Cranfield MBA Interview
All applicants who appear to have the appropriate entrance requirements are invited to come to Cranfield for one of the regularly scheduled interview days. Cranfiled, strongly encourage overseas candidates to visit campus for an interview day. If this is not possible, candidates will be arranged for a telephone interview with a member of the faculty. Processing applications and arranging interviews overseas normally takes up to 2 weeks. The Cranfield Interview panel will evaluate each candidate’s performance in terms of quality of work experience, diversity, leadership qualities, social sensitivity, and multifacetedness.
Who will interview you, and how long will the interview last?
Like most B-schools, the UCD Smurfit interview is taken by a Panel. The Panel usually consists of 2-3 professors. The interview typically lasts for 25-30 minutes or may extend to 35-40 minutes in some instances.
Will the interviewer have read my application?
It is always safer to assume that the Panel members have access to your complete application. In most instances, they would have read it completely. Unless the school specifically says that it will be an blind interview. Mostly North American Business schools in US and Canada have an Blind interviews, European and SE Asian schools conduct interviews via Alums or panels which have full access to your entire application.
How can you prepare for your interview?
Like most MBA Interviews, your interview will mainly revolve around a pretty similar set of MBA interview questions. You can never predict what questions will be asked, but with enough research, you can predict what are the most commonly asked questions in these interviews. We have created a short FAQ list below to get you a jump start, and we also have a free guide linked below to help you prepare for these commonly asked interview questions.
Cranfield School of Management MBA Frequently Asked Interview Questions
- Tell me something about yourself?
- Walk me through your resume?
- Why MBA? Cranfield?
- Why MBA now or Why MBA at this stage of your career?
- What is your short & long term goals?
- What is your Plan B if consulting/Investment banking does not happen?
- What are your key strengths? Can you give some examples please?
- What is your biggest weakness ? Can you give some examples please?
- How can you add value to the Class?
- Why should we take you?
- One reason that we should not select you?
- Interests and Hobbies – Be prepared!.. questions as basic as “Why do you do poetry (or any other activity” may be asked.
- 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?
- 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?
- Do you have any Question for us?
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Cranfield MBA Interview Questions – 1
Yesterday I had my Cranfield interview. It was one of the best interviews , rather discussion as mentioned by interviewer. I get to know Cranfield better and I would like to share here. Cranfield is mainly meant for senior guys who have around 5-7 years of experience and this is obvious from their class profile. Also average age of their class is around 31. To me , Cranfield is a friendly , experienced , mature and prestigious management institute. Their method of teaching and curriculum is a bit different as well.
Overall interview was quite good. Around 20 min were spent on presentation and related discussion. After that we discussed about WHY MBA , WHY Cranfield. Also there were questions related to work experiences , leadership abilities and personality.
All the best!
Cranfield MBA Interview Questions – 2
Hi Guys,
My telephonic interview lasted a little more than an hour.
The following questions were asked:
1. Why did you chose XYZ as the business leader you admire most?
2. Have you met XYZ?
3. What are the characteristics that you found attractive in XYZ?
4. How do you relate your abilities with abilities of XYZ?
5. What leadership qualities do you pocess?
6. Give me an example where you proved your leadership abilities?
7. Are you a leader or a manager? What is the difference?
8. How would your subordinates/project team members describe you?
9. What are your weaknesses?
10. If “pqr” is your weakness, give me an example where this happened and what did you do about it?
11. Why Cranfield?
12. How did you come to know about Cranfield?
13. Why MBA now?
14. In your opinion, how does Cranfield stand apart from the rest of the MBA schools?
15. What would you gain from your MBA?
16. Your most significant professional achievement?
17. Case study: 10 minutes
18. My questions
I hope this helps other candidates. You can PM me if you have more questions!t]
Cranfield MBA Interview Questions – 3
Had my interview on tuesday with Sean Rickard. I heard back today that I have been admitted to the program. So here is the de-brief:
FYI – my essay topic for the interview was business leader that I admired the most.
1) General question about career experience
2) Business leader – quick presentation on qualities of the leader I had chosen followed by questions on entrepreneurship, people skills, corporate responsibility of the leader. Final question was of the three characteristics that was discussed earlier which one is most important in my opinion.
3) Question on American economy and the role of the market in creating this crisis. (This is where I messed up. I initially answered incorrectly and he had to repeat the question. I felt that even after that my answer was unsatisfactory).
4) Questions on why Cranfield and what do I think on the learning environment of Cranfield, i.e., lots of discussion in the classroom.
5) My questions
6) Sean suggested that I look into accommodation fairly early if selected as I hope to travel with my family.
7) Wished me luck and said that I should hear back by thursday.
I prepared for the interview by going through my essays and the interview experiences.
Cranfield MBA Interview Questions – 4
Today I had an interview call with Mr. David Simmons. It was a more than one hour discussion. Very insightful and never knew when the one hour went by. The only tricky part was the presentation, but then even before entering the program, Cranfield succeeded in providing challenging and thought provoking assignment. I am really interested in Cranfield due to its high acceptance of more than 10+ years of work experience candidates.
Hope to get in..
Cranfield MBA Interview Questions – 5
I was interviewed online on Skype. My Interview was on Feb 20, 19
The Ultimate Decision: Admitted
The interview lasted for a total of half an hour. Every one of the questions is really standard.
1) Please describe both your short-term and long-term objectives.
2) Why an MBA and why a career in Cranfield?
3) What got you interested in getting an MBA?
4) If you are accepted, how will you contribute something of value to the group?
5) Describe to me the most difficult obstacle that you overcame within the past few months, as well as the part that you played in convincing other members during the process.
6) Describe some of the things you do in your spare time and explain the criteria you used to pick them.
7) How has the trajectory of your career changed?
These are the questions that were put to me at the interview. The interview went really well, and the person who interviewed me told me that I would be informed of the choice no later than two weeks after the interview. I was fortunate enough to be notified during the first week.”
Cranfield MBA Interview Questions – 6
