A Talk with London's Admissions Director
An excerpt from the Q&A:

Q: Interviews are by invitation only at London. What does the school want to find out about the applicant during the interview?
A: Like applying for a job, the first stage for the [job] applicant is getting an interview. The second stage is getting an offer. The process works like this. We'll do a review of the paper application first. We are looking to see whether the application meets our base criteria, for instance educational attainment, work experience, and the [applicant's] references. After the paper review, we'll decide whether or not to ask a candidate for interview. And at that point the interview will be following a checklist of characteristics that we've drawn up.

Q: Is a long interview better than a short interview?
A: A good interview is the best, and they can be either [long or short]. That said, it's tough to establish knowing somebody in as thorough a way as we would like in much less than 30 or 40 minutes. And some of our interviews will go on longer than that.

Q: And the ones that only last 20 minutes...
A: Could be fantastic. But how many job interviews have you had that had just lasted 20 minutes and have you got the job? I would very much doubt that that would be a typical London Business School experience. If we are going to the trouble of interviewing somebody, which is a time-consuming and expensive process, we want to give the candidate a good opportunity to have a good showing. It's also a way for the applicant to find out more about the school.

For the full version of this Q&A

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Comments from Student 1:
Scheduling the Interview: The interview was scheduled through the MBA Admissions office via email at the same time that I was notified I had passed the next stage. They subsequently put me in touch with a local (Los Angeles) alumni and he and I corresponded to set a time.

Location of Interview: The interview took place at my alumni interviewer's office. It was very relaxed, although I was quite nervous since I wanted to make a good impression and be accepted into the program.

Preparedness of Interviewer: My interviewer was definitely prepared and had experience in interviewing quite a few prospective students. He did a good job of selling the school to me in addition to assessing my skills.

Interviewer University affiliation: His name is Josh Parks, and he is an alumni.

Atmosphere: It was relaxed since I was with someone more my peer than an admissions officer, but on the other hand, it's always difficult to be in the hot seat and have someone critiquing you. I was glad when it was through!

Questions asked: Josh asked typical questions about why I was interested in business school, what made me choose LBS, what I would be doing after graduation. He also probed into questions about my current job and international experience. Additionally, there was a new process where I had to give an impromptu "presentation." I was given three cases to choose from, and 5 minutes to review these and present an oral response. I think the point was to see how well I could work on my feet and analyze my thought process. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but I must have done an ok job!

Length of Interview: This interview lasted about 2 hours.

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Comments from Student 2:
Scheduling the Interview: I was given the name and email address of a local alumnus (even though I lived in the city of London at the time). She and I arranged the interview at her convenience.

Location of interview: Off campus, though in London. She suggested meeting at Starbucks, which we did, but it was not a great environment for an interview in my opinion.

Preparedness of Interviewer: The interviewer had spent a few days reviewing my application in detail. In fact, she said she didn't want to discuss issues I'd already mentioned in my application, as she had just read that.

Interviewer University Affiliation: Alumnus

Atmosphere: Relaxing atmosphere, conversational. However, Starbucks was distracting with other loud conversations and the blender going!

Questions asked:
The alumnus told me that LBS gave her a standard set of interview questions, so she did not have much choice in what was asked. The following were some of the questions:
What is a typical day like at work for you?
What are your biggest challenges at work?
What is your leadership style?
What are your leadership development goals?
Why get an MBA now?
What other long-term goals do you have?
What do you think are the skills of a good manager?
What should you take into consideration when working with people of different cultures?
What will you bring to your study team?
What was your biggest intellectual challenge?
Tell me about a recent project you've worked on.
Tell me something about yourself that is not on your application.

Length of interview: two hours

Additional comments:
-Be prepared for questions that focus on specific projects, tasks, and challenges.
-Be prepared to be asked more theoretical questions, such as 'your leadership development goals'! I was not prepared for this sort of question based on the other interviews I had done.
-Highlight any international experience you've had, and your experience with different cultures. This is very important to LBS.
-Highlight personal activities and motivations in addition to professional accomplishments. LBS students are very involved and motivated.
-Show what you will bring to the program, not just what you hope to get out of it.
-Convince the interviewer that NOW is the best time for you to get your MBA.
(I was accepted, notified by email by the deadline set for notification by LBS.)

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