acceptable answer and an honest one uh-huh possible better answer might be looking back that was a mistake I was a little too focused on um um you know just doing my own disciplinary work okay so those questions about the college experience let's let's start the interview over again this is often the first question hey hello there how are ya yeah I've I've read over your resume very impressive could you tell me uh about what uh you think your three best accomplishments have been in the last two years absolutely and Hasani by the way think about me welcome I'm gonna tell you about those three things what serious yes first being that I achieved a couple things within Bank of America first being that I was the first manager to achieve perfect audits for three times in a row being okay no I'm good we're gonna do now is go into real interview mode this is the way do you really happen where they they never let you finish a question like that what does that mean that means that there were no no reportable findings no compliance errors no mistake does that happen all the time yeah but we fix them we make sure that if something gone wrong it would never be an apple of an audit issue one example would be that we're missing a document we're missing a symmetrical for a new account and obviously from previous news you can see how that it would be important okay okay so that's pretty nitty-gritty right right does that happen if you're not careful enough happens more than you would think [Laughter] okay whoa whoa okay so you you had how did you manage to accomplish that I certain different additional procedures in addition to the normal Bank procedure to ensure that we have those documents in place and we made sure that we said we set a tone for the employees for having those documents and how come you think other how rare is that it I can't I can't speak on behalf of my colleagues because I'm obviously different managers of different managerial style but your biggest accomplishment that you went yet you didn't have an audit issue for three years right and okay tell me your second accomplishment okay second accomplishment is um my my Center my financial center has actually um was the most profitable Center last year we brought in a little girl how did your head it how does that happen first of all is teamwork it's definitely teamwork I can't do this by myself I have a bank make a profit I don't get it well it's level yeah so the end le no they make a profit here at the headquarters I'm just in branch level yeah it's it's tumors is that it you're making sure you only given them you're not giving them the right amount of change but it's actually going back to the basics of being a pink we bring in deposits we help customers with the financial needs and though we give our loans that's tell me about the loan for you now I'm educated so you you have to do you make decisions on loans no not me are the corporate underwriters do all right so let's back up a step tell me about how your branch becomes profitable I just so loud right so mainly one of the most one of the biggest areas is that the positive growth last year we brought in a little over a hundred million dollars in money and that and basically I think that's a better way to we we were the number one ranked branch and bringing in deposits hello okay let me just have a programming note here with John are we gonna we're gonna just roll through this right beyond the the set up of 30 minutes um I think we are running out of time actually believe it or not so if there's a wrap-up that we can do I think we should okay here's a here's a wrap-up question Dennis tell me why you want to go to Columbia I want to go to Columbia because it's right in the heart of New York and I want to be working with one of the major banks within New York City and Columbia gives me that environment gives me that encouragement gives me the opportunity to do so and I've also met with different students different faculties and I'm fascinated by what they're working on what the ideas are and I want to be be part of them better answer for that okay so I'm glad we had this kind of shakedown cruise right yeah tell me what you learned I learned that I don't necessarily have to go to different details I just have to give them the big picture on several questions that's a good lesson and don't explain too much don't show off don't sell right hmm okay I think I think you're gonna do fine and I'm glad we had this shakedown cruise Columbia interview questions are like this by the way okay great yeah well hey sandy that was really incredible and Dennis thank you so much for participating I think you got some really good guidance here when you actually have to go through this either the end of this year or early next I wish you the best of luck on your journey I know you're taking the GMAT next month good luck on the test and good luck on all your applications so I want to remind everyone out there that every Friday now and when p.m. my time will be Friday with Sandy somebody wants another interview let us know okay yeah this is this is a time when schools are conducting admission interviews many of them have already done for round twos but a lot of them are still ahead and I think this is really super helpful for people or currently in know in the basket let us know who have what you thought of this one in the comment section great well and and for all of you out there as well you know we have a pre MBA networking festival coming up in New York check it out on the website under our events navigation menu and sandy thank you so much we will see you again next Friday can't wait my rep is getting right to the point okay alright Dennis thank you so much and thanks everyone for watching bye

Channel: Poets & Quants

Views: 37,953

Rating: 4.9272728 out of 5

Keywords: MBA admissions mock interview, business school interview tips, how to apply to business school, business school admissions, mba, bschool admissions, sandy kreisberg, hbsguru, poets&quants, John A. Byrne, get into hbs, get into harvard, harvard business school, mba admittance, handicapping your mba odds, poets and quants, cbs, nyu, nyu stern, stern school of business, columbia business school, yale som, yale

Id: oVllTokJO_U

Length: 32min 14sec (1934 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 26 2018