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Master Interview Questions
Personal Characteristics / Skills / Strengths:
1. Tell me about yourself:
Good morning/ afternoon. My name is Hoang Thu Trang. I graduated from T University. I have been working for around 5 years now and currently employed as Trade and Investment Advisor at the xxx Embassy. My work motive: “Work hard. Play hard” So besides working, I do enjoy extracurricular activities such as sports like tennis and inline skating; some charity works … often together with my companies. My social drive: “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people” – Martin Luther King Jr. I thought of myself as a good person, and that’s the reason why I apply for [the university applying to] in the first place. I would like to have the opportunity to obtain advanced management knowledge, especially in social entrepreneurship so that I can voice myself in the social transition stage of Vietnam.
2. What is your strongest personal asset?
It would be persistence. Benjamin Franklin once said: “Energy and persistence conquer all things”. Well, in my opinion, it is absolutely true. (Copy from other version)
3. What are your strengths and weaknesses as a student?
My strengths as a student include progressive learning attitude, hard work and creativity. I am not the kind who sits quietly in a class and takes notes. In fact, if I actually take notes, I will forget about everything I write down. So I prefer to research new cases, pose questions and suggest solutions and debate. About my weaknesses??? Well, not only in study. I think that I always try to do too many things at the same time. Currently, I have my official job at the embassy, an inline skating club that focuses on tutoring kids, a career center at Vietnam National University. I spend lots of my energy on those things but I think it’s time to actually slow down a bit and set a priority list on what I should spend more time working on.
4. Name 3 strengths that you have and why you consider these strengths
The first thing that I would consider strength is my determination. It helps me make decisions very quickly. Not every time a right one but you know, when you think fast, you identify
opportunities much more rapidly than most others and eventually, become able to take advantages of such in your career and your life. My second strength would be self-responsibility. Since I make decisions very quickly, there are certain risks in it. Say, one time in A DIPLOMATIC OFFICE, I had to make the decisions of whether to testify the qualification certificate before or after finishing the import documents for exhibitions products. It was 2 days to the exhibition so I decided to fulfill all the documents first. However, one of the package was discovered unqualified. So I had to take charge of all the expenditure considering that package. … It was not too much though but I am responsible for it. The third strength that I would mention here is my ability to gather information. Good decisions depend on the information we have. So I always try to pick up new pieces of information everywhere I go. I can listen to a conversation in a coffee shop and link it to the news that I’ve read another day or simply I can google that conversation topic to have more insights on it.
5. What would one of your friends/teachers/supervisors say about you?
If you asked my friends about me, I think they would probably say that I am a busy person. Some told me that I am always on the run. I am busy at work all weeks. I go cheer for a football match every Monday and Thursday. I often spend two nights a week for inline skating and tennis. The weekend is spared for family and charity trips. Occasionally, I have friends and students coming over to help fix their resume, course works, researches and other things as well. What would my teachers/ professors say about me? I think that they would ask themselves: “Why is this girl asking so much?” I always come to classes prepared with notes all over my readings and questions in every topic that interests me. Sometimes, they are just questions to confirm what I understand of the textbook. Other times, they are case-related or open discussions to expand the lecture’s scopes. They help me understand more during the courses anyway. About my supervisor, I think that they would describe me as an assertive employee. I do my job self-responsibly as I was assigned but before doing that, I do question them carefully, suggest possible alternatives and defend my ideas on fact-based methods. I ended up doing the job in any methods that my supervisor prefers but at least, I manage to provide the best information I can to the job instead of just blindly doing it.
6. What would a supervisor or professor tell me are your strengths?
I think the first thing that my supervisors would talk about me as my strength is hard work. Guess it’s just obvious to them since I work always for more than 10 hours per day even without their requests. All assignments are on deadlines. And I certainly don’t mind stay overnight during high times. The second thing, they would say, is my positive attitude. I do not take anything as impossible, so when a difficult assignment comes to me, I just do some researches, suggest solutions and find a way to optimize the outcomes. It’s much like finding a new market
3. When did you choose to enter this occupational field and why?
I would like to have a successful career as a business consultant in matters regarding corporate social responsibilities since 20xx. There are 3 reasons for it. Firstly, my major was Business Administration so being an expert in a business field was nothing but appropriate. Secondly, the day I entered the University, I also got a sales job in an IT company, which helped me understand a lot about Vietnam market situation. As for me at the time, Vietnam was getting deeper and deeper into recession because most domestic businesses were operating in a very short-term and unsustainable way. Frauds and inequality were everywhere. Some were getting rich very quickly while others were left unemployed. This further urged me to engage in long- term career in sustainability-focused consulting. Thirdly, I was recruited by an NGO, namely … in 20xx and had the chance to engage in an inspiring program of [Saving the electricity], which, just generally, gave me the idea of how a social-benefiting program would positively influence the whole nation. And all of such just motivates me in the subsequent processes of exploring other management practices in later organizations, which, I think, in addition to the master education that I may obtain thanks to [the university applying to], play a major part in my long-term target as a professional consultant in social-orienting businesses
4. How did you make the decision to apply to our program? What other
programs did you consider?
I have studied quite a few programs in both the United States and the United Kingdom. It occurs to me that MBA programs of [the university applying to] offers Entrepreneurship concentration, which focuses on creating, identifying, assessing, shaping, and acting on opportunities that generate economic and social value in a variety of contexts and organizations. Also, I have done some researches on the diversity levels at [the university applying to]’s One year MBA. The international diversity is roughly 75%, and US diversity of 40%. I truly believe this is the program to be since I really enjoy to have discussions with people from different backgrounds to find out the optimum solutions that Vietnam may need in this transition stage. Additionally, I have seen that [the university applying to] also have Center for Entrepreneurship and Women’s Entrepreneur Leadership. Therefore, I am really looking forward to apply what I will study at [the university applying to] into these centers as well. I also consider another program, which is Master of International Affairs in Columbia Schools of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). The major still aligns with my long term goal in social enterprise consulting but focuses more on sustainability than leadership. But I am still considering [the university applying to] as my first choice.
5. How has your undergraduate background prepared you for our
program?
I had a Highest Honored Bachelor Degree in Business Administration with a GPA of roughly 3.93/4.00, and courses in economics, finance, accounting, marketing and management, which I think, in addition to years of my business experiences, a strong background for my future
courses in either advanced management practices or entrepreneurship – of course with a focus in social enterprise.
6. What courses have you enjoyed the most?
Business Communication and Organizational Behavior are the 2 courses that I most enjoy during my college. My Business Communication Course was taught by Dr. …, a fulltime Faculty in Alabama. It provided me an insights of how people look at a business issue differently and methods, which I can use to effectively transfer my messages amongst colleagues, to my partners and mass customers. Organization Behavior, on the other hand, was taught by Professor …, an expert at Swedish Embassy. It provided me the knowledge in how a corporation’s interests collide with its stakeholders including: Shareholders, employees, customers, partners, competitors and the society. And of course, the most interesting parts, how to align the benefits of different parties.
7. What courses have been most difficult for you?
I would say that the most difficult courses for me were those that are financial related. I aced all of them though. There was a specific course, called “Macro Economics for Manager”, which I considered very challenging. It took into accounts how macro problems such as unemployment, social inequality can be addressed at different management level. But it was really interesting though, along that course, I had the chances to study how Vietnamese businesses behaved before, during and after the 20xx Recession and how it affects the economics. I guess that course equips with a very strong analytic skill to address the macro behavior issues in my future career as a social-oriented business consultant.
8. What satisfaction have you gained from your studies?
A great deal, I should say. I did not really like every course in the University’s Business Administration Program but since I did like to have an A in everything, I have learnt a lot. In subjects that I love like International Marketing and Operation Management, I read and picked up a wide range of professional insights and management practices from cases and solutions. In subject that I’m not really interested like Money and Banking or Advanced Finance, I read twice as much and gained proportional knowledge from them. A teacher used to tell me that: “If you want to better yourself when studying in Vietnam, compete with yourself not others!” So I keep a promise with myself to always try it 150% of the last time. So, as long as I get better in each course, whether I like it or not, I’m progressing in my knowledge. That is satisfaction.
9. Tell me about the research project you completed with Professor/
KOTRA Hanoi KBC?
In June 20xx, I was assigned a project with Korean Housing Guarantee Corporation – KHGC. It was a very challenging project since I have to develop new contacts with Vietnam Ministry of Construction for special cooperation. At the same time I also needed to conduct surveys and statistical analysis to provide KHGC with the actual market trend in Vietnam. The Report in the market trend was really challenging since statistics in Vietnam is kind of a scarce resource. So I
into an A. The only thing that distinguished me from a nerd was that I actually involved in a lot of extracurricular during school.
14. Tell me about a professor or supervisor that you didn’t like and why.
There was a professor I really did not like since he kept a strict A requirement that said 90% is A but 89.9999% is certainly not. I was frustrated by that rule. But since I don’t want to get a B in that course, I tried harder in it than any other courses. I ended up with a solid A and more knowledge than I could ever think of. But I still don’t like that professor, at all.
15. Why would you be an asset to our department? How would you be able
to contribute to our program?
As I have learnt from [the university applying to] website, [the university applying to] college is looking for individuals, who are capable of being an influential leadership in business, politics and other social fields of underdeveloped countries. I believe that I am the change agent that you are looking for. What I could bring to [the university applying to] are not just my years of businesses experiences with proven results in both Commercial and Social-orienting Projects or my excellent performances during my undergraduate education but indeed, my commitment and enthusiasm in obtaining more advanced management knowledge and social enterprise practices in a US University … which, I think, will help me move forward in my future social entrepreneurship and consultant career. When such a time comes, I can proudly prove that [the university applying to] one year MBA is a program for success, actual leadership and social- transitions.
16. What skills and experiences do you feel have prepared you for
admission to this program?
As I have completed a bachelor degree in business administration and been working for 5 years, I believe that I can consider myself a well-prepared candidate for [the university applying to] Program
17. Why should we consider you for our program instead of several other
equally qualified candidates?
I would not think “equal” is an appropriate word in this situation. If I say that you should consider me because I am “better” in some cases, the word “equally qualified” will be negated right away. I think everybody differentiates and is great in some way. Some are economic experts, some are agriculture professional, and others work in public policies. I, I choose to focus on social entrepreneurship and sustainability. This is an alarming issue in Vietnam during this socioeconomic transition stage. But I am not capable of solving the problem on a macro level. I will just build sustainable things, which people can refer to when opening their future businesses. Say, in 20xx, over 30% of Vietnamese corporations were introduced to the market, while another 30% went bankrupted, leaving a more massive number of unemployed workers without
any means of living. So short-term, so unsustainable! Since I choose to commit my long-term career in resolving such problems and since [the university applying to] would like a social- influencing leader, I believe I would be the choice. ( Only if Question 11 of this Section was answered: Besides, since I said that my working potential expands greatly overtime, I think that [the university applying to] should consider how great it will be in the future and how it will benefit Vietnamese society and grant me the opportunity)
18. How many programs have you applied to besides our institution/
program?
I also consider another program, which is Master of International Affairs in Columbia Schools of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). I am applying for a concentration in Development Economics there. The major still aligns with my long term goal in social enterprise consulting but focuses more on sustainability than leadership. But I am still considering [the university applying to] as my first choice.
19. What will you do if you are not accepted into our program?
I will certainly wait for the result in Columbia before re-applying for [the university applying to] of course. In the short-run, I will continue my job at the Embassy and accumulate more experiences along the way.
Extracurricular Activities:
1. What extracurricular activity has been most satisfying to you?
I am the President of an Inline skating club in Hanoi, where I learn a lot about myself and develop a passion for being an agent of change, who can coordinate and lead people from very different backgrounds. I also learned the value of being in a team and working as a team both on and off the field. Generally, it helped me gain a firmer understanding of my own strengths, weaknesses and thus, grow both personally and professionally.
2. What is the most significant contribution you have made to your school?
I was the Student President and thus, held responsible for different student events including Halloween 20xx, Information Day 20xx, and other Public Relation events on dantri.vn. Currently, as an alumnus, I still conduct private tutoring and career consulting session for senior year students.
3. What activities do you enjoy most outside of the classroom/ work?
I often do some tennis or go to my inline-skating club after works. They rid me off the stress during the day and refresh for another efficient day at work. Occasionally, I spend time to go on Charity trips in north provinces of Vietnam as well, sometimes Ha Giang, other times, Cao Bang or Son La.
obtain in a developed nation as the UK may enhance my communication skills, especially in a managerial role and help me add more intuitive aspects to my decisions and, thus, make the right ones when opportunities come.
Goals:
1. What has motivated you to pursue this academic field?
I would like to pursue a graduate degree in advanced management practices and entrepreneurships for 2 reasons. Firstly, my undergraduate degree was in business administration so it is appropriate to continue my education in a business-related field. Secondly, after years of working professionally in Vietnam, I discovered that Vietnam is getting deeper into the recession because most of its businesses are very short-term oriented. Thus, I look for a course in an advanced nation, which can provide me the most modern management insights that, I believe, will help me find a more sustainable approach for my future businesses and the society.
2. What are your short-term and long-term goals?
My short-term goal is certainly obtaining a postgraduate degree in management field, with a focus on social enterprise. My medium run plan is to establish what I call a Share Food Network in Hanoi, which channels chemical-free food and homemade recipes from 2,000 low income households in rural Hanoi and adjacent provinces to over 6,000 city families of demands. This idea is initiated considering the alarming food poisoning situation in Vietnam and the low market accesses of low-income farmers in the area. If I subsequently success in establishing the Share Food Network above, I will move on to my long-term goals as a professional business consultant in social enterprise using my Food Sharing story as a successful example.
3. Why do you want a graduate degree in Advance Management Practices/
Entrepreneurship?
A graduate degree in Advanced Management Practices and/or Entrepreneurship will provide me the most updated knowledge in modern management methods and diverse perspectives of how a business or project can be effectively conducted, delivering sustainable outcomes to its stakeholders and the society as a whole.
4. How do you see this program fitting into your career goals?
I have been working in project design and management in public, private and nongovernmental enterprises. A graduate degree in advanced management topics and entrepreneurship will add up to those experiences and help me successfully establish my own social-oriented business
when I return to Vietnam and thus, contributing to my long-term career dream of being a successful business consultant with proven success in corporate social responsibility.
5. Tell me about a goal you have set for yourself and how you have
achieved it or intend to achieve it.
5 years ago, when I start going to work professionally, I set a goal for myself that one day I would be a professional business consultant in Vietnam. Hence, I tried really hard afterwards. I aced every course in my college program to obtain the necessary knowledge in addition to the job. I worked 10 hours per day to progress myself from a sales position to an assistant, market executive and subsequently, market research expert. Along the way, I did lots of case readings, occasionally involve in experience sharing discussion and thus, gained a great deal of new business perspectives, which I am currently applying as a successful project consultant. Until now, my dream of being a professional business consultant still holds, with re-focus in social- oriented enterprises. So I think that in addition to my existing experiences and academic achievements, graduate education in modern management practices and entrepreneurship in a more advanced nation is a must for that goal. Thus, I hope that Chevening can give me the opportunity to once again complete my dream.
Leadership/Teamwork/Problem Solving Skills, etc:
1. Tell me about a major accomplishment and how you achieved it.
My most significant accomplishment to the date is probably the project that I have done with Vietnam Ministry of Constructions (MOC) and Korean Housing Guarantee Corporation (KHGC) in KOTRA Hanoi KBC, the Korean Government Trade Missionary in Hanoi. In that project, I have to simultaneously develop new contacts with the MOC and conduct an in-depth report regarding Vietnam Housing Trend for the KHGC. With the MOC, since KOTRA had not made any official contact before (with Ministry of Development and Health, we have more connections), I took time composing an official letter to the International Relation Department of the MOC, explaining that the KHGC is a corporation under direct supervision of Korean Government and it specializes in guaranteeing the constructions schedules, which have always been a problem to Vietnamese real-estates. It took days of calling and checking to actually get the answer and weeks dining and negotiating for a Memorandum of Understanding between the KHGC and Housing Department of MOC. That was successful. The research as well took days to gather statistics from official and unofficial targets. Comparing them to have the right trend is a challenging tasks to as you know, data in Vietnam are rather bias. But it paid off. The researched was nominated Best Consultant Report at the end of 20xx.
2. Tell me about a situation in which you showed initiative.
When I first get in KOTRA, I figured out that most staffs working here are filing the Korean exporters and their Vietnamese purchasers in accordance with the name of the Trade Delegation. This is convenient as market executives have to keep a very close record in every
great deal from that project, I did request the director to split my shares to my team member as well
5. Tell me about a recent significant problem you faced and how you
handled it.
6. Tell me how you handle stress.
To relieve myself from work stresses, I do engage in some sport activities in the evenings. Sometimes, tennis, sometimes, swimming, other times, inline skates. I always try to keep myself balanced, so I don’t get stressful easily even when I have to work for 7 days straight or stay overnight at the office. Occasionally though, things do become stressful. My boss calls for a Sunday meeting, for example. Not so nice experiences since I was with my family at the time. But I managed to calm myself and handle the work in the end. And I do read lots of Dale Carnegie books, which I think, helps me a lot in seeing things differently and chase my stresses away.
7. Tell me about a time you had a number of assignments due. How did you
make sure you completed all of them on time and did a good job?
To tell the truth, I always have like 3 or 4 big assignments at the same time. Say back when I was in the Korean Embassy, I used to have 2 reports, each from 10 to 30 pages due in 3 days, 1 trade delegation with 14 companies from Korea, which require a lot of telesales and administrative works, and a on-going projects in defenses that happened to cover a lot of partner meetings. What I did was: Setting a time table, which started 1.5hr prior to the office hour. In this 1.5 hour, I either searched for the information on the report or wrote them myself. So the 2 reports mentioned were actually on deadlines. About the trade delegation, I also set an alarm for phone calls from 2 to 4P.M., the most effective telesales periods in Vietnam, of course, I have to spend about 1 hour faxing the documents to my targeted customers beforehand. So after 5 days, I got each Korean companies about 3 – 4 Vietnamese interested customers. The defense meetings are mostly set up in the morning from 10 to 11:30, when military officers were most willing to meet with us. I stayed in the office about 1 hour late, just to summarize all things I’ve done during the day and see what’s left to cover to adjust in my time table.
8. Tell me about a time when you were confronted by a fellow student, co-
worker or a customer. How did you handle it to resolve the conflict?
It was also during the project in Sichuan, I was confronted by a member from marketing team since she didn’t agree with me on the program set up for what we called “student program” targeting student users. She would like to expand the budgets for this program and reduces it from another program. And I wouldn’t agree on that. Instead I sat with her and drafted her alternative with some cost variables, showing her that the cost per user is actually higher using her alternative. I did ask another colleague to invite us both
to lunch, just my gesture but she didn’t know it. And we are cool afterwards, even become close friends.
9. Tell me about a time you were faced with a difficult situation and how
you handled it.
One of the thing I hate the most in my current job was that I have too many “bosses” at the same time: 01 from investment; 01 from marketing and the other from research. One day the boss from marketing assign me a task that due in 2 days. So I hang that up because I had something due right away and the day after But on the day afterwards, he said to me: “Trang the task I assigned you yesterday, you wouldn’t do it, right? You just want to do Mr. K assignments” Mr. K was my boss in research. So what I did at that time was to sit in the office until 12 o’clock in the evening to complete every task. I wasn’t really happy about it but at least I don’t receive a lot of unfair complains from my bosses. Another difficult time was when I had a delegation from Vietnam to A, in which the A side had promised to pay the air tickets for Vietnamese companies. So I did fill in the payment on the Vietnam side and make all the payments. However, just because my boss forgot to fill in the documents on the A side, our office did not receive any money. So my boss asked me to ask my Vietnamese customers to return the money. I was freaking out and said that he was the one who told me about the sponsorships. He just denied it. Luckily he sent me the assignments in email so I can forward it back to him. But I still had to ask my customers to repay in the end. I said that it was my fault not to fill in documents, and I could come and pick up the money not bothering my customers to make the transfers. Luckily, the delegation was quite successful and my customers weren’t so mad. Some even ask me whether it was my boss who made the mistakes. They said they have been with A for too long. They kinda get it. But afterwards, my A boss actually never emails me on any assignments, smart guy. I had a way to deal with him too. Because his English wasn’t very good orally so I pretended that I don’t understand him when he talked to me. Instead, I gave him my memo so that he can write on. He did try to repeat the situation afterwards. I showed him the notes and asked him: “Whose handwriting is this?” I quit the job shortly afterwards. And The Office’s Former general director asked me: “Was that because of the marketing boss?” and I said “Yes”. I don’t like him but it was a very great experience.
10. Tell me about a mistake you made and how you handled it.
It was not exactly a mistake that I made out of carelessness but it had really serious consequences. On one occasion, I was helping this … company exporting seaweed to Vietnam and I did find a customer, who would like to purchase a container for US$40,000. And because seaweed is food so we needed certification from the Korean company. They sent me a scan copy of certification from Hong Kong, and said the original certification would come when the container arrived.
13. How will you make the world a better place?
Well, I can’t. I am too small and the world is too big. But I hope that if I am admitted into [the university applying to] MBA program, I can somehow find my way to influence people in my country to create a better sustainable Vietnam before actually thinking of such a macro purposes.
14. If you could have dinner with someone (living or dead), who would that
person be?
I would like to have dinner with Michael Dell. I know that Dell Inc. was no longer an empire as it used to be. But Michael Dell did create a system that worked for years and became a billionaire out of it – mass customization. I think it is the appropriate approach for many Vietnamese businesses right now. So if only I could meet him, I would really appreciate such opportunities.
Field Specific Questions & Current Events:
1. What do you believe to be the major trends in your intended career field
at this time?
Currently, many organizations have stepped into sustainability issues in Vietnam. Most significantly USAid programs in enhancing transparencies in government policies and law enforcements. UKAid is supporting by sponsoring different matching funds programs for sustainable businesses. Neitherland SNV also becomes very active in Vietnam as well.
2. What do you think about _____________ (current event)?
3. What problem in the world troubles you most? What would you do
about it?
Things that trouble me the most is the continuous military conflicts amongst nations in the world for economic benefits. The Ukraine case hasn’t been closed yet. I remember my father was in Ukraine a week prior to the conflict. If he was late one week, I think I’d never see him again. I don’t want that to happen. Vietnam is facing the same issue. The Asia Pacific conflict with China has never been hotter. As far as I know, there were about 700 to 800 hundred Vietnamese people died every two week in protection of our homeland against Chinese military forces. Admittedly, Vietnam is an easy target for China since it is not as developed as other countries in Asia Pacific like Korea and Japan. So I think hands in hands with improvement in the Vietnam defense system, I can also contribute myself to a sustainable long-term economic growth of the nation. Many corruption cases in Vietnam had to do with Chinese people staying in my country and corrupted our officers. Chinese want to beat Vietnam economically as well.
But with the knowledge I will gain at [the university applying to], I join forces with many other Vietnamese experts to push back both economic and military threats from our neighboring country. If I can succeed on that, I may go beyond and address other world problems.
4. What is the most important development in this field over the past 25
years, and why?
In Vietnam, I would say the problems are only getting worse over the past 25 years, or should I say 10 years. Ever since the stock market is made available in Vietnam, many people got wealthy without knowing the reasons underlying such wealth. Many companies are established, and over 60% of which are financial firms. Well, financial firms are good but only if they are backed by an economy that manufactures actual values. The only thing Vietnam can do for right now is assemble, not producing. Machineries, parts and materials are mostly imported from other countries. Not to mention countless cases of environmental pollutions due to the industrialization processes. Nothing is sustainable in Vietnam. I think Vietnam is aware of its problem and in its initial stage of taking some actions and I am the kind who don’t want to wait and see. I am the kind to move forward and take some actions during this transition stage.
