[adabass]

Hi all,

I am applying to some B schools which do not hold interviews in my country of residence. So, the option for me is to select telephonic interview. However, i am not convinced if that is the right choice for an interview.

What has been puy's experience on this? I would also like to hear your point of view on this.

[coolmayank123]

Originally Posted by adabass

Hi all,

I am applying to some B schools which do not hold interviews in my country of residence. So, the option for me is to select telephonic interview. However, i am not convinced if that is the right choice for an interview.

What has been puy's experience on this? I would also like to hear your point of view on this.

U R ABSOLUTELY CORRECT IN UR OBSERVATION!

Always avoid telephonic interviews if possible..specially if you are good looking (I mean that).

However, quite often than not, u will have to choose telephonic interviews..dont panic...there are hordes of people who get through via this route...just prepare well!

However, during the phone interview make sure u let the interviewer know that u couldnt appear for a face to face because of unavoidable circumstances...even if the school doesnt hold face to face in ur country and the interviewer will know that....dont assume anything...let the interviewer know how sorry u feel that u couldnt meet the adcom/alum personally...else the adcom is bound to get an impression that u didint make that extra effort to meet them.

My two cents.

[Nishant23]

Majority of People who dont live in Americas have to do with telephonic interviews. Though a bit of disadvantage it will not earn u a reject. Schools know that travelling to US just for the sake of Interviews is simply not practical. and remember majority of your pool would be having telephonix intvs

[coolmayank123]

Originally Posted by Nishant23

Majority of People who dont live in Americas have to do with telephonic interviews. Though a bit of disadvantage it will not earn u a reject. Schools know that travelling to US just for the sake of Interviews is simply not practical. and remember majority of your pool would be having telephonix intvs

Couple of fundamental errors mate if u r looking at say the top 15 schools...:

1)

From ur post I gather that u believe there are just two forms of interviews
A) face to face with the adcom in the country where the b school is located
B) Telephonic

Well, that is an incorrect notion. There are two other modes of face to face interviews, meant specially for international students:
C) Interview with the adcom when they come down visiting the country where u are located...also known as HUB inteviews.
D) Alumni interviews in your home country (most common form prevalent)

So, you don't need to travel all the way to the US to appear in front of the adcom...there are few exceptions (such as Harvard Business School) since most of the good schools have alums worldwide.

The order of preferece is always (there is just one exception....if you know the alum who interviews u before hand, which almost certainly never happens, alum interview might be better than HUB interviews) as follows:

A>C>>>D>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>B

Let me assure you mate, if you get iv calls from the top schools and u dont make the effort to arrange for a face to face...ur chances of getting rejected is extremely high...always keep that in mind. Telephonic interview should be chosen only when you have no other option..period.

2) As it follows from the previous point, you are right that majority of international applicants have tlephonic interviews...let me also assure you that majority of these applicants end up getting rejected..those who get selected (yes, there are lottsa them) are people who just didnt have any other option and made sure the adcom knew about it.

One of the mosttttttttttttt important factors that the elite and the ultra elite schools look at is your looooove for the school...how passionate u r about joining her and mingling into the culture. And telephonic interviews alwayscome in the way of projecting the love.

My two cents.

[MartianOnEarth]

Originally Posted by adabass

Hi all,

I am applying to some B schools which do not hold interviews in my country of residence. So, the option for me is to select telephonic interview. However, i am not convinced if that is the right choice for an interview.

What has been puy's experience on this? I would also like to hear your point of view on this.

Another aspect worth thinking about. There are some schools (usually smaller batch size) that don't encourage alumni interviews. They prefer having their adcomm team or profs interviewing every single candidate, to ensure uniformity in terms of the selection criteria. It's easier for (say) 5 people to define and understand what they are looking for rather than 100 alums spread across the globe.

However, the general rule still goes. If you can interview in person, go for it. Otherwise, don't kill yourself for having to choose a telephonic interview as a fallback option. Better than not getting an interview call at all, right?

[Nishant23]

@Coolmayank : Sorry if i failed to make myself clear. Face to face interviews are the best. But my impression of question was travelling to America to have an interview. It was in that respect that i framed my answer.
If you are living in Pune and you cannot travel to Mumbai to give an Alum interview, that obviously will hurt your chances. But if you are living in say Burma. Chances of Alum being present there are low. Hence a telephonic interview wont go against you.
But in India i guess most of schools would have Alumns or travelling current students to take interviews.

[coolmayank123]

Originally Posted by Nishant23

@Coolmayank : Sorry if i failed to make myself clear. Face to face interviews are the best. But my impression of question was travelling to America to have an interview. It was in that respect that i framed my answer.
If you are living in Pune and you cannot travel to Mumbai to give an Alum interview, that obviously will hurt your chances. But if you are living in say Burma. Chances of Alum being present there are low. Hence a telephonic interview wont go against you.
But in India i guess most of schools would have Alumns or travelling current students to take interviews.

No worries.

[connectansh]

Hi Mayank and Martian,
Thank you for your insights. I will surely make an extra effort to meet adcoms of Business Schools i want to apply to now on. I am planning to attend the QS World MBA tour in Delhi on July, 11. What would be the best way to maximize the value of attending such an event in your opinion?

By the way, belated congrats to Mayank on your admit to inarguably the most famous Business School in the cosmos

[adabass]

Thanks. Well, I am IN US and the B school is at Hyderabad. The trouble is that they do not have any interview locations in US, so that only way I can appear face to face is if I do it in Hyderabad (or other Indian location).

CoolMayank - Did you travel to US for your interview?

[coolmayank123]

Originally Posted by adabass

Thanks. Well, I am IN US and the B school is at Hyderabad. The trouble is that they do not have any interview locations in US, so that only way I can appear face to face is if I do it in Hyderabad (or other Indian location).

CoolMayank - Did you travel to US for your interview?

I assumed, in ur original post u were referring to US/UK schools. My prior post was specific for the top notch schools in US/UK.

For ISB, I think telephonic for an international candidate should be just fine. However, in our pg discussions during the apping season last year, I did come across people who travelled to India from the US of A.

Yes, I travelled to the US for the interview. I even had an invite from Chicago and used the time well to club both my interviews.