ESADE SPAIN MBA Interview
ESADE Business School appreciates if you try to meet them in person. The extra effort to come to an Interview Day in your region, or an On-Campus Session in Barcelona, shows ESADE how serious you are about the process. Also, be prepared to ask plenty of good questions in the interview!
ESADE Business School is open minded regarding the candidate’s work experience, education, and the post-MBA goals, but when they are reviewing the application – and especially in the interview stage of the process – the school wants to see consistency and sincerity in responses.
The interview can occur with or without a case study. If the case study is included, the process can last a couple of hours whereas if no case study is included it will be over in 40 – 50 minutes.
Who will interview you, and how long will the interview last?
Like most B-schools, the ESADE 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.
ESADE MBA Frequently Asked Interview Questions
Professional experience-related questions
- Tell me something about yourself, or Walk me through your resume.
- What are your short-term and long-term goals?
- Why MBA? or Why now? or Why an MBA at this stage of your career?
- Why ESADE?
- What is your Plan B? in case your primary goal does not happen?
Personal qualities-related questions
- What are your key strengths? Can you give some examples, please?
- What are your key weaknesses? Can you give some examples, please?
- How can you add value to the Class? or Why should we take you?
- Any reasons why we should not select you?
- Interests and Hobbies related questions – why do you do it, what have you achieved/learned?
Frequently Asked Situational & Behavioral Questions
- What is your leadership style? Can you give an example of a project you led?
- What would you describe are your greatest achievement to date?
- Give me an example of a time you failed.
- Give me an example of a time you faced a conflict. How did you handle that?
- Give me an example of a time when you did not meet a client’s expectations. What happened, and how did you attempt to rectify the situation?
The last one – Do you have any questions for us?
- Can you please tell me how international exchange students and schools are assigned?
- How club leadership is selected?
- Any other questions you may have in regards to the program.
ESADE MBA Interview Questions – 1
Okay, so a round of interviews has started in India as some of you may know. Katie is conducting them in Delhi at the moment, and I had mine yesterday. I was a little bit worried about the case study, but I needn’t have been. If you were good at GMAT Comprehension, then this should be easy! You just have to summarise the article they give you and answer a few questions in presentation format. I had my notes in bullet points and expounded from there.
The rest of the interview is simply a chance to sell yourself. There are probing questions, but only to get to know you better. There isn’t any stress or putting you under pressure. Just make sure you can answer all the standard MBA interview questions in depth. She is very friendly throughout and it is almost semi formal – some parts of the interview may become like a discussion or even a chat. I think you have to work hard to sell yourself in such a situation, yet maintain a balance, and not overdo it. I came away with a positive feeling, but it is difficult to assess your chances after such an interview as she probably would not show it if you did badly. I know it is a cliché, but you really need to be yourself in this interview as they are trying to genuinely determine if you would be a good fit for the school, which would be mutually beneficial.
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My interview experience was very extremely good. The interviewer was very professional in terms of punctuality and preparedness to conduct my interview. She had really done her homework and had prepared questions that managed to touch upon every important aspect of my online application.
My tip: Go through your essays again, it’s a one-hour interview and one last brush-up will help you structure your thoughts. In my experience, I was answering all of my written essay questions verbally during that one hour.
Another highlight of the interview was how it seemed more like a conversation, rather than being a standard one-hour grilling session that most people expect at a big school or organisation. This really worked well for me.
Also, have all of your questions ready, my interviewer really encouraged questions. It was around my questions that the conversation was built and I believe that this enabled me to structure my interview better
ESADE MBA Interview Questions – 3
The interview experience as mentioned by a few others on this forum was indeed wonderful. It is known that ESADE admissions team focus most on the candidate’s background, goals and motivation. In my case, it was no different. Moreover, I had the opportunity to connect with the admissions director and some members of the local alumni network during an admissions event before I submitted the application on 9/30. I felt this went in my favor and so by the time the final interview happened over Skype on 10/16, the admissions team was well aware of my background. I received the acceptance note this morning. A beautiful coincidence but it was the best birthday gift I could have asked for!
ESADE MBA Interview Questions – 4
My interview was with Katie on 4th December in Mumbai.
The interview started with a case study (as they call it). But it was more of a reading comprehension than a case study. It was some article from economic times which discussed about strategy and audits with 5 questions in the end.. Too difficult for me… One of the questions was to write a letter summarizing the article.
The above exercise went on for an hour. After that, Katie asked me to answer each question from the case. (It was not a written exercise).
After answering each question, the formal interview started. Notable thing about ESADE interview is that they want to know everything about you…. Katie was extremely cool and humble… she asked me everything about my work, my background, my hobbies, everything. Some work related questions were, What is the most constructive feedback you have received, What is your learning from your experience, strengths, weakness, biggest contribution, etc. It continued for one hour. SO one should be prepared to answer questions from every possible topic. Questions were only focused on me as a person and as a professional. My suggestion to everyone is to go there with a cool mind.. You are going to be interviewed by a person who genuinely wants to know you and wont grill you at all
ESADE MBA Interview Questions – 5
The interview was composed of two parts. First, a case interview. You will have 45 minutes to read a relatively short story about a company and then you will have to draw some slides and present it. Don’t worry, it was not hard. Second, general interview questions, but really I felt very comfortable during the whole interview. Basically we were talking about what would be the best decision for me, how ESADE could help me on my career path. That really makes me feel how people-oriented this school is.
ESADE MBA Interview Questions – 6
My interview was with Albert and it was great! Very comfortable and conversational. We talked mostly about things on my resume, my experiences, why I picked the program. Was also asked some questions like “If 20 years from now you’re on the cover of TIME magazine, what would you want it to say about you?” This was the third interview I had done so I was pretty comfortable answering these types of questions. I made sure I was sincere with my answers and that I made it a point to mention things that I believe made me stand out like the fact that even though I have been a varsity softball player for 5 years, I still excelled in my academics. I also mentioned things I knew about ESADE like how it was well-ranked and focused on working in teams and how I believe I’d make a great addition to the program.
ESADE MBA Interview Questions – 7
I had my interview in the first round application and i got admitted at ESADE. I will be joining the program in August. My interview was over the phone.. here are some of the questions I was asked
- Why european schools (i am applying to only european schools hence the question)
- Why MBA and Why esade.
- A situational question ” in Esade teamwork is of importance and your grades are dependent on the team’s performance, having said that how would you deal with a situation where some of the team members are not pulling their weight”
- Where would you want to work post MBA
- How did you land your job? how do you get customer leads.
- how would i contribute to ESADE MBA class?
other questions were with my background and stuff. the interviewer wanted to know more about me as a person. I got positive feedback on the questions I had asked the admission director and also on the overall I was told I am very focused. the interview lasted 45-50 mins
ESADE MBA Interview Questions – 8
My interview was away from the Campus with Advisory committee. I was Interviewed on: Jan 10, 23. The Ultimate Decision was that I was Admitted.
“There were no unexpected questions during the interview. Every question was based on my resume and application materials. There were questions such as:
1. Keeping the answer to 2-3 mins, please tell me about yourself.
2. Why pursue an MBA at this time in your career?
3. What aspects of your current job do you enjoy, and what aspects do you not?
4. Which other institutions did you apply to, why did you choose ESADE, and why did you not apply to those other schools?
5. Inquiries regarding the extracurricular activities that were described in the application essays.
6. Did you speak to any alumni or current students ?
7. If you get into college without a scholarship, are you going to plan to continue?
8. Your short-term and long-term goals, as well as how the school will assist you in achieving them
It wasn’t really an interview, so much as an exchange of thoughts between the two of us. lasted for around 45 minutes.
