Berkeley Haas MIF Interviews

Berkeley Haas MIF Interviews

Berkeley Haas MIF interviews, since they are conducted by alumni, tends to be slightly friendlier than interviews conducted by the admissions committee. Nonetheless, the interviewer is still trying to gauge how solid your motivations for wanting to pursue finance are, how interested you seem in the Haas program, and if you fit well with the program’s famous defining principles.

Interviewers often ask many standard course related interview questions, as well as questions designed to test how well you handle diversity and conflict. You can also expect numerous follow-up questions. If you are able to interview on-campus, however, there is a high chance your interview will take place with a second-year student. If you’re interviewing off-campus, you will most likely interview with an alumnus.

In certain rare cases, you may be asked to interview with an alumnus via Skype if the school is unable to find enough available interviewers in your area. Interview will last for 45-60 minutes.The Haas interview is blind, meaning the alumni interviewer will only have access to your CV.

Berkeley Haas MIF Frequently Asked Interview Questions

1. Walk us through your resume.
2. Tell me something not present on your resume
3. Why Haas?
4. If you were admitted, how will you contribute to your peer group at Haas?
5. Where do you see yourself immediately after finishing education? What are your long term goals?
6. Tell me about a time when you were given constructive feedback. How did you respond?
7. Tell me about the transition from position X to Y. They seem very different.
8. Have you ever experienced conflict with someone on your team? How did you resolve it?
9. Tell me about a time when you were in a team that failed.
10. Tell me about your experience managing people. Have you managed direct reports?
11. What kind of leader are you?
12. What would you change about your company if you were CEO?
13. Tell me about challenges you’ve faced you have faced at your workplace and how you resolved them?
14. Tell me about a time when you met with resistance in a professional setting, either with a team or a person.
15. Which book are you currently reading? Why did you choose it?
16. Tell us something that you wished you could do differently?

Berkeley Haas MIF Interview Questions – 1

I interviewed with a first year student, on UC Berkeley Haas’ campus. All in all, it was a pretty relaxed, conversational and even fun experience. She started off by introducing herself and her background and explaining how the interview was going to go. Then we jumped in the questions:

1. Tell me about yourself
2. Follow-up question: She asked if I use any of the skills from my previous job in my current role
3. Why go back to school?
   • I took this as the Why an MIF/why now, but she did tell me when she first asked the question that we would get more into this later in the interview, so I used it as an opportunity to state my goals and why now it was a good time and why the MIF was the best degree, briefly touching on the specifics, but I had a chance to really explain why an MIF at Haas later on.

Then, she told me that she had a few required questions and read them off a piece of paper, which were:

1. Tell me about a challenge that you’ve faced, either personally or professionally, and what lessons you learned from it
   • Follow-up: how have I applied these lessons elsewhere in my life.
2. Tell me about a weakness (personal trait)
3. How have you promoted diversity/equity in your workplace or in other areas of your life?
4. The “official” Why an MIF, and why Haas?

Then she got back to other questions:

1. Describe a time when you had to convince someone of something at work or in another activity you’ve been involved with
2. Describe your leadership style
3. What clubs and activities would you get involved with?
4. Tell me about an accomplishment that is not on your resume
5. Any questions for me?

Berkeley Haas MIF Interview Questions – 2

I must say my  personal interview with Haas b school was one of the best interviews I have ever taken. I had already visited Haas campus previously and this time I asked if it is possible to have an off campus interview. The interviewer agreed and I paired with an alum of Haas for the interview. The atmosphere was really very good. Questions asked during the interview are as follows:

1. Tell me something about yourself which is not mentioned in your resume.
2. Till date you might have taken a lot of decisions in your life and career. Which one you are most proud of?
3. Discuss about a time when you were a part of a group of peers & you failed to meet your objective. How did you deal with this?
4. Tell me your views on the economy (where the markets are headed, Greece, Facebook IPO, how does a company have a sustainable competitive advantage, etc.)
5. If you get admitted to Haas, how are you going to contribute to Berkeley Haas?
6. Tell me something about the non-profit organization co-founded by you that has been mentioned in your application.
7. Tell me about a challenge you have faced at your work.
8. Do you have any questions for me?
   So, overall I had a very good Berkeley Haas interview experience.