First interview today! It was only a phone interview, but it helped me realize just how rusty my interview skills are. When you work for a single company for the entire time since undergrad, you just don’t get as much practice as you would if you were a career jumper. The only interview I’ve had in the last three years was for HBS!
The interview wasn’t going all that badly until he asked: “How would you compare and decide between multiple internal investment opportunities?” In retrospect, it’s not that hard of a question, but at the moment I was a bit taken-a-back. Wait a minute – don’t you want to hear about the time I took feedback well? Or the time I tackled an analytical challenge?
I blathered for a few minutes about evaluating risks & revenue before hitting on the answer. I think he was looking for something about probability-weighted discounted free cash flows, but it took us a while to arrive there. There’s the wake-up call. Thankfully, that’s the only one this week… I have five more days to prepare for HBS’ “Dedicated Interview Period”, the first week of February where they cancel all the classes and let students wade through day-long interviews. Can’t wait!!!