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Gearing up to face interviews

Recently I attended an interivew at Wharton for Executive MBA. The interview lasted for about 50 minutes and I was asked 3 questions in the interview. The questions might have consumed a total of one minute, so that leaves me with a speaking time of about 49 minutes. I knew I was speaking incessantly and the admissions commitee was listening patiently. The interview started with a question somewhat in these lines: 'Tell me how your career started and how it progressed?'. I started of talking typically as if I am telling a story to them and after the answer was over I indicated that I am moving on to next part of the story and started talking talking and talking and some where in between i was asked 'Why MBA?', instead of jumping to the answer I told that, that is exactly where I am going in my talk and went on talking. In between sometimes I felt as if the environemnt is getting drowsy and so I introduced some humor to lighten the heavy talk and showed some colored printouts I carried with me that illustrate my work and my achievements and that worked nicely.

After the interview I started wondering whether the interview went well or not, so I visited some forums and realized that Wharton usually has some standard questions and I have answered all those questions even without being asked. I don't know whether this is good or bad but just a few years back, I was not able to speak in an interview b'cos of various fears that I had and now it has become revese. This interview has certainly given me a chance to me to perceive the progress I have made in the last few years in various fields.

Times of India, India has a nice article about Gearing up to face interviews . This makes a good read and I can kind of identify with the points mentioned there.

Finally one quick advice: Carry originals/printouts(color)/photocopies of documents of your accomplishments or any other things that you want to show to the interview panel. A visual is worth 1000 words, so you know how much time you save by saving to speak 1000 words. And carrying these documents actually demonstrated to the panel that you are prepared for the interview. It also instills confidense in you that you have prepared for the interview well. Confidence is the key.

Well, I have not been admitted to any school yet, so its upto your rationality whether to take this advice or not.