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Don&#39;t shy away from having yourself videotaped and critiqued at yourcareer center. These programs are always voluntary - but students don&#39;talways take advantage.&lt;p&gt;Most MBA career centers offer the opportunity for students to do a mockinterview, which is normally videotaped. These mock interviews areconducted either by professional career counselors or by second-yearstudents, and mock interviewees are given the videotape of theircritique to watch at home (again and again.). Students may choose whatkind of interview they&#39;d like to receive: consulting, venture capital,and so on.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What mistakes are commonly unearthed by the videotaped interview? Onecareer counselor says that he finds that &quot;most MBAs don&#39;t have theirstory down. They can&#39;t elaborate why they came to business school, andwhy they want to work in the industry.&quot; The finest candidates are ableto describe their background and career history and make a pitch aboutwhy they are interested in the firm, all in a minute or less.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another problem - surprising for confident MBAs - is that manyapparently &quot;can&#39;t elaborate their strengths. They have them, but can&#39;tsell them. They are too modest.&quot; While there&#39;s no use demurring whenexplicating your good points, career center professionals warn that&quot;there is a danger of tooting your horn too much&quot; - so make sure you&#39;renot making any claims for competency you can&#39;t back up with relevantexperience.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In general, say career counselors, to take advantage of their mockinterview, students should take it as seriously as possible. While notrequired, many MBAs dress professionally &quot;to get themselves in theinterviewing mindset.&quot; Some students even schedule a mock interview anhour before their real interview - so that the feedback from theinterviewer is fresh in their minds.~&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Good mock interviewers will go over the interview with MBAs to assesstheir strengths and weaknesses as a candidate. The best candidatesexpress enthusiasm, show the ability to organize thoughts, finishquestions with a complete yet succinct answer, demonstrate knowledge ofthe industry and its particular lingo, and cut down on annoyingmannerisms and body language (tics, leaning forward, wandering eyes,etc.).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Career counselors usually take their questions, no matter how nutty,from actual interviews. &quot;While the incidence of trick questions,brainteasers and oddball questions is decreasing, they do pop up.&quot; Oneactual question (which is apparently making the rounds with realinterviewers): &quot;If it could rain music, what would grow?&quot; &quot;Don&#39;tsmirk, be creative,&quot; urges the career counselor.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mock interviewers also coach MBAs on appropriate answers. &quot;Forexample,&quot; explains one mock interviewer, &quot;many candidates are asked toname their top three weaknesses. Answering with your actual weaknessesis not a good idea. So when I identify a student&#39;s weaker point - maybethey are weak on real teamwork experience - we strategize on anappropriate answer. It&#39;s better to say something like &quot;I wouldn&#39;t callthem weaknesses, but there are three areas in which I still have room togrow,&quot; and then choose three areas that are not deal-breakers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do interviewers thus end up hearing the same canned answers over andover again? &quot;I do hear from some interviewers at certain schools - notmine! - that they do hear identical answers to certain questions,&quot; saysone insider. &quot;My advice to students is to always put answers into theirown words.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;

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