Mountbatten Program Interview Questions
& Process

You start by submitting an application with your CV, a personal statement, and the Mountbatten profile, which covers work history and career goals. After an initial screening, you'll get an interview with Mountbatten program managers. This interview focuses on understanding you, your goals for the placement, and basic competency questions. You'll also need to submit more documents and complete extra application questions to help Mountbatten match you with a suitable placement. If successful, you'll resubmit your CV and personal statement with any edits suggested during the interview. Then comes the waiting period for placement, which took me from Nov 2019 to Feb 2020. Once placed, you'll have a host interview, usually a relaxed phone call, though sometimes video. My host interview had two parts: a 30-minute chat with the hiring manager about your CV and fit, followed by a 30-minute interview with the global head of the department and the current Mountbatten member to discuss your CV, skills, and competency questions. You can ask questions at the end. You'll hear back within 24 hours if you're successful. After that, you sign a contract and begin the visa application process, with lots of guidance from Mountbatten. This involves filling out forms and paying fees before scheduling your US embassy interview. Finally, there's an American Democracy video with a short assessment before you depart. The whole Mountbatten process is thorough but designed for you to pass.

The interview was an intensive 1 hour session. The interviewers came prepared with a list of about 5 pages of questions. Most questions were generic and designed to understand my awareness of the business environment. There was also intensive questioning focused on my current role and responsibilities. One of the questions was, 'What did you read in the newspaper recently?'. It felt like a boring interview, very rigid because they had a set list of questions.

You might think this program is super competitive but it's really not - if you apply and have some decent office experience, they'll likely be interested. So, make sure your aims and objectives for the program are clear. The ladies in the London office are really nice and genuinely want you in the program if they think you're a good fit. It starts with a large group, but don't get psyched out – you aren't really competing; they just want to see if you can handle a year abroad working for a huge company.

They invited me to London for an interview, where they first briefed me on the process and the whole experience. The interview itself lasted an hour. They reviewed my CV and personal statement and asked me questions about my suitability for the programme, how I would fund it, and what my plan would be if I didn't get onto the programme. Although the interview seemed to go well, I didn't have enough work experience to move on. They discussed the next stage and how I could improve my CV and personal statement for it, which gave me false hope. I was really disappointed at the time that I didn't get accepted.