Interview Questions: Stephen & Megan

Here is a log of the interview questions Stephen and Megan received across all programs where they were interviewed. Less than half of Stephen’s accepted schools conducted interviews (Macro OB) and over three-quarters of Megan’s did. Overall, it appears that most, but not all, schools conduct interviews.

Stephen’s Interview Questions

School #1

One interview with two faculty members, video chat

Questions were standardized across candidates

Questions Stephen was asked:

  1. Why do you want to do a PhD?
  2. Why a management field instead of say sociology?
  3. Can you talk about a time when you had difficulty with a research piece and how you worked around it?
  4. As a professor what split of time do you imagine – research, teaching, and consulting, etc.?
  5. If you didn’t get into any PhD programs this year, what would you do with your next year?
  6. Where do you see as your research “home” (i.e., which exact program and discipline do you see yourself in?)
  7. What questions do you have for us?
  1. I asked
  1. Is this more of an apprenticeship or entrepreneurial model for Phds?
  2. How much do the sub-units relate to your learning journey within the PhD program?

School #2

Three interviews in total

Two rounds with faculty members, one round with PhD Program office

Questions did not appear to be standardized

Questions Stephen was asked

Initial screen interview with PhD program head (administrator)  

This interview was mainly to clarify parts of the application when sharing it with faculty members

  1. Can you clarify what you meant by this part of your application? (I made a joke in my application. Was I being serious? Or was it a joke?)
  2. You talk about potentially working across different schools, how could you see that happening?
  3. Do you have any questions for us?

Panel interview (4 faculty members)

  1. Why is it important (if at all) to study physical space and social networks when someone could argue that physical space will not matter in the future? (As the world becomes more online)
  2. Why are you applying to this program?
  3. Who is your favorite network researcher?
  4. Could you tell us what the main findings of your senior thesis were?
  5. Why an OB program, why not a pure sociology program?

Department head follow-up interview

  1. Why do you want to do this program?
  2. What would you do if you couldn’t do this? (I.e., what career would you do)
  3. What questions do you have for me?

School #3

One interview with two faculty members

Questions did not appear to be standardized

Questions Stephen was asked

  1. Why would you come to School #3 over other schools? (e.g., you’ve researched at Harvard before, why not stay at Harvard?)
  2. Can you tell us about a research project that was important to you?
  3. How are you thinking of incorporating your time living in Southeast Asia into your research, if at all? (I was working in Vietnam at time of applying)
  4. What could we tell you to help convince you to come to School #3?
  5. Do you have any questions for us?  

Megan’s Interview Questions

School A

Two interviews; both remote

One with professor

One with current graduate student

Questions Megan was asked

  • What are your research interests?
  • What projects are you working on currently? What is your role?
  • How would you want to test your research ideas? What kind of study would you run?
  • Why School A? Which professors would you want to work with here?
  • How have you made a positive impact on your community (work, social, etc.)?

School B

Three interviews; all remote

All individual interviews with professors

Questions Megan was asked

  • Tell me about yourself.
  • What are your research interests?
  • Why School B?
  • What questions do you have for me?

School C

Seven interviews; all in person

All individual interviews with professors

Questions Megan was asked

  • Tell me about yourself.
  • Why do you want to do a PhD?
  • What are your research interests?
  • What projects have you worked on in the past and what was your role?
  • What made you decide to leave consulting to pursue an academic career?
  • Why School C?
  • What questions do you have for me?

School D

Five interviews; two remote, three in person

All individual interviews with professors

Questions Megan was asked

  • Tell me about yourself.
  • Why do you want to do a PhD?
  • What are your research interests?
  • Why School D?
  • If you fast forward 10 years, where do you want to be? What do you want to be known for in your career?
  • Do you have an idea of where you would want to land after grad school? [if you mention the state in which the program is located, they gave disclaimer that if you do your PhD here you often don’t end up here]
  • What questions do you have for me?

School E 

One interview with two faculty members; remote

Questions Megan was asked

  • Why do you want to do a PhD?
  • What are your research interests?
  • Why management instead of psychology?
  • Can you talk about a time when you had difficulty with a research piece and how you worked around it?
  • As a professor, what would be the ideal split of your time between research, teaching, and service?
  • Where do you see as your research “home” (i.e., which exact program and discipline do you see yourself in?)
  • Why School E?
  • How do you feel about [city in which the program is located]?
  • What questions do you have for us?

School F

Five interviews total; all remote

One with doctoral coordinators

One with professor who is in charge of doctoral program

One group interview with seven professors

Two separate interviews with two other professors (to narrow down who my advisor(s) would be)

Questions Megan was asked

  • Tell us about yourself.
  • What are your research interests?
  • If you could run any study right now, what would you want to do?
  • Why do you want to do a PhD?
  • Have you engaged in independent research?
  • Why School F?
  • Why examine how emotional intelligence enables exploitative behavior, rather than examining other kinds of unethical behavior? What would be particularly interesting about this specific relationship?
  • What is your perspective on computational approaches to studying organizational culture?
  • At what level of analysis do you see your research focusing (individual, groups, organizations)?
  • Can you tell us about a time when you failed and how you handled it?
  • Who is your favorite researcher and why?
  • Why b school academia?
  • What do you think your biggest challenge will be in completing a PhD program?
  • What questions do you have?

School G

Two interviews total (was supposed to be a third but the prof was a no show); both remote

Both individual interviews with professors

Questions Megan was asked

  • Tell me about yourself.
  • What are your research interests?
  • Tell me about your current (or past) research projects and your role in them
  • Why School G?
  • How do you feel about moving to [city in which the program is located]?
  • What questions do you have for me?

School H

Four interviews total; all remote

One interview with two professors

Three individual interviews with other professors

Questions Megan was asked

  • Tell us about yourself.
  • What are your research interests?
  • Why School H?
  • Why not just stay in [state you currently live in]?
  • What questions do you have for us?