The Harvard Business School interview stands apart, both because it is a high-stress component of a top MBA application and because it is somewhat unique in how it is conducted. Receiving an HBS interview invite is a rare and prestigious occurrence, so the pressure is always going to be on. Furthermore, it is a fast-paced interview with 30-40 questions in the span of exactly a half hour!
At its core, the HBS interview is quite similar to the case study method that the Harvard Business School MBA curriculum is famous for. This is intentional, of course—the interview is meant to gauge whether or not you would be a good fit for the HBS classroom.
| Who Conducts Harvard Business School Interviews? | Harvard Business School interviews are conducted by an HBS admissions committee board member. |
| Who Does HBS Interview? | Harvard Business School interviews approximately 2,000 candidates each year—or ~20% of the people who apply. If you are invited to interview with HBS, your odds of admission could be as high as 50%. However, it’s important to note that candidates in overrepresented buckets’ odds might be slightly lower and will therefore have to do a very strong interview. |
| How Long is the HBS Interview? | The HBS interview is notoriously fast-paced, lasting exactly 30 minutes and including 30-40 questions. |
| Where is the HBS Interview Held? | Interviews can be scheduled on campus, in domestic or international hub cities, or via Zoom. The timing of your interview invitation and its format, whether in person or via Zoom, will not, in any way, affect your candidacy. |
| What is the Format of the HBS Interview? | The interview will last 30 minutes and span 30-40 questions, all of which will be tailored to your application. The interviewer will be thoroughly prepared, having fully reviewed your application in advance of the interview date. Another quirk of the HBS interview is the post-interview reflection: within 24 hours of the interview, candidates must submit a written reflection through HBS’ online application system. This post-interview reflection has a 300- to 450-word limit. The submission is due within 24 hours of completing your interview and it is a chance for you to make your final case to the admissions committee. |
| When Are HBS Interview Conducted? | On September 30, 2024, all Round 1 applicants will receive an update on their interview status via their HBS application portals. On October 1, interview candidates will be invited to choose a date for their interview. Interviews will be held from October through to mid-November. Round 2 applicants typically receive interview invites around the end of January or beginning of February. Interviews are typically conducted from February through the beginning of March. |
We have said that Harvard Business School uses a similar approach in its interviews as it does in its classrooms. This means that they won’t ask the same, standard questions that many top MBA admissions committees use. The point is, partially, to keep applicants on their toes and try to figure out how you handle giving impromptu responses in a high-pressure environment.
And it is worth noting that the subject of the case study in the interview is, in fact, you. Harvard always conducts its interviews with one or two members of the AdCom, as opposed to some other top business schools that will use alumni and others to help with the process. As a result, they will have always read your application in full and many of their questions are tailored to your HBS application specifically.
As if this very challenging, rapid-fire interview format weren’t stressful enough, HBS interviews often begin earlier than you might think they do. Because interviews are held in hub cities around the country, they will often be at a corporate office or a hotel, and you will need to be on your game from the moment you walk through the door.
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HBS admissions officers will often check on little things before you even enter the room where the interview is taking place:
They may even try to throw you off by jumping straight from small talk about the weather in the hallway to a hard hitting question the moment you sit down at the interview table, like “when did you leave your last job?” These kinds of wild shifts are meant to weed out applicants that are too comfortable giving pat answers that they have practiced for hours.
It is notoriously difficult to get a handle on “standard” Harvard Business School interview questions. Looking at any list of sample questions will show you that they are both wide-ranging and markedly different than questions being asked in other top MBA program interviews:
In spite of this broad and somewhat random spread, there are three general categories of questions that you can prepare for within the Harvard Business School interview. The first category covers questions about you, as gleaned from your application. As we mentioned above, the HBS interviewers are thoroughly familiar with your application and you will often be asked to elaborate on a particular aspect of your background, especially where choices have been made:
These sorts of questions are asked to better understand your motivations. Along the same lines, the HBS MBA admissions board members will often go into a deep dive on a project you listed on your resume, with many follow-up questions designed to cut through canned responses, getting to the heart of your decisions and values.
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The second category of HBS interview questions tends to include standard MBA interview questions but with a twist that tries to catch the applicant off-guard. A good example comes in the question: “what would your 5 closest friends say about you and why?” That’s not all that different from “describe yourself,” but it forces you to give a fresh answer and, as a result, step outside your comfort zone. Similarly, instead of asking “what’s your biggest weakness?” they might ask “what’s an area that, no matter how hard you work, you can’t seem to improve?”
The third category of questions relates to the industries you are working in or plan to go into. They want to see that their applicants are knowledgeable about their past and current roles and have carefully considered where they hope to end up. If you say, “I’d like to work in the tech sector” they might follow up with “what are your top five dream companies and why?”
The line of questioning in this category might also cover the implications of major mergers or legislation on an industry. For a while, most healthcare sector professionals were asked about the implications of the Affordable Care Act. They want specifics backed up by the kind of understanding that a working professional in the field should have.
Of course, because HBS likes nothing more than to catch its applicants off-guard, the last category includes random, screwball questions. David White, co-founder of Menlo Coaching, recalls an applicant a few years ago who was grilled about how Home Depot ships porcelain toilets all over the country without breaking them. The applicant was a private equity investor who had no history of investing in either Home Depot or toilet manufacturers. There might be some truly bizarre questions like this in your interview.
On September 30, HBS applicants will receive a notification that they have:
HBS applicants who receive a notification that their application is under “Further Consideration” often wonder whether to celebrate or not. While this might not be exactly the good news you’re hoping for, this is still a positive result! Harvard Business School is not shy about rejecting applicants it is no longer interested in admitting, so this is not a rejection!
Applicants who receive a Further Consideration update will be given an opportunity to provide the admissions committee with an update in Round 2. During this time, candidates should attempt to improve their profile by taking on additional responsibility at work, improving their test scores, or increasing their community involvement.
Over-preparing for specific questions is absolutely the wrong tactic to take. Because HBS interviewers want to make sure that their applicants can handle the Harvard case study method, they abhor comfortable, well-practiced answers. You are better off, then, practicing for an interview that requires rapid tonal shifts and strange tangents. Even their pre-interview scare tactics aren’t particularly hard to deal with if one knows they might be coming.
In terms of answering questions, the best approach in the lead-up is to get comfortable with the many different ways that a question might be asked. Learn to get to your point quickly and practice assessing what an interviewer really wants to know when they ask a question in a strange or novel manner. You should absolutely be familiar with everything in your application. Don’t take for granted the idea that a minor job or activity won’t become the AdCom’s pet obsession for the half hour. Take the oddball questions in stride and, while you can’t actually anticipate what you will be asked, try to anticipate how to keep your cool when you are asked something unexpected. You might not know how Home Depot ships its toilets, but you should take the question seriously if it comes up.
In the end, the purpose of preparing for the Harvard MBA interview is to become skilled in giving impromptu responses from a place of self-knowledge and thoughtfulness. If you can keep pace with your HBS interviewer, you are likely ahead of the game.
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