哈佛商学院面试内幕

For two full weeks before his MBA admissions interview at Harvard Business School, Alex Kleiner would mull over a list of potential questions every night before going to bed. He drove up to Boston on a Sunday from his parents' home in Connecticut the night before his scheduled session with an HBS admissions official.

哈佛商学院（Harvard Business School，简称HBS）的MBA招生面试前整整两周，亚历克斯•克莱纳每天晚上睡觉前都反复琢磨着一份可能被问到的问题清单。周日，和HBS招生官员约好的面试前一天晚上，他从康涅狄格州的父母那里驱车来到波士顿。

On the Monday morning just after the Thanksgiving Day holiday, Kleiner slipped on a dark navy suit, a blue shirt, conservative tie, and black shoes. “Nothing too flashy,” he recalls. And then he reported to a small room at Dillon House where two women sat opposite him. One asked the questions, and one feverishly scribbled notes.

次日早上，那天刚过完感恩节，克莱纳穿上了深蓝色西装、蓝色衬衫、保守的领带以及黑皮鞋。他回忆说：“穿着上没有特别浮华的东西。”接着他到狄伦楼的一个小房间报道，屋内有两位女士坐在他对面。一位负责提问，另一位奋笔疾书，做着记录。

Over the next 30 minutes, he received only one question for which he wasn't completely ready for: “What was your proudest moment in college?”

接下来的30分钟里，所有的问题中只有一个是他完全没有准备的：“你在大学里最自豪的时刻是什么时候？”

“It caught me off guard because all the questions I had received until then I had prepared for,” recalls Kleiner.

“这个问题让我措手不及，因为在这之前的所有问题我都有所准备，”克莱纳回忆说。

After all, it had been nearly four years since Kleiner graduated from Yale University with an undergraduate degree in history. Since then, he had worked for two years as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch in New York and for two more years in private equity at Vector Capital in San Francisco.

毕竟，那时距离卡莱纳从耶鲁大学（Yale University）毕业，拿到历史学学士学位，已经有将近4年的时间了。毕业后，他在纽约的美林证券（Merrill Lynch）从事了两年的投资银行业务，然后去旧金山的私募股票公司Vector Capital工作了两年。

He told the HBS admissions staffers how, as president and captain of the university's club ice hockey team, he helped to organize a match against Johns Hopkins University to commemorate the first collegiate ice hockey game ever played.

他对HBS的招生人员讲述了当年身为大学冰上曲棍球队的主席和队长的一段经历，那时他帮助组织了一场对阵约翰霍金斯大学（Hopkins University）的比赛，以纪念第一场大学间冰球比赛。

“It went by in the blink of an eye,” recalls Kleiner. “I walked out thinking it had only begun a couple of seconds earlier. But I felt I had done a good job getting my points across. It was actually pretty comforting. Both people were kind and receptive and engaged in our conversation. The second person didn't speak but she would nod and make facial expressions to let me know she was listening to my answers.”

“转眼间我的面试就结束了，”克莱纳回忆说。“走出去的时候我觉得才过了几秒钟，但我认为我表现不错，很好地表达了我的观点。这实际上挺令人欣慰的。两位面试官都挺友好，善于接受观点，对我们的对话中也很投入。第二位面试官虽然没有说话，但她通过点头以及面部表情向我表示，她在仔细听我的回答。”

Soon enough, Kleiner would be offered a seat in Harvard's class of 2017. Now, as editor-in-chief of The Harbus, the MBA student newspaper, the 28-year-old has found himself leading a team of students who have just published the latest “Unofficial Harvard Business School Interview Guide”.

克莱纳很快成为哈佛大学2017届的一名学生。现在，作为MBA校刊The Harbus的主编，他带领一组同学刊登了最新版的《哈佛商学院面试非正式指南》（Unofficial Harvard Business School Interview Guide）。

The newest edition of the guide has been substantively revised and updated -- and, at 68 pages long, (up from just 40 pages last year) is the largest ever published by The Harbus. The question that surprised Kleiner -- along with advice on how to approach an answer -- is among 96 questions revealed in the guide. All of those questions come from current students who successfully navigated the HBS admissions process. “We try in our analysis to give insight to what the admissions committee is after for each question,” adds Kleiner.

最新版的指南在以前的基础上做了本质的修订和更新——篇幅长达68页（去年的版本只有40页），是The Harbus史上出版的最长的面试指南。之前面试中最让克莱纳惊讶的问题，以及怎样回答这个问题的建议，正是指南所刊登的96个问题之一。所有这些问题都是由成功通过HBS招生过程的学生提供的真题。克莱纳还说：“我们在分析中深度剖析招生委员会提出的每个问题的目的。”

In addition to the questions, which range from the most obvious to the highly unpredictable, the $65 guide contains a new section offering the best general admissions advice from successful HBS applicants. (The money made from the guide goes to support the foundation that publishes The Harbus newspaper). Kleiner and his MBA colleagues, for example, tossed in a section on timing, urging applicants to give themselves at least two months to study for the GMAT and three months to complete the HBS application alone.

除了这些最常见的以及完全无法预测的问题，这本售价65美元的指南还增加了一个章节，介绍了成功通过面试的HBS申请人给出的最佳面试心得。（这本指南的所有收入用于支持The Harbus的刊发基金。）克莱纳和他的MBA同学还开了一个时间安排章节，敦促申请者至少用两个月时间准备研究生管理专业入学考试（GMAT），三个月时间单独完成HBS申请。

The questions, or at least the nearly 100 shared in the guide, cover a fairly vast range of issues and experiences that could easily trip up a candidate. Consider: “What is the most interesting conversation you have had this week?” or “Tell me a piece of news that you are currently following and very interested in?” The latter question is the motivation for the advice to begin a new morning routine on the day you schedule your admissions interview. “Browse all the headlines of all the major business news sites, read any stories that seem particularly pertinent, and be sure to hit up any sites that cover your industry and employer in particular (you don't want to get broadsided during your interview!).”

这些问题，或者至少是指南里所列出的近100个问题，涵盖了大范围的话题和经历，轻易就能绊倒候选人。比如：“你这周所有的对话中最有趣的是哪个？”或是“跟我讲一个你目前在跟进并且非常感兴趣的资讯。”正是根据后一个问题，这份指南建议申请者从计划招生面试的那天开始实行一个新的每日晨间安排：“浏览所有主流商业资讯网站的头条，阅读看上去相当重要的所有报道，然后确保看过所有关于你所在行业的报道，特别是你所在公司的网站（在面试时你不该表现得太空泛！）。”

For Kleiner, the admissions interview worked backwards. “I was asked about my time at my current job and what I liked about it. Then, I was asked about my experience in investment banking before that. She asked why I switched to private equity from banking. I had prepared for that and gave my answer and then we kept going backwards. We started talking a lot about Yale and my experiences there, including why I majored in history and whether I got out of it what I wanted.”

对克莱纳而言，他的招生面试是逆序进行的。“面试官先问我现在的工作做了多久，喜欢它的哪些方面。接着，她问我在这之前的投行工作经历。她问我为什么从银行转到私募股权公司。对这个问题我有所准备，然后我们接着往前谈。我们聊了许多关于耶鲁和我在耶鲁的经历，包括我为什么学习历史专业以及我是否从中得到了预期的收获。”

As far as he is concerned, the most challenging questions are those that ask you “to brag a little bit or to be introspective. It's not always easy to sit in front of an interviewer and say that to them. The whole interview is crammed into 30 minutes and it is really rapid fire. You don't get much of a reaction to your answers because they're trying to fit in as many questions as possible. It can be very tough for a lot of people, especially those who haven't interviewed for two or three years since they went through the process to get their last job.”

对他而言，最有挑战性的问题是那些让你“稍微自夸一下或者自省一下。要坐在面试官面前，对他们侃侃而谈这些问题并不容易。整个面试是30分钟，问题一个一个接踵而至。由于面试官想提尽可能多的问题，所以你没太多时间去考虑自己的答案。这对许多人来说都很艰难，尤其是对那些两三年里没有换过工作的人，他们最近一次面试还是在获得那份工作的时候。

Questions on leadership often absorb a good chunk of the interview time. “They definitely ask you a lot of questions on leadership,” says Kleiner. “What kind of leader are you? What is your definition of a leader and how might you fit that description? Have you worked with any truly exceptional leaders in your last job and tell me why you thought they were great?”

关于领导力的问题通常也是面试的一大部分。“他们绝对会问你许多关于领导力的问题，”克莱纳说。“你是什么类型的领导？你对领导的定义是怎样的，而你自己该怎样去达到这个定义的要求？在你的上一份工作中，是否跟真正非凡的领导共事过？请说出为什么你觉得他们很出色？”

The most unpredictable question in the guide this year? Kleiner has a few favorites that fit that description, including, “Explain something to me as if I were an eight-year-old.”

今年的指南里最无法预测的问题是哪个？克莱纳有几个答案，包括“假设我是一个8岁的小孩，请向我解释一件事，能让我听懂。”

“It's a funny one that comes up commonly,” he says. “The point of this question is to see if you are ready to participate in the case method at HBS. Your own thoughts, however complicated, may have to be explained to 90 people in a classroom, some of whom may be experts in a field and others who may be novices. So they are testing all of that in a very simple question. It's a really good skill to have.”

“这个有趣的问题经常被问到，”他说。“问题的关键在于看你是否准备好去接受HBS的案例分析法。你自己的想法，无论多复杂，可能都要解释给一个班90个学生。有些人是某个领域的专家，其他人却可能还是新手。所以他们用这个非常简单的方法去测试学生的这一能力。学会这个技能非常有用。”

Another common question: “Tell me something you want to start doing, something you want to do more of, and something you want to do less of.”

另一个常见的问题是：“跟我说一件你想开始着手做的事，再说一件你想做得更多的事，以及一件你希望少做点的事。”

“Professors often ask for similar feedback from their students,” says Kleiner. “It's a chance for you to step out and give an honest appraisal of who you are. It forces you to be more concrete than a more typical strength and weakness question.”

“教授也经常让学生提供类似的反馈，”克莱纳说。“这对你来说是一次机会，你可以站出来，诚实地评估自己。比起典型的优缺点问题，它要求你表达得更具体。”

The guide divides questions into six categories: experience, current events, leadership, situational, career, and curriculum. There also are sections to make your visit to Boston productive: lists of where to go and where to eat, where to shop and where to stay.

这本指南把问题分成6个部分：经历型、当前事件型、领导力、情景问题、事业以及课程。同时，指南还提供了一些章节，可以让你的波士顿之行更有成效：去哪里、到哪里吃东西，在哪购物和住在哪的清单。

And, of course, there is the requisite advice on what to wear: For women, the guide recommends a suit color and style that is simple and classic. “Skirt lengths need to be at least knee length,” the editors counsel. “Wear closed toed pumps and a heel height of one-to-three inches.” For men, the guidance is Esquire-esque: “Make sure the suit fits properly. Ask a tailor (or your mom).... Suit color palate for the formal interview: black, gray, or navy blue. You may choose plain or (sensible) pinstripes. Reserved sport coat also works, though a good suit is fail-safe.”

当然，对穿着的建议也不可或缺：女士着装，指南建议颜色为西装颜色，款式建议简洁经典。“裙子的长度至少要及膝，”编辑们建议说。“鞋子应是高跟的包鞋，鞋跟高度为1至3英尺。”男士建议穿绅士款式的西装：“确保套装合身。向裁缝或你母亲咨询一下……正式面试时穿着的颜色应为：黑、灰或海军蓝。你可以选择单色或（有品的）条纹色。虽然一套好的西装能确保万无一失，备用的运动外套也是可以的。”

Kleiner says he relied heavily on the guide to help him prepare for the interview. “I formulated a list of questions, using the interview guide as a starting point. Then, I added more specific questions based on my application and resume. Over the course of a couple of weeks, I would think about them and what my answers would be before I went to bed every night.”

克莱纳说，他的面试准备大量依赖于指南。“我从面试指南入手，列出了一个问题清单。然后根据我自己的申请和简历，加入了更具体的问题。在几周的过程里，我每天睡觉前都会思考这些问题以及我的答案。”

So when it came to the sit down for his session, he felt prepared. “As it came to the end, I didn't get an opportunity to ask questions,” he recalls. “But they gave me the last word. ‘What is one thing you want to convey as your interview comes to an end?' I said that ‘I really want to come to Harvard. This is my first choice. This is where I see myself.'” Indeed.

所以当坐下来面试的时候，他觉得准备已经很充足了。“直到快结束的时候，我还没有机会问问题，”他回忆到。“不过她们的最后一个问题是‘在面试结束前，你还有什么想补充的？请说其中一件事。'我说：‘我真的很想到哈佛学习。这里是我的第一选择，我能在这儿看到未来。'”确实如此。