Last one down

So I had my Wharton interview yesterday, last of the three, and now there's nothing left to do but wait. I am truly blessed because I think I got a relatively simple interview, unlike my blogger friend Forrest.

I had chosen an alumni interview in Tokyo and it was a little intimidating at first because my interviewer was working in one of the big 3 strat firms, but I prayed about it and left it at that. Sticking with the interview prep strategy that seemed to work with Chicago, I decided to throw all wisdom out the window and wing this one as well. I reread my essays on Sunday, surfed the Wharton website to refresh my memory on details about academics and clubs, and then spent the rest of the day watching the olympics and reading manga. And guess what it worked - I was able to avoid stressing myself out and the words just flowed off my tongue, maybe a little too much (not sure if I was rambling...)

My interviewer turned out to be down to earth, friendly, and not in the least bit arrogant. The questions were the standard ones and nothing out of the ordinary, except one which I'll talk about later:

• Career progression, and why I made certain choices
• Career goals
• Why MBA/Wharton

After I finished answering the above (and responding to specific probing questions), my interviewer completely surprised me by looking at his watch and saying, "Well, we've been talking about 30 minutes, so I think that's enough. Is there anything you want to ask me about Wharton?" I thought to myself - that's it?? Did I ramble too much? I was a little concerned and so asked him if there was anything else he wanted to know. He looked at me, looked at my resume, went hmmm, then......... "well... maybe let's look at your personal activities..." Phew!

• What do you do in your free time?
• At Wharton, your classmates will all be smart and successful. What differentiates you from the rest?
• How are your applications progressing? Have you heard from any of the other schools you've applied to?
  

I was honest with the last one, and he went "that's interesting..." but didn't elaborate further. I'm not quite sure how to read it, but I think it wasn't negative. Anyway this brings me to the question I wanted to talk about. I can't remember exactly at which point he brought this up, but he told me that most of the poeple at Wharton are very focused on making money (lots of it) and he wanted to know how I felt about earning big bucks. I think he was coming from a "fit" perspective (someone correct me if I'm wrong), and I tried to give a balanced answer - yes money is important because I need to pay off loans but it's not the only thing, etc. Again not sure if it was what he was looking for, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

After that I had some time for questions. The whole interview took about 45-50 minutes and I left with a pretty positive vibe, so I think I should be ok. Of course I may have totally misread everything like so many have before me, and get the ding in two and half weeks, but that's alright. I gave it a good shot and I'll take whatever comes my way.