Harvard MBA Post-interview Reflection Example.

HBS MBA Post-Interview Reflection. Overview.

HBS asks all students who interview to submit a post-interview reflection within 24 hours of completing their interview. This is an opportunity for you to clarify or expand on topics covered in your interview, share your impressions and thank your interviewer for his or her interest in your candidacy. 'It's very interesting for us to hear how well we did get to know you. We certainly have our impressions from the interview and we do our best to be fair and as objective as possible, but then it's really important for us to understand how you as the applicant have experienced that'.

Guidance from HBS on the Post-Interview Reflection: The post-interview reflection is not intended to be another formal essay. Think of it instead as an email you might write to a colleague or supervisor 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. Your Post-Interview Reflection is due within 24 hours of the conclusion of your interview. There is no word limit for the Post-Interview Reflection.

HBS MBA Post-Interview Reflection. Example.

Dear Mr. Smith,

Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. It was a pleasure to meet you and an honor to have been selected to interview for a place in the HBS Class of 2019.

I’d like to briefly touch on some of the topics we covered in our discussion, in particular, my role at Boeing and my knowledge of the aerospace industry.

At Boeing, I work for Interiors, one of 6 divisions within our aerospace group. The Interiors division has annual sales of $1.1B and is run by two General Managers, Kate Jones, who is one of my recommenders, and Tom Smith. Although I support Kate and Tom with standard performance reporting – both financial and operational, I also carry out special assignments on a regular basis. My most recent posting was to our Houston site where I spent three months working with the program management team to optimize their business processes and improve client relations.

We spent a significant amount of our time discussing the aerospace industry and, more specifically, the strategy, competitive landscape and future of Boeing’s Interiors Division. In Interiors we manufacture everything one finds inside an airplane and so our products are directly linked to the in-flight passenger experience. Passenger experience is one of the few ways airlines can still differentiate themselves - offering a more comfortable seat, better entertainment options and internet connectivity. It’s an exciting time for our business and with an open offer to return to Boeing, I envision myself advancing to a General Manager role within our Interiors Division post-MBA.

In my essay, I mentioned that growing up with immigrant parents meant developing a strong sense of self-reliance at an early age. During our discussion, you asked a question about being self-reliant and later asked about its connection to potentially struggling in a group or teamwork setting. I can see the logic behind that line of questioning but in my personal experience, being self-reliant and a team player haven’t been mutually exclusive qualities. In fact, I think that not being able to rely solely on my parents meant that I needed to be more affiliative than average - soliciting advice from peers and other adults as a teen.

In my professional life I work closely with each of our businesses on a daily basis and I believe that the team in Colorado Springs would describe me as a team player who is willing to roll up their sleeves up to help out others out and who genuinely wants our business to succeed.

In closing, I wanted to share with you my desire to attend HBS. I believe the case study method coupled with the intelligent, engaged and diverse student body would do a lot to prepare me to make the type of complex, and sometimes tough, decisions I’ll be faced with as I advance in my career.

Once again, thank you for speaking with me today and giving me the opportunity to share my story – I found the interview to be thought-provoking and enjoyable.

Kind regards, Candidate Z