IESE MBA Frequently Asked Interview Questions

1. Tell me something about yourself?
2. Walk me through your resume?
3. Why MBA? Why IESE school?
4. Why MBA now or Why MBA at this stage of your career?
5. What is your short & long term goals?
6. What is your Plan B if consulting/Investment banking does not happen?
7. What are your key strengths? Can you give some examples please?
8. What is your biggest weakness ? Can you give some examples please?
9. How can you add value to the Class?
10. Why should we take you?
11. One reason that we should not select you?
12. Interests and Hobbies – Be prepared!.. questions as basic as “Why do you do poetry (or any other activity” may be asked.
13. Some Situational & Behavioral Question
    • What would you describe are your greatest achievement to date?
    • Give me an example of a time you faced a conflict while working on a team. How did you handle that?
    • Give me an example of a time when you did not meet a client’s expectation. What happened, and how did you attempt to rectify the situation?
14. Case questions are fairly common in MBA interview especially for consulting aspirants. Below are a few sample for to practice for:
    • How many Golf balls can fit in a Boeing 747?
    • What’s the global market size for smartphones?
15. Do you have any Question for us?

IESE MBA Interview Questions – 1

The interview lasted for an hour. Questions were asked from all my spheres of life and general awareness about world economy, globalization and work experience. The interviewer really made me feel comfortable, which made the environment of the interview relaxed. It’s important to be relaxed during an interview. They just want to know more about you as a person and your thoughts behind doing MBA and its fit with your long-term goals of career.

• Tell about experience to date?
• Why MBA? Why now?
• Why IESE?
• At work, most interesting project?
• How do I compare NYC, LA, and Chicago (since I’ve worked in all)?
• What interests me outside of work?
• How am I funding my MBA?
• Am I applying to other schools?
• She asked about some courses in college which were weaker.
• She asked what podcasts I like to listen to? Since I mentioned podcasts in an essay

IESE MBA Interview Questions – 2

It is quite formal. I got the interview with Patrik Wallen in his office. The interview was supposed to last 60 minutes but I stayed for 90 minutes. He had my complete application file (resume, essays, etc…) with him.

First, we introduced each other and then we talked about my education, my profesionnal career, my current job and why I wanted to do an MBA at IESE (my motivation, my goals, why IESE,…). Try to prepare this part to the perfection because I think that this question will arise with every interviewer. You have to convince him that you are the right person for that.
Then he wanted to know how I react to different situation such as a conflict with my boss or a college/a problem in my current job/…This part is a little bit tricky as it is not very easy to be prepared. IESE has a strong human approach that you won’t find in other schools so I suggest to consider the “human” factor in your answers.
Finally, at the end of the interview, make sure to have some questions to ask. It will be very weird if you have nothing to ask.
In conclusion, my advices are :
1) Be prepared to talk about yourself (education, career, etc…);
2) Be sure to know why you want to come to IESE and not to the another business schools;
3) Stay relax and be yourself ? it sounds a little cheesy but I think that is really important  ?

For the AD, it is quite formal as well.
First, you have to do a brief presentation of yourself in 2-3 minutes and explain an unique thing about you.
Then, you’ll be working on a case study in a group of 6-8 people. At the end, you have to do a presentation of your work with your group. There is no “right” answer to the case study, whatever the path that your group might choose, be convincing!!!
My best advice for the AD is to stay focus all day even though it is long and exhausting. The Adcom members will observe the students all day so try to give a good impression. Be open and don’t be shy.

Good luck everyone  ?

IESE MBA Interview Questions – 3

I just had my interview last wednesday, and the questions were pretty much the same as what you would google (IESE personal interview questions)

Really revolves around this:

Describe your childhood until the beginning of university. What was your greatest achievement during this time?

Why did you choose your university?

Describe your undergraduate experience

Describe your employment history

Why an MBA? Why now?

Why IESE?

What other schools have you applied to?

What are your short-term and long-term career goals?

Name three firms you’d like to work for after the MBA.

Have you visited the campus? Have you spoken with any alumni?

Describe a situation where you used your network to achieve something.

Is there anything else you’d like the Adcom to know about you?

also, What value can you bring to the school?

and, since you’ll be with teams throughout your first year stay, what role do you see yourself playing in the team?

My interview was through a videocall and it was a very very light and casual conversation.

Just be yourself during the interview. Im sure they can tell whether or not you really want to be admitted into the school or not

PS, just got invited to the AD in singapore on the 29th of Nov. Who’ll be there?

IESE MBA Interview Questions – 4

Interviewer: Itziar De Ros

Location: NYC

Time: 4pm

I was schedule for 4pm with Jessica Smith but perhaps due to changes in schedules/availability Itziar-admissions director- interviewed me. (be prepared for such things in case you research on your interviewer beforehand and someone else shows up)

She introduced herself, gave a brief background and opened up the interview:

– Tell me about yourself

– Walk me through your choice of school, career path and experience

– Why MBA

– Why IESE

– How are you planning to achieve your short-term long term goal?

– what other schools have you applied to?

– Leadership situation

– manage conflict situation

– deliver bad news situation

– how do you plan to finance your education

– What do you like to do outside work/hobbies etc.

Although these look less number of questions but there were continual follow-ups throughout.

I did not experience anything unexpected except the way the questions were structured sometimes could be tricky and not straightforward as “tell me about yourself” etc. So I strongly advice all of you to direct your interviewer to the questions you want to be asked and lead the conversation. (start off with whatever being asked but end with something that naturally prompts the interviewer for the next question)

Overall, I think it went OK for me. I did not get a good read of the interviewer. I didn’t connect with her completely nor was she disengaged. I would rate my performance as mediocre since I stumbled through a couple of follow up questions.

Regardless, looking forward to the assessment day!

IESE MBA Interview Questions – 5

1.tell me about your childhood & who influences you a lot?

2.why did you choose your major in university?

3.what kind of activity or club you join after work?

4.biggest challenge

5.leadership experience

6.use 4 words to describe yourself

7.teamwork experience

8.use 1 min to introduce yourself to the adcom

9.talk about your cross cultural experience

10.your biggest weakness that you can never win others

11.why MBA / why now / why IESE

12.how do you finance yourself

13.long term & short term goal

14.Name 3 companies you want to work after MBA

15.What if you are not admitted?

16.how do you define success?

17.What do you believe in your life?

18.Any questions?

I’m in Korea to do F2F and just finish it. Hope someone will fly to Singapore

as well and we can have a meet. My adcom is Dongmei Song. I haven’t received the assessment day email.