Yes, we are getting lots of questions. And your questions have actually been helpful as we put the finishing touches on this exercise. Here's where we are now - and some thinking behind it.
This is NOT another essay. We want your response to be much more like an email. Why? In the Real World, it is unlikely that you will be given months and months to craft essays of any sort. It just doesn't happen. In the Real World, it is almost a sure thing that you will be asked to write emails summarizing meetings and giving your opinion in a short time frame. Since HBS tries to be as "close to practice" as possible, this shift from essays to more real time writing feels appropriate.
I know this is hard to hear but this should NOT be a cause for anxiety. We want your genuine reaction to the interview experience. As is always the case in the Real World, this means there is no right answer to the question. There is no formula, no template. But, we can tell you what the WRONG approach is: to get lots of coaching and prepare the response in September for an interview in November. To have lots of people edit and tweak it. To avoid answering the question but instead jam in six more accomplishments or copy and paste an essay from another school. Please understand that we really do plan to be very generous and kind about typos and grammar. We're not looking for a polished response.
We'll continue to have our webinars which are about the application process in general. We welcome your questions and will do our absolute best to be as clear as possible as we get closer to interview season.
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Whats your opinion?
- This is the question that all interviewees will be asked: "You've just had your HBS interview. Tell us about it. How well did we get to know you?"
- There will be no word limit.
- We think the instruction memo will look something like this: "This is not an essay. Think of this as an email you might write after a meeting. We will be much more generous in our reaction to typos and grammatical errors than we will be with pre-packaged responses. Emails that give any indication that they were produced BEFORE you had the interview will raise a flag for us. We do not expect you to solicit or receive any outside assistance with this exercise."
This is NOT another essay. We want your response to be much more like an email. Why? In the Real World, it is unlikely that you will be given months and months to craft essays of any sort. It just doesn't happen. In the Real World, it is almost a sure thing that you will be asked to write emails summarizing meetings and giving your opinion in a short time frame. Since HBS tries to be as "close to practice" as possible, this shift from essays to more real time writing feels appropriate.
I know this is hard to hear but this should NOT be a cause for anxiety. We want your genuine reaction to the interview experience. As is always the case in the Real World, this means there is no right answer to the question. There is no formula, no template. But, we can tell you what the WRONG approach is: to get lots of coaching and prepare the response in September for an interview in November. To have lots of people edit and tweak it. To avoid answering the question but instead jam in six more accomplishments or copy and paste an essay from another school. Please understand that we really do plan to be very generous and kind about typos and grammar. We're not looking for a polished response.
We'll continue to have our webinars which are about the application process in general. We welcome your questions and will do our absolute best to be as clear as possible as we get closer to interview season.
More...
Whats your opinion?