This is a guest post of one of my dear friends , Amit Goyal. He is sharing his admisson interview experience for Rice University, USA.

Amit writes,

Interviewer – I am Kolin from Rice University and currently a second year student here. I am basically from States only. I did my under graduation from Purdue University and worked for few years at P&G before I joined MBA.  I just did my summer internship at CITI Group and looking forward to join them by August. So why don’t you walk me through your resume -

Me – I am an engineer in Information Technology, for almost three years I have been working with Wipro, an Indian IT services company. I started my career as an implementation team member in the field of Identity and Access Management. My first project was with Sri Lankan Telecom, later I moved to Dubai and worked as an Information Security consultant for Road and Transport Authority, Dubai. For last one year I am in Saudi Arabia, working as a technical team lead as well as onsite consultant for Saudi Arabian Airlines.

Interviewer – Thats good to know Amit, so why do you want to pursue an MBA at this point of time

Me – In my three years of career, I have worked with multiple clients and working with them have been given me an understanding of various industries, the way a business moves ahead following a strategy. I have found myself to be working for the completion of larger strategic plans. Now i wish to play a bigger role, however I also realize that i will need few skills like finance etc etc before i move to my future goals   After spending almost three years in Wipro and getting promoted from technical engineer to team lead, I guess that this is the right time for me to move ahead and acquire the necessary skills.

Interviewer – What’s so special about Rice that you would like to come here?

Me – There are couple of reason for me to select Rice University, first being the smaller class size which will give me an opportunity to have a good interaction with my faculty. Another important and unique thing being the ALP program which will provide me a practical experience on industry. I believe ALP is very important for me as I wish to change my career domain. Other factors include the location advantage, Rice reputation etc.

Interviewer – Going back in your life what would be your biggest accomplishment till now

Me – Made up a story, as how got selected in my summer internship through a tough examination: P

Interviewer – Tell me about a time in your professional life where in you went against everyone for a cause you believed was correct.

Me – Again made a story as how my team members and management wanted to go ahead without the clustering in our final Go-Live. However, I convinced people and solved the issue of clustering.

Interviewer – Tell me about a failure in your professional life in which you had a tough time with your boss and what was your leaning

Me – I was working for a sales deal with one of our client, i was quite new in the company. I had to collect data and quotes from various internal departments of Wipro, however the process didn’t go very smooth and the final proposal didn’t come up quite well. We didn’t get that deal, I guess I should have escalated these issues well on time and if people were not responding on time i should have put more pressure. Learning being – a proper communication goes a long way: P

Interviewer – Do you read financial news like finance times etc or some other news through which you keep yourself updated.

Me – I do read various newspapers like Indian news paper economic times, I am also a fan of BBC business news.

Interviewer – Can you share any recent financial news and if you have any views on that event

Me – Well recently President of USA Mr. Obama has decided to levy huge taxes on banks, which from my understanding is not a very god thing to do. These banks have just come out of a difficult phase I guess these banks need more support and should be given 2-3 years more. Such harsh rules will not do any good currently

Interviewer – And if you don know he is pushing these taxes to finance the auto industry that is much worse. One thing I would say here. I interview many people and I always find them very much informed about USA which we Americans don’t know much about other countries like I don’t even know who is the president of India or China. Although i know India will be growing at the rate of 7% .  I guess the basic problem with USA is the uninformed electorate but i find outsiders very much informed

(At that point I thought he was trying to persuade me to say something bad about USA)

Me – I guess the people you interview are quite reading kind of people but our general population is also not that much informed

Interviewer – ya you may be right on that, so now again go back in your life and tell me your biggest disappointment

(I had not thought about this question, quite out of blue)

Me – made up a story how i was not selected at IIT;s and  after that i worked very ahrd and today i find myself competitive to them

Finally he asked me if I had any questions, I asked him few question about internships, jobs, funding etc and Khallas. He wished me good luck.