I was invited to interview with the London Business School a few weeks ago.

The interviewer was a consultant at one of the big firms in Dubai (pre-MBA he was a banker). The interview took place on the weekend at his firm’s offices in a conference room (he was on an assignment out of town and so scheduling it on a weekend was the only option).

The male interviewer was probably around my age, LBS class of 2006 and so the tone of the interview was markedly different to my others where the interviewers were much more senior to me (in terms of both age and career). The tone was more that of two peers than interviewer-interviewee.

The interview also differed in that the interviewer had my full application (apart from references) and not just my resume. He had some highlighted questions on my essays and experience which were the typical MBA q’s:

• Why an MBA and why now?
• Leadership examples;
• Why London (and in particular how did LBS fit in with the other schools I had applied to)?
• Some specific questions about my business and the specific market challenges we had encountered;
• Drilled down a little on my target industry and in particular on the market dynamics of that industry (media).

LBS interviews have a presentation component to them. My interviewer chose a topic from a list provided to him and gave me a few minutes to prepare for a 5 minute oral presentation. My topic was on the potential effects of digital technologies on the music industry – a topic I have a lot to say about!

Unfortunately, though, my presentation was a little all over the place. It didn’t have enough structure and I ran way over time (make sure you are wearing a watch!), but I think you are being judged more in presentation skills / demeanor etc than on content.

We had time at the end for me to ask questions about his LBS experience. We touched on whether he new he wanted to go into consulting (no – he went in thinking he would continue in banking), we delved into his shadowing experience (very interesting – sounds like a cool part of the LBS program if you find the right person to shadow), the LBS alumni network in the region (not quite as big and active as other schools). He knew a few of my LBS friends who we talked about a little as well.

All in all, the interview ran for about an hour (pretty similar to the others) and the interviewer and I had a good rapport going at the end. He’s definitely someone I would like to stay in touch with.