There is a lot of advice already available on what to say and how to respond to questions in the ISB Interviews. However, Even the best interview preparation can be undone by one wrong comment. In this post, we discuss a few things one should not say during the ISB Interview:
Speaking negatively about your educational and professional experiences
Candidates often subconsciously narrate negative incidents about their educational and professional experiences. This could be lack of intellectually stimulating environment in college, an overbearing supervisor in your current job, or monotonous work. While such instances certainly can be a reality for candidates, such experiences just do not leave a good taste. Hence, you should avoid narrating such incidents during the interview.
Stagnation or salary as a motivation for MBA
Candidates should ‘avoid’ mentioning lack of opportunities for professional growth in their current job or less salary they are currently drawing as motivations for MBA. This does not come across as a forward looking statement and makes it seem as if your decision to pursue MBA is an after-thought. During the interview, candidates should articulate their ‘future’ goals and how an MBA would enable them to achieve those goals.
Changing the goals mentioned in the essays
The essays in the ISB application give an opportunity to candidates to communicate their post-ISB career goals. At the time of drafting the essays, candidates should take care to articulate goals that are pertinent to their educational and professional experiences. Once the candidates submit their application, these goals are effectively set in stone! Interview is not an opportunity to refine or change the goals that have been mentioned in the application. During the interview, the candidates should defend the goals already mentioned in the application, not change them.
Sounding rehearsed while giving responses
Before the interview, candidates prepare the responses to most commonly asked interview questions (Why MBA, Why ISB, Goals etc.). This is a good thing. However, a few candidates end up over-preparing, by memorizing the responses word-on-word. Consequently, in the actual interview, the responses from the candidates come across as very rehearsed and mechanical. This takes away the entire spontaneity and reduces the interview to a formulaic exercise.
Giving up midway through the interview
Candidates obviously want the interview to be perfect. But what if the interview does not turn out to be perfect? For instance, the very first question that the interview panel asks you could be: when was the company that you work for, founded? Well, you have been working for this company for the past four years and this is the only company that you have worked for. So, you should ideally know when this company was founded. But, what if you don’t know this? Many candidates think that not being able to answer a question is a death knell for their chances of getting into ISB. Hence, being unable to answer such questions can leave the candidates completely demotivated and they just give up midway through the interview. This is an incorrect mindset. Your inability to answer a few questions in the interview is hardly a dead end. You have made so much effort to reach the interview stage. Make sure you give your very best until the very end.
Trying to answer questions that you have absolutely no idea about
Let us say you are working at a startup. The interviewer asks you: How would rising interest rates affect the valuation of a growth-stage startup? You have no idea about this. However, since you believe that expressing ignorance would be perceived negatively by the interview pane, you make up some answer. Unconvinced by your answer, the interviewer could then ask further questions about discount rates, cash flows, or investor expectations. You struggle further and the crack widens. This is not a situation you would want to get into. If you do not know the answer to a question, acknowledge it explicitly. ISB interviews are not a “Q&A Exam”, they are a personality test. If anything, the interviewer would appreciate your honesty and forthrightness in admitting that you are not aware of.
Very strong responses to the ‘weakness’ question
‘Your biggest weakness’ is a common behavioral question that may be asked during the interview. While one should be quite candid and state a genuine weakness, candidates should avoid mentioning weaknesses such as integrity issues or lack of self-confidence, or lack of self-esteem. These weaknesses come across as very drastic and the interviewers may find them unpalatable.