Who gets stress questions on HBS interviews?
Janus wrote:
Has anyone (Sandy the HBS Guru, I’m looking in your direction!) ever attempted to compile a list of who had “tough” and “easy” interviews and if there is any correlation between that and admission? 
yeah, I have compiled this list, and many others, based on the ~300 mock interivews I have done over the past 3 years: conclusion=NO PATTERN. Superstars sometimes get hard interviews (and blow them) while marginal kids get walk me thru your resume interviews, with no tuff guy questions about
1. WHY WE SHOULD TAKE YOU? LET’S HEAR YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH!
2. WHAT WILL BE HARDEST FOR YOU HERE, GIVEN X AND Y ON YOUR RECORD?
3. WE GET LOTS OF KIDS FROM YOUR BACKGROUND, MANY WITH BETTER SCORES, ETC. WHAT MAKES YOU SPECIAL?
4. IF YOU WERE HEAD OF TOYOTA NOW, WHAT SIX THINGS WOULD YOU DO?
5. TELL ME 3 MORE MISTAKES?
6. DESCRIBE SOMETHING COMPLEX TO ME IN REGULAR PERSON TERMS (A FAVORITE Q OF HRH LEOPOLD)
7. DESCRIBE A TIME WHEN YOUR VALUES WERE COMPROMISED AT WORK?
8. WHAT IS THE BIGGEST RISK WE TAKE IN ACCEPTING YOU?
All of the above tuff questions, which you think they might hit the marginal candidate with, but they don’t. Folks who get questions like that, and more stressful interviews are JUST NOT LUCKY. There is no rhyme or reason for stress/difficult questions–but if you get hit w. a barrage of them, and get confused or demoralized, it can damage your chances.
ALL THAT SAID, MOST INTERVIEWS AND INTERVIEWERS ARE SUPER NICE AND DONT REALLY STRESS YOU OUT, BUT IT HAPPENS.
