Whew! What should I say about the HBS interview? Have you ever gone into a situation terrified that you would screw up only to come through in the end hitting a home run and having no problems? Well, that didn’t happen for me today…I bombed that joint and I think I lost my chance to be accepted.
Things started off badly as soon as I got out of my car in DC. I was wearing my black suit and was looking pretty pimptacular, if I do say so myself. I tried to put my suit jacket on while holding my portfolio, but I ended up losing my grip and dropped it on the ground. Worst of all, the right sleeve fell into a puddle. At that point, I had a brainstorm and, as soon as I got into the building for the interview, I hit the bathroom, grabbed some paper towels and cleaned all of the dirt off of the sleeve. It looked like I had gotten it all cleaned off while the sleeve was wet, so I just went along my merry way. 10 minutes later, the interviewer came out and, when I extended my hand to shake hers, I saw that there was lint from the paper towels all up and down my sleeve and there was a spot right by my wrist that looked sort of gray. When I saw that, a feeling of dread came over me and all I could think was “this could be a bad sign”.
The interview started off fine, but, after a couple of minutes, this daggone cold that i’ve been fighting for the past week or so started acting up and I spent the next 40 minutes coughing, sniffling, wiping my nose, and dealing with my on-and-off voice. It started off slowly, but it eventually picked up to the point where I was either coughing or sniffling every 30 seconds. I was so embarrassed that it started affecting my responses to the questions. Everything that I had hammered into my head in preparation for the interview started coming out sounding differently than what I wanted to say. I swear that I was off balance the whole time and I kept apologizing for how distracting I was being. My interviewer was totally cool and tried to put me at ease by saying that she’d interviewed hundreds of sick applicants before, but, by then, I’d already put so much pressure on myself that I’d already defeated myself.
In terms of answering the questions, I think I did alright, but I don’t think I was overly impressing. I think I especially fumbled with the last question when she asked me if there was anything I wanted to discuss that she hadn’t mentioned. I should have thought to come up with something totally unique, but all of the cold symptoms had me flustered and I just mentioned my desire to do community service and help people in the future, which was the topic of my optional application essay. Basically, I used an opportunity to show her something new about myself to repeat something that she’d already known from reading my application….D’OH!!!
Given the caliber of the people that I’m competing with, I’ve already determined that it is likely I’ll be getting a ding from HBS. It’s all good though. I think it’s an accomplishment to have even gotten an interview, so that’s at least a moral victory. I swear this whole process has been one of the most exhausting things I’ve ever dealt with before. The one good thing about the interview is that I now have a funny story to tell all of the other B-school people I encounter in the future…
Things started off badly as soon as I got out of my car in DC. I was wearing my black suit and was looking pretty pimptacular, if I do say so myself. I tried to put my suit jacket on while holding my portfolio, but I ended up losing my grip and dropped it on the ground. Worst of all, the right sleeve fell into a puddle. At that point, I had a brainstorm and, as soon as I got into the building for the interview, I hit the bathroom, grabbed some paper towels and cleaned all of the dirt off of the sleeve. It looked like I had gotten it all cleaned off while the sleeve was wet, so I just went along my merry way. 10 minutes later, the interviewer came out and, when I extended my hand to shake hers, I saw that there was lint from the paper towels all up and down my sleeve and there was a spot right by my wrist that looked sort of gray. When I saw that, a feeling of dread came over me and all I could think was “this could be a bad sign”.
The interview started off fine, but, after a couple of minutes, this daggone cold that i’ve been fighting for the past week or so started acting up and I spent the next 40 minutes coughing, sniffling, wiping my nose, and dealing with my on-and-off voice. It started off slowly, but it eventually picked up to the point where I was either coughing or sniffling every 30 seconds. I was so embarrassed that it started affecting my responses to the questions. Everything that I had hammered into my head in preparation for the interview started coming out sounding differently than what I wanted to say. I swear that I was off balance the whole time and I kept apologizing for how distracting I was being. My interviewer was totally cool and tried to put me at ease by saying that she’d interviewed hundreds of sick applicants before, but, by then, I’d already put so much pressure on myself that I’d already defeated myself.
In terms of answering the questions, I think I did alright, but I don’t think I was overly impressing. I think I especially fumbled with the last question when she asked me if there was anything I wanted to discuss that she hadn’t mentioned. I should have thought to come up with something totally unique, but all of the cold symptoms had me flustered and I just mentioned my desire to do community service and help people in the future, which was the topic of my optional application essay. Basically, I used an opportunity to show her something new about myself to repeat something that she’d already known from reading my application….D’OH!!!
Given the caliber of the people that I’m competing with, I’ve already determined that it is likely I’ll be getting a ding from HBS. It’s all good though. I think it’s an accomplishment to have even gotten an interview, so that’s at least a moral victory. I swear this whole process has been one of the most exhausting things I’ve ever dealt with before. The one good thing about the interview is that I now have a funny story to tell all of the other B-school people I encounter in the future…
