How to tackle video essays for MBA applicants

Video Essay Guidelines

A few business schools need candidates to submit video essays. There are two types of video essays – ones that are impromptu and others that are pre-recorded.

For video essays that are impromptu you can think about and prepare the following questions. Also be sure to read through your resume and any other business school essays that you have already written. You will have to answer the question on the spot in the given timeframe and depending on the university, a retake may not be permitted. Be sure to dress formal and have a clean backdrop and test your video and voice recording beforehand.

Generally asked MBA video interview questions:

• What would you like to tell your future batchmates?
• Tell about an activity you enjoy and why?
• What was the greatest advice your first boss gave you?
• What was the biggest risk you’ve taken so far?
• How would your co-workers describe you?
• Identify an influential figure in your lives, and why
• What do you do for fun?
• What are your passions, interests, and hobbies?
• If you could travel across the United States in a car with anyone, whom would you choose to travel with and why?
• What would you do on a rainy Sunday afternoon?
• How have you handled a difficult interaction? What did you learn from it?
• Describe a difficult professional decision you had to make. What were the consequences, and what, if anything, did you learn?
• How do you celebrate success?
• What trait is the most important to you? Why?
• Why MBA? What are your short and long term career goals?
• Why you? What value will you add to our class?
• What did you do in the past week that was brave?
• What drives you in your personal life?
• If you had to perform in a talent show, what would you choose to act?

For video essays that are pre-recorded, you can practice by writing out the essay and then recording it yourself. There are apps such as BIGVU which act as teleprompters, so if you prefer to record while reading from a script, you can use this option. Generally, 125-150 words are spoken in one minute. So, a two min video essay would be around 250-300 words. Be sure to upload the script for editing so that Karan Gupta Consulting can check your essay before you actually record it.