How to get a job at your favourite company

With MBA recruitment in full swing, having been on both sides of the table now, I thought I’d share some thoughts. This would be most helpful for those seeking Industry employment because this is where I come from.

On campus recruitment is brutal. All the companies come at the same time and you have to attend 5 presentations in one afternoon and then submit 10 applications in one night. Career services gives you helpful, but often conflicting advice (“Focus on what you want”, “Don’t put all the eggs in one basket”). But their goals are slightly different from yours: they need as many of you employed as possible while you want to get your dream job, whatever “dream” means for you.

Why is it that some of your classmates collecting multiple offers while others are left with nothing? Because on campus recruitment is aimed at picking superstars (superstar CV, superstar story-telling/analytical/case-cracking skills). This is bad from the candidate’s perspective, and this is bad from the company perspective as well (we are going after the same small group of people ignoring the larger pool of brilliant folks who don’t know how to sell themselves).

So – how do you stand out?

First, think, in 20 years time, who do you want to be? An automotive executive? A clean-tech energy expert? A brand strategist? An entrepreneur (in which field)? A partner at consulting firm? A retired banker? Pick a few if you cannot decide and work backwards on what steps you need to take you there. I know, this is not a quick fix. But you will have to prioritise. If energy is not on your short list, don’t apply to Shell. Even if they have a great rotational program and pay above market rate.

Second, research the sector. Who are the main players, where the market is going, what the challenges and opportunities are, who the disruptors are. People who work in the industry live and breathe it  every day, and your research (or lack of it) will be very apparent in the interview. But we are not at the interview stage yet.

Third, identify the companies. Find the contacts you may have in these companies (friends, current students, alumni contacts, LinkedIn 2^nd degree acquaintances). What roles they have? What background are they coming from? Is there someone there who has a similar background to you? Where do employees in the company come from (which companies or sectors – is there anything you can do in the interim to strengthen your CV)? Reach out to these people. Ask for a coffee or phone conversation. Suggest you come to their office (you can get an office tour and it shows your dedication). Don’t wait to reach out until you have an interview invite. The earlier you do it the better. Alums often participate in CV screening.

Don’ts

• Don’t send the same email to all the alums in the same company. Personalise. Guess what? We talk to each other.
• Don’t write a long email with a long list of questions. You can outline 2-3 questions, but suggest a personal meeting (or a phone call if they have no time). Give them a couple of options, if you have a deadline – share it.

Fourth, when you get to the meeting, have good questions. This is where your sector research comes in handy. You are there to learn about the company and culture, the application and the interview process, not to become their best buddies. Get the best use of the time you have.

Fifth, let your career services know of your interest in specific companies. They talk to the company recruiters. Sometimes they can help get you on the shortlist if you don’t make the initial cut.

Finally, you don’t need to attend the company presentation if you have done the steps above. By this stage you will know enough about the company and culture to be able to write a good cover letter. And half of your classmates will quote the presentation anyway. 

Oh yes, good cover letter. If the company asks for cover letter – write a cover letter. If you don’t, it will come and bite you. Even if you get the first round interview, there is always competition for the second round, and I bet the person who gets through have written the cover letter.

There are brilliant cover letters, OK cover letters and bad cover letters. 

Brilliant cover letters usually have the names of people you’re spoken to, share your personal connection and passion for the company, and (bonus points) are written in the company style (i.e., using the language employees use). These are the letters that get me excited. 

OK cover letters are usually the ones from the common template: I am interested in position X. Here are three paragraphs about my skills that you mentioned in your company presentation (you see – I’ve been there!). I am interested in working at your company because you are X. These ones are respectable. If you have a strong CV these will not shoot you down. If your CV is not relevant to the company, you've missed your chance to get an interview.

Bad cover letters are bad in different ways. Check for the do's and don’ts below.

Do's

• Spellcheck. Not just MS Word, but actually read it (and your CV too). Every third Spanish speaker is “costumer focused” (rather than “customer focused”).

Don’ts

• Don’t write too long or too short cover letter. Good size is between 1/5 - 2/3 of a page.
• Don’t focus your letter on one specific topic. Even if you are passionate about one specific product or recent news about the company, mention it once and then use the space for something else. After all, you are telling your story, not reciting our press release.
• Don’t extract a fact about the company from 1999 case from HBS and tell us that this is what makes us real innovators. In fact, don’t play back the marketing message the company gave you – find out what the company employees are actually focusing on and play that back.

Interview. Probably worth a separate post, but to round it up. Things that make you stand out: energy, passion and knowledge of the sector and company. And good stories from your past experiences: where you succeeded and where you screwed up (and what you learnt from it). Also, know yourself. If you are generally loud, tone it down a bit (your interviewer has probably seen 5 other candidates before you). If you are quiet, tone it up: have some Coke, and don’t conceal your interest and passion.

If you don’t get the job – seek feedback. Reach out to the recruiter, ask what you can improve. Reach out to the contacts you spoke to. Some of them may be able to get you an unofficial feedback. There will be other roles later – 6 or 12 months down the line (or even years – good research and contacts pay off, if this is indeed the sector you want to be in long-term). Figure out what was missing and try to bridge the gap by getting the experience in other companies. After all, your career is a long-term game. And this is just one step on the long and successful roadtrip.

Happy job hunting!

1st year is over

Had my last lecture of the term today. Three final exams are still due. And after them, on Sunday morning I'm off to Switzerland for my summer internship.
I hope I will have time there to share my first year experiences: about LBS life, recruitment, study groups... if anyone is still reading, stay tuned! :)

Peacocks, BP and Kevin Bacon

"Peacocks, BP and Kevin Bacon" read one of the slides we used today in group debate on Corporate Social Responsibility.
Confused? Let me then start afresh.




Each Monday morning our stream has Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. The best thing about the course this year is a group debate that is held each lecture on a separate topic.
For instance, last Monday two groups presented pros and cons of bribery (should a company use bribery when it operates in a country where bribery is common practice). And though the "pro" group brought chocolates for the whole audience, they lost. Sorry, guys, I voted for you :)
It looked like touchy-feely side won all the time. So when we gathered last week to prepare our presentation on the pro side of "The only social responsibility of a law-abiding business is to maximize shareholders' value" the general mood was: "There's no way we can win this, so why not have some fun?"
In order to prepare we had four group meetings, each time with a new central idea, including:
1) Milton Friedman (he is the father of "profit as the only social responsibility"),
2) The Godfather ("It's nothing personal, Sonny, it's strictly business"),
3) video with Warren Buffett giving his money to Gates foundation not as a businessman but as a person,
4) wheel of fortune ...
...and somehow ended up with peacocks (all the credit goes to the President of the Poker Club who presented it to us late on Sunday evening between two deals).

So what do peacocks, BP and Kevin Bacon have in common?
Basically peacocks use bright feathers to attract peahens. And modern companies use social responsibility to attract customers. And everything you can think of, even social responsibility, can be linked in less than 6 steps to Kevin Bacon- ahem, to Profit Maximization.
The "good" team that prepared slides independently was arguing that businesses should be socially responsible. Why? Well, because it's profitable to the companies... gotcha!
For the first time this term in our stream, "bad" guys has won the debate :)

Set your aspirations high

London Business School offers a challenging assignment for the first years: it is called the Shadow project. The student has to observe an executive for up to 5 days and write a report about the experience. And since now it is optional (luckily, for many) people come with all sort of creative ideas. One of my classmates wants to shadow Steve Jobs! All I can say is "Wow! Good luck, man!" and will follow his route to the destination with great interest :)

Away Day

We had our Away Day today: Streams A&B (~160 people) enjoyed the whole day of outdoor activities. I've been told that it's gonna be great, but I could never imagine how great!

The first task we did was to climb a 30 feet high pole in a group of four, stand on top of it and lean backwards, holding each other (to form so called "flower"). I passed every single stage from "Never-ever" to "OK, if everyone's gonna try I want to try it too". It turned out that the hardest part for me was actually climbing to the top: my left arm ached, I had doubts about my security rope and couldn't help thinking "How am I going to stand on top?". Did I mention that the pole was very shaky? But once I clambered there (I decided to go second and it was a good idea because there's nothing better than a friend's helping hand) the rest became easy: wait for other people to climb, hold tight, lean and then let go. I loved it!


The second task was similar: we had to climb the pole in pairs and jump from it together to a trapeze. If I haven't done the "flower" exercise I would never thought of trying this one. We did a spectacular leap, but barely touched trapeze with the tips. And some of my groupmates undertook two or three attempts! Could you imagine? Perfectionists! :)
The third task was to walk on ropes around a specially prepared area without touching the ground. In this case we needed to think of an algorithm since the necessary support ropes were in short supply.

After that we had to assemble a puzzle on time. The task was split: we had to figure out how to assemble the puzzle in the first place, then to make up a way of dismantling it and assembling back together and (last but not least!) do this as fast as possible. In the end we did it in 17 seconds, but I've heard there was another team who did it in 10!
And the last exercise was getting a "solution" for a blindfolded "client". The solution was in the middle of the "acid lake" which noone could go in. The only way to get there was build a rope system, and guide the blindfolded client towards the answer. A very hard exercise indeed and I was amazed how well out team did it!

We had very good briefings after each task and came up with insightful analysis. It was also very interesting to observe how people tend to react in challenging situations: some listen, some begin to express themselves (all at once), some take lead, some drop out, some propose the ideas, some just go and do it. Great way to find out more about your classmates (and yourself)!
This fantastic day ended with a training in juggling and a barbeque :)

Final number of students

Following my posts on admission figures and since this was a "hot" topic for some of you, here are some interesting figures from today's presentation by David Simpson.
Last year London Business School received about two thousand applications. They interviewed about half of that number. I haven't got a clue of how many people were admitted, but now we have 315 students in our class.

Settling in London

It’s been a week and a half since I am in London. And what a time it has been!

I arrived at Heathrow late on Monday evening and headed off to Russell Square for a weekly stay at the International Hall (I’ll write a comparison of that one to the International Student House in some later post, but shortly, if you can choose, pick International Hall). On Saturday I’ve signed the contract and moved to Angie’s place. Thanks to her, I’ve been saved from viewing a dozen of flats a day, like some of my classmates are doing right now. Talking of flat hunting: London Business School students organize pre-term fortnight of FlatHunters’ Pub Crawl.

What it’s like? It is two weeks of partying, meeting your future classmates (some 50-70 people show up every night), discovering new types of drinks (for instance, I tried Fruli and Pimm's, the latter is on the left), and practicing English. Yes, of course, people look for flatmates (we have nametags and those who are looking for flatmates draw a triangle on it) and share flat hunting experiences (like what agents are the best, how high the rent is this year). The strongest ones even go to a club afterwards: I know people who were doing that several nights in a row! Everyone seems to find flatmates really fast: last Tuesday there were lots of people looking for someone to share with – and most of them had flatmate when I talked to them on Wednesday.

The weather in London is rather cool and rainy (I haven’t used my umbrella during any of the previous visits – now I need it a lot and cannot help wondering if last ts I’ve only seen the “marketing” side of London, you know). But due to that I decided to go and visit some museums. So far I’ve been to the British museum (enjoyed the Asian collection there ad briefly visited others), National gallery (added Claude and Turner to the artists whose works I like) and Science museum (it’s awesome and also a paradise for kids).

What else?

• Bought a computer – Lenovo T60 with WinXP. I’ve relied on IBM laptops all my working life and never had any problems (so far so good).

• Opened an HSBC bank account: my appointment was scheduled a week after than my call to the bank and the whole process was nice and smooth and took about an hour.

• Had an assessment at LBS Fitness Centre and swam my usual 3km per week.

• Registered with the police.

• Found out how to make free calls to Moscow.

• Took an accounting textbook from the library and will make myself read three introductory chapters before the course start (but there are so many things happening here that I simply don’t have much time to sit and read).

• Tried Indian food for the first time and liked it!

Despite the fact that there are still some things to do (like registering with a GP), I’m feeling "all settled".
Orientation starts next week on Monday!

LBS reference verification checks process

London Business School performs reference verification checks for all of the admitted students. This year they sent e-mails to recommenders in the end of July.

To my mind this is strange because of two things:
1) July-August are holiday months, so most people are away and unable to reply promptly.
2) It's too late to perform any actual checks. Suppose they find something about someone - and the person has already paid a big amount of fees, resigned from job, got visa, moved to London...

This process is not advertised and I only discoverd that because one of my recommenders had changed a job, so his e-mail was no longer valid and I got a request of his current address from admission officer. I submitted the new e-mail and of course wrote\called all of my four recommenders.

You may wonder why am I talking about four recommenders while the school requires just two recommendations? And no, my recommenders don't do extreme programming ;) (for eXtreme Programmers a common practice is to work in pairs). I got two recommenders last year and two more the year before that. That's probably why some schools do not like reapplicants - they have to perform double amount of checks on them :)

Two recommenders replied to the school, before they got my e-mails.
Two others returned from holidays, made a heroic attempt to scan their "in" and "spam" folders (you may imagine how many letters a high-level manager would have after two or three weeks away) and... haven't found anything LBS-confirmation-related there. Both of them were the recent recommenders... you see the pattern too, don't you?
So I wrote to admission officer asking [for trouble] her whether the remaining confirmations were needed, and she sent the long-awaited e-mails. Hopefully the replies will fly back next Monday - the same day when I head to London myself.

Exemption exam in Business Statistics

Small number of posts lately doesn't mean nothing interesting is happening with me. Just the opposite! That's why I'm finally posting this after midnight on Sunday :)

This time I wanted to write about exemption exams at London Business School.
The School gives us 4 options:

• Managerial Economics (by Masters degree in Economics)
• Financial Accounting (by an appropriate professional qualification in Accounting)
• Business Statistics (by eligibility test)
• IT for Business Value (by exam in Autumn Semester)

All current students recommend to exempt as much as you can.
I cannot get away from Economics and Accounting, so I applied for the Statistic test in the beginning of July, was one of the first to get it and started solving right away (only two weeks time for the test).
I didn't have a text book (Mik Wisniewski Quantitative Methods for Decision Makers), but I was armed with *rusty-dusty* prior knowledge of statistics and internet connection.

If you are (or will be) in the same shoes, have a look at the following links:

• Useful Java applet to check your Z-table figures
• Hypothesis test (also with Java applet) and one more explanation
• Calculation of portfolio variance (my favourite task so far)
• Regression applet in MS Excel: how to work with and how to interpret (*.ppt)
• And Wikipedia for every unknown term

To my *mathematical* mind the test was rather hard. Results will be out in the end of August and I'll let you know how I did.

The world works funny

Lately I’ve been searching through the LBS booklets I have at home. In one of them I found a letter (“thank you for you interest in…”) which I received about two years ago. The “Ref. Number” on it seemed strangely familiar. I’ve checked it with my acceptance letter… and it turned out that that is my current student number! (Wow! Who could have imagined that all the history is stored?)

Another funny story is about my application for Chevening Scholarship. I applied for it in two subsequent years. First year I got my rejection straight in November, with original of my diploma. This year I didn’t have a straight feedback. As time went by and all deadlines passed, I understood that this year application was not successful either. So I wrote a number of e-mails to British Council officer asking to send me the rejection letter, which I will need as a proof for future scholarship applications.

In beginning of April I phoned the lady and begged her to send me the letter.

I got it yesterday (exactly when I no longer needed it), but the letter itself was quite interesting. It contained my diploma and some other docs from my application which meant that they haven’t sent me this letter earlier and it hasn’t been lost in the depth of Russian post office which I always blame (ah, this reminds me of an anecdote I will post as a footnote). But the letter – the letter said: “Thank you for your interview for Chevening scholarship. However, we are sorry to inform you…”

I haven’t received an interview invitation, neither attended one. And it makes me wonder – who were they interviewing and why this person did so badly and haven’t won me a scholarship? :)

--- anecdote ---

A week before Christmas a post office received a letter addressed to “Santa Claus”. Since there was no address, the officers opened it and read:

‘Dear Santa Claus,

I leeve in orphanage and now winter came and I have no worm clothz. It is very, very cold now and I can not play with my frends outsaid. Pleaze, can you brin me a Christmas prezent a coat, a hat, glovz and boots? Thank you, thank you, thank you…’

The officers were so touched that they chipped in for the present from their low wages and were able to buy a coat, a hat and boots for the boy. They send that as a present from Santa Claus and a week later another letter came from that very boy. They all gathered to read it out loud:

‘Dear Santa Claus,

Thank you very mush for you prezent. I am warm now I got yor coat and boots and hat. I have not got glovz, but this is sure becoz bad guyz at the post ofis stole them…’

Loan, accommodation and other things

Instead of having a week holiday during which I planned to complete my loan application, I spent two weeks in bed with quinsy. Speaking of the bright side – this reminded me that most of the pills and medicine in London can only be bought with a doctor prescription. Thus I compiled a list of my favorite medicines to take with me. Mental note: I will also need to think of a list of all other things I will bring to UK and squeeze it to the minimum (postpone until July).

I haven’t submitted the loan application yet, but I hope to send it next week. It turned out that the account statement couldn’t be notarized if the officer who signed it didn’t write her post. So I had to take the already translated document back to the bank (in another city), find the lady who signed it and ask her to put a stamp with her post on the paper. And then take it back to the notary and wait for another couple of days…

I have also thought about accommodation.

As one of the first year students pointed out, LBS offers 33 places in London University accommodation. The biggest minus is lack of cooking facilities in most of the rooms (I prefer not to eat in a dining room – been there, tasted that, didn’t like it).

Since I have no more than 10% chances of getting the university accommodation, a backup is needed. Flathunter’s Pub Crawl will help – and I have joined the group of volunteers who will organize it!

There are a lot of things going on the LBS Portal. The most interesting one is the topic called “Getting to know you!” where my fellow classmates give a short presentation about themselves. Judging from it I will study with a group of very interesting and diverse people!

Looking ahead there are three things I have to start thinking about: short term accommodation, flight and visa.

I can book accommodation right now. London University International Hall offers rooms for 18 pounds a day. But if I postpone this until later, I can only count on other universities and the price will be 30 pounds a day. Or maybe I will be able to have a sublet room from one of the fellow students? (Any offers for 13-26 of August? ;))

I can fly with Aeroflot or British Airways. Aeroflot flies at a convenient time (arrival on 1 p.m.), but only allows 20kg of free baggage. BA flies at inconvenient time (arrival on 6 a.m. or 11 p.m.), but allows 32kg of free baggage. As far as I understand I won’t have student discounts yet since ISIC will be valid from September 2007.

I will apply for the visa as soon as my passport is ready. I have confirmed with fellow students that I do not need to show the consulate the money for the whole course (fee + living expenses). This means I do not need the outcome of the loan and scholarship applications.

Speaking of scholarships I really need to start writing the essays. There’s only one month before deadline left (OMG!). But I use every opportunity to procrastinate (like writing this post!)

Reflections on LBS R2 admission statistics

As a follow up to my post about R1 admission figures I decided to post some R2 admission figures and to think about how many places are left for R3 & R4 (please keep in mind that I am not a member of adcom so my suppositions may be completely wrong).
As one of my future classmates pointed out, admits are not be allowed to disclose the actual figures and other information from the portal (I've skipped the agreement first time I logged in, because I wanted to see the portal itself), so I put up some diagrams without any figures.

In R1 and R2 nearly an equal number of people were admitted:If we compare the actual number of people who confirmed their R1 admission (including those from waitlist) with the number of R2 admits, the diagram will change:
So... let's suppose that the yield of R2 will be, say, 60%... and no one from R1 & R2 defers their admission... and the class size will be 320... then the number of places for R3 & R4 applicants will be as following:


By the way, current female rate is 26%.

UPD: Last year figures in Angie's post.

Congratulations to R2 LBS admits!

London Business School issued decisions on the R2 admits yesterday and I would like to say "welcome!" to everyone who is in. Special greatings to Mitokondrion :)
And I hope more LBS blogs & bloggers will appear soon ;)

Congratulations to Natasha who has been admitted to Darden - you've earned that admission, girl! Well done :)

I have a mentor now

London Business School has a practice of assigning mentors to the freshly admitted students.
I've got a letter today (been wondering about who my mentor would be from the mid-January)... and... guess, who is it?

Hints:
1. She is from the same country (this is a good common practice)
2. She is a blogger
OK-OK you've probably already guessed: this is Genie!
:)

Reapplication: How I did it

A number of people asked me to share my magic recipes and though there is no magic and there are no recipes I have decided to share some thoughts on reapplication process. Every little helps :)

So...
First step you have to do is think whether you really need an MBA. You now have a list of goals (5 and 20 years plan). Why not begin fulfilling them now? (Just think what would you do if all the business schools in the world suddenly vanished?)
If you fail without an MBA - you'll have more convincing future story for adcoms. But if you succeed, you might not need to write a story at all. Your biographer will do it for you.

OK, you're definite to try again (next round or next year).
Second step - get feedback from adcoms.
There are three possible replies:

1. Change yourself (strengthen part of your application, align your goals, etc)
   
2. Change the essays (adcoms haven't fully understood something in your essays)
   
3. Change nothing (you were unlucky and someone got there earlier than you)

You'd better ask and know for sure, before addressing what-you-think-your-weaknesses-are.

Next steps - work on the feedback. Get a new job, launch a new club, travel or learn a new language. Visit the schools. Talk to students and alumni. Go to conferences and tours. Learn about the opportunities various schools can offer, try to find the best fit. Based on that re-evaluate your first choice school. To my mind when you know the school and like it, all the process is much easier.
And don't forget to save a lot of courage and energy before the next try.

I've tried all this on myself. I've changed a job (to the one that gave me new skills and international exposure). I've worked on my weaknesses (working experience and career goals). I've found more powerful recommenders (general manager at the previous workplace and current supervisor). I've read a lot. I've met with people. As a result I wrote stronger essays (and expressed more commitment to the School).

If you really want to know the way... here it is: passion, hard work and a bit of luck.

Good luck to you too!

UPD: There's a very good article by Paul Graham: 'Two Kinds of Judgement'. I suppose it will give you courage for the next attempt :)

R1 admission statistics

Search on the LBS Portal gives 179 R1 admits (including people who deferred from the last year). In 2006 according to Angie's post there were 140 admits at the time. Rumor says that applications were up 50% in R1, so adcoms probably had hard time crossing out the applicants. Female rate is 28%.

Anyway I know that some people are waiting for acceptance letters from other schools, so there is hope for waitlisted candidates. And good luck to all R2 applicants!

UPD: The number of R1 admits has dropped to 129, so the yield this year is 72% in first round.
UPD2: As Marcelo pointed out, the number of MBA admits has risen to 150 - probably those are the people from the wait list - welcome on board! :)

LBS - I am in!

Yes, I have an offer :)))

So... what's next?

First, I will wait for my "offer pack" to arrive and see if there's something interesting in there.
Angie said in the BusinessWeek forums that last year LBS had notified annual fund scholarship recipients by phone on the day the offers were issued (and I've never heard anyone from Russia receive this scholarship), but still...
Then I will celebrate :). Anyone in Moscow who wants to get in touch - drop me an e-mail!
And then I will pay my commitment fee. Dollar is falling - damn! so it is better to pay sooner than later.

Congratulations to fellow admits! Hope to see you soon on the Portal :)
I wish patience to the 'waitlist' candidates. If you really want to go to LBS, I think, you'll be able to. I know a couple of candidates who were admitted, but are waiting for other offers ;)
All of those, who didn't get in this year - don't be upset and keep struggling. If you really want it - you will make it, I know.

LBS interview experience

I had my interview yesterday and I enjoyed it immensely.
It was a kind of unexpected, so I didn’t have time to become scared (that’s a plus).
We had previously agreed to meet during the weekend, but my interviewer phoned me yesterday morning and asked whether I could come the same very day (he sent me an e-mail on Tuesday night that his plans had changed, but I received it only after his call). I said: “Yes, of course, if you don’t mind seeing me in jeans”. He didn’t mind (and thus missed the opportunity to see me in blue-suit-white-chemise-and-tie :)).
Such “unexpectedness” meant that I didn’t rehearse my answers and didn’t prepare for all of the tough questions. But there were not as many tough questions as I expected (no “ethical” ones, no “tell me how your team failed”). Nearly the first thing the interviewer told me was “Forget about the structure you have probably prepared. It will be more like a normal conversation”.
We planned to talk for about an hour, but ended up with more than 2 hours. I only wish I could steal a little more of his time, because the last part (my questions about his experience) was rather short. Well, it was late, middle of the week, he still had work to do, and his family was waiting for him.

So let’s get to the practical part now.
Interview was conducted in English. He received my current application, essays and CV. No recommendation letters or even the recommenders’ titles, no last year application.
He was curious “what were those huge improvements and changes that made adcoms consider you this year” so we talked about my last year aspirations as well.
I wasn’t asked about Life and Universe and Everything (I mean why MBA, why NOW, why LBS), but this question loomed in the air.
What I was asked:

• Your short-term and long-term goals. How LBS curriculum will help you fulfilling them? What skills do you think you need?
• How did you like your visit to school and what was your take-away from the lectures you visited?
• What project would you choose with your study group at LBS if you were at the point of choosing? What role in the group would you play?
• How would you choose between different schools if you were in such situation? (what would be the base for your decision?)
• What it the difference between firms at which you are targeting?
• Tell me about your current industry, its main players. How do you see the perspectives of this industry?
• What would you do if not admitted?
• How you plan to finance your studies if admitted?
• How do you lead? Describe a recent experience. Any lessons learned from it?
• Your three good traits from your colleagues’ point of view? Three bad traits? (that was a tough one)

We got into the details of some of my essays. Talked about my work, current project and international experience.
At the end the interviewer gave me a presentation topic. It was close to my heart so I hope I was able to handle it well. In the meantime I ruined a whiteboard in the conference room, because the highlighter turned out to be non-erasable (The interviewer promised to send me a bill for the board to clear my conscience, so that’s OK ;))

In the end I don’t know what impression I’ve made. On my way home I thought of thousands of better and well-structured answers. But I enjoyed every minute of the interview, I believe this is what really matters.
Let’s wait for the 19th of December and see what the school will say.

Good luck to those of you who are preparing for their interviews.
For those in Moscow don’t forget that LBS is giving an information session this Saturday – hope to meet you all there!

LBS interview invite!

Yes, I have one!

I am delighted to inform you that based on the strength of your initial application you have been selected for interview by the MBA Admissions Committee.

WooHoo!

UPD: The interview must be scheduled until 8th December and the admission decision will be on the 19th of December.

LBS application submitted!

I am done with application and essays for London Business School. Feeling I have written much stronger application this year:

• Recommenders are the most V.I.P. guys from those who know me – check.
• Essays have just the right proportion of everything – check.
• Definitely much more commitment – check :)
• I even included a couple of jokes!

If I myself were on admission’s committee this year I would consider me worth a try.
Thank you everyone, whom I have talked to and whose blogs influenced my writing. Special thanks to Angie and Divine Miss N!

No other Round One schools for me. What a relief! I will have a decent weekend! How I love this application process for the overwhelming joy of life after “submit”!
I have missed lots of b-school events because of writing during the last two weeks. And though they are gone and I cannot have World MBA tour or Chicago Women Meeting back… I won’t regret. Next week is all planned for going out with friends!

The interview decision (or ding) will be available on the 17th of November.