ESADE

"The interview was very straightforward. All questions were asked from resume & the application. Questions included: 1. Tell me about yourself in 2-3mins. 2. Why MBA at this point in your career ? 3. What do you like & dislike about your current job? 4. Which other schools you applied to, why ESADE & why not those schools? 5. Questions about the extra curriculars mentioned in the application essays. 6. Did you talk to any alumni or current students ? 7. IF admitted without scholarship, will you go ahead ? 8. Short term & Long term goals & how the school will help It was more of a conversation than an interview. Lasted for around 45minutes."

"The interview is fairly straight forward - they want to understand your fit for the culture, your soft skills, motivation for the program and the school, do you understand your short/long term goals & past professional experiences. In my case, she was particularly interested in understanding 2-3 specific chunks out of my work ex, my extra curricular and my international exposure. I got my admit in December"

"I interviewed with the admissions director. She was amazing to speak with. The conversation went very smoothly. The questions were as follows: 1. What other schools have you applied to? Have you got admits from any? and scholarships from any? 2. What is your short term post MBA goal and then long term? 3. Tell me about yourself in 2 minutes 4. What do you like about your current role? 5. What do you dislike about your current role? 6. What would you say are your top 3 strengths? 7. Areas that you'd like to improve on via the MBA programme? 8. Soft Skills that you would want to highlight? 9. Why MBA at this point in your career? 10. Any questions I have The interview lasted about 45 minutes"

"I was interviewed through Zoom. In no particular order 1) If we aren't able to provide scholarships, would you be able to join ESADE? 2) In one minute, a brief about yourself 3) Describe yourself in three words 4) A Constructive feedback 5) Why ESADE 6) How is ESADE different from other schools 7) Why MBA 8) Post MBA Goals 9) Consider that I am a friend, tell me about ESADE in a minute 10) Have you connected with Alumni? 11) Any questions to me? 12) One strength that you have and one skill that you want to improve 13) How will your cohort benefit from you"

"1 about my current position and experience 2 entrepreneurial journey and experience 3 examples of leadership quality 4 why Esade 5 as an Esade representative , convince the interviewer to choose Esade 6 compare yourself with a brand 7 post Mba goals 8 why should you be chosen for the program 9 describe yourself in a very short sentence"

"I had my interview on 7th October... interview questions were as usual.. discussed on the following topics 1. About my professional exp., 2. International exposur, 3. A brief about my entrepreneurial venture., 4. More questions on my current profession, 5. Why Esade and which other schools.. if admitted which college would I chose and why. My interview was on skype and lasted for 1 hr"

"This interview is for ESADE MSc Business Analytics Interview. The interview was pretty conversational, nothing too difficult or technical. - It was mostly about my CV, - why this particular course, - why ESADE, - what are my goals after graduating and - how ESADE can help me. The interview lasted about 45 minutes. I don't how it went, because the kind of questions that were asked don't really have a right or wrong answer, so I don't know what to expect."

"Round 1 Interview - Sept 2019 Intake; Location: Mumbai The interview took place with 1 AdCom member. The setting was a comfortable coffee shop of an upscale hotel in Mumbai. On the whole, the interview was extremely relaxed and detailed. The interviewer genuinely seemed interested in knowing about me as an individual and about my profile in depth. She did not interrupt me even when I somewhat spoke at length about some experience or my personal motivations as a response to some question of hers. To reiterate, the interview was indeed quite detailed. It lasted approx. 50 minutes. And almost all of the questions any applicant would prepare for were asked by her. Some of the questions asked are listed below (in no particular order): 1) Tell me something about yourself. Notes: I dove right in giving her a background of my education, work experience, the motivation for my decision to pursue an MBA along with its genesis, my subsequent actions to show my seriousness about MBA, and why MBA is the perfect way to achieve my goals. 2) Why ESADE? Notes: Listed 4-5 USPs of ESADE - Brand Value, Flexible MBA, Exhaustive list of B-Schools for International Exchanges, Network of alumni, especially in Europe and Asia. I also added that it is a 1 year course, which means I minimise my loss of work ex. And it is an European B-school, which is important because I want to work in the EU. Plus, I mentioned that I had done my due diligence by actively reaching out to an ESADE alumnus and finding out important details. (ESADE appreciates such initiative of reaching out and connecting with alumni. It is important to highlight this.) 3) Why you? 4) But you have low work experience. Notes: More work ex in my current field won't further my goal - MBA is the only appropriate tool to shift fields. Plus, hours spent per week at work were extreme. Converted the number of hours into equivalent months of work ex, and explained how they add up to more than double my current work ex. So effectively, actual work ex (in number of hours) perfectly fits the profile of the average student at ESADE, i.e., 5-5.5 years at the time of joining. (While this is obviously not very accurate or convincing, the idea was to show my confidence in fitting in at ESADE, managing the work load and that I had put in enough thought before applying to ESADE and coming to interview). 5) Which industry do you want to work in after your MBA? Where do you see yourself in 8 years? Notes: Listed out my short term (right after MBA), medium term (8-10 years) and long-term (ultimate objective) goals. Also, named a few companies in my industry of interest who have a long standing relationship with ESADE (to show my familiarity with ESADE's employment report). 6) What is your proudest achievement - personal or professional? 7) What is your biggest flaw? 8) If we bump into a colleague of yours in this hotel, and then we get talking. And then you excuse yourself to visit the washroom. In those 2-5 minutes that you are gone, if I ask your colleague what they think about you and ask them to describe you, what will they say? 9) GOOGLY - Now imagine you are in my place - an ESADE AdCom member, and I am a prospective applicant. How would you sell ESADE to me in 30 seconds? Go. Notes: Gave a quick description (essentially an elevator pitch) of ESADE USPs. She appeared to be both pleased and amused by my answer. (ESADE often likes to throw such apparently weird questions. The important thing is to not get flustered. They are essentially normal questions that you have prepared for, presented in a twisted manner. In my case, she was essentially asking a repeat of a question she had asked earlier - why ESADE? To be able to answer her question (by selling ESADE to a prospective applicant) I had to have done my research on ESADE and then list out the things that I like about this B-school.) 10) Now flip our current scenario. You are an ESADE AdCom member and I am an applicant. What qualities or characteristics will you look for in me during the interview, to determine whether I will be a good fit for ESADE? Notes: Named the personal characteristics similar to the ones I had listed about myself in the previous questions. (The idea is to link your profile with the suitable profile for an ESADE applicant.) 11) How would you contribute to ESADE? 12) How do plan on getting practical experience during your MBA? Notes: Spoke about the Business Labs program and the importance of mixing practical experience with theoretical knowledge. 13) Are you aware of Career Acceleration Program? Notes: I had no idea. So I said I was aware of the existence of the Program but was not too familiar with the details. She then spoke about the Program, explained what it does and how it would help me. 14) What do you do to relax / what do you do in your free time? Notes: Named a sport - described how it calms me, gives me time to reflect and get away from the stress of life and work for a few hours every week. Also, passionate about Formula 1. 15) But if you have such a stressful life, how do you find time to play your sport? Notes: If you are serious and passionate about something, you can always find time and make time for it. I understand the importance of taking time off and resetting / recharging batteries. (Idea was to highlight that I understand the importance of maintaining work-life balance and that I am not a unidimensional workhorse.) 16) You said you watch Formula 1 races live. Where have you watched such races? 17) Have you travelled abroad? How many countries have you visited? 18) Give an example of how you found differences in cultures during your travels abroad. 19) How will you handle the stress and manage the course-load and various demands of the MBA program? Notes: College + work ex till now has been so intense, that multitasking comes naturally. Course-load and stress will not be an issue. 20) How comfortable will you be living in Spain for 1-1.5 years? 21) Are you aware that ESADE and other B-schools in Europe are not like Indian B-schools. There are no campus placements, and students are expected to actively work towards securing the job placements on their own. 22) What will you do if you do not get secure a job in Europe and have to return to India? Notes: No problem. I know it is certainly a possibility. But India in the short term does not mean I cannot make a lateral shift to the EU a few years down the line. So not too worried. 23) How do you plan to finance the MBA program? 24) Which other B-schools have you applied to? And why? Notes: Mentioned the ones I had already mentioned in my submitted application. Rationale - Top 1 year MBA B-schools in the EU. Which fit my goals and requirements. 25) What will you do if you get admission offers from any or all of these other B-schools you have applied to? Notes: This is always a tricky question. Especially when the other B-schools you have applied to are regarded as better ones. I replied by stating that I would still choose ESADE because of the batch size. The other top B-schools in EU have batch sizes ranging from 500-800. Whereas ESADE is between 180 and 200. I would want a smaller batch size to forge meaningful relationships and deeper connections with my cohort, something which would not be possible in a big batch. 26) If someone is not doing their part in a team, how will you handle the situation? 27) Do you have any questions for me? Notes: Asked her two pre-planned questions - 1) How important is it to know Advanced Spanish and / or Catalan to work in Spain, especially Barcelona? and 2) What is the selection procedure for the international exchange program as that information is not provided on the website. On the whole, it was quite an enjoyable interview, not stressful at all. Before leaving, I asked them AdCom member when we could expect to hear some replies by, just to get an idea. She said it will take at least 2-3 weeks, but they informed me of the admission offer 9 days after the interview. Good luck for your interviews! And PM me if you have any further questions."

"why mba now? why esade? why Barcelona? imagine yourself in 10 years on the cover of a magazine, what would be the title? which are the most important values considering team work? did you visit the campus yet? do you know any alumni, if so, which one? which achievement in life you are most proud of, name only one? in general i must say the interview was pretty straight forward. i already knew my interviewer from the QS MBA exhibition in frankfurt beginning of the year. in addition i visited an official alumni event in düsseldorf and also have some friends that are currently part of the master of science program. as stated in previous posts, ESADE wants to find out who you are and whether your values are matching the ones of the school. ESADE clearly presents itself on their website under vision & mission which i would highly recommend to read for anybody. moreover i think honesty is the most important value, at least for me. therefore i only told stories about myself that are actually true and how i truly felt in specific situations. i think ESADE also wants to make sure that you already have some knowledge about the school. you should be familiar with their values and also have good reasons why you want to be there. in the end it needs to be an authentic and genuine conversation."

"Round 1; Spet 2019 intake; Location: Bangalore, India. 1. Walk me through your resume. Tell me more about your company. 2. Why MBA? 3. Why ESADE? Why Spain? 4. Why now? 5. What are you career goals? 6. Do you know specific roles and how it works to get into your target area? (As it was quite niche i.e sustainability consulting. It made my career goals part a risky area! I had to give solid backing that there are opportunities at companies that come to recruit at ESADE).

Then, she started giving suggestions (on a serious note) on loans, scholarships, learning the language (considering my short term goals), and to join the career acceleration program that ESADE offers (she said I was qualified for it basis my GMAT score). 
 7. Have you spoken to current students or alumni? 8. Tell me about your international exposure and experience. 9. How are you planning to fund your program in case you don’t get a scholarship? Also ESADE aids only up to 50% of fee waiver through its scholarships (I had mentioned in the form that I need 60% scholarship!) 10. What other schools are you applying and why? 11. What if you get in all the 3? How will you choose? 12. What if you end up coming back to India? (I had mentioned that I’m looking for settling in Europe in the short term). Regarding my answers, I made sure I stick to the responses given in my essays and gave a “life” to the voice in the essays. I consider it very important. I also brought in points that were not covered in my essays. Overall, I made my interests and goals sound organic and realistic. I gave a lot of background and recent instances/specific examples on my NGO activities and work experience at my previous/first company where I worked for the most part. Surprise element: 1. Imagine you're in my position and I'm in yours. How will you sell the program in one minute? She offered me the time to think and I sold the points which she did not cover till then. I said, I'll tie the background and interests of the candidate to the program. Hello Sara, considering your background in leadership in college associations, you can consider the MBASA and clubs. As you haven't worked in large teams, opportunities like the MBAT will give you a real world experience in working with big teams. But yes, quite a few colleges offer this opportunity, but you'll be part of one of the most active teams, the ESADE's.  You'll connect with a lot of students and young leaders. You'll be abreast with the happenings in the industry through the Careers office. ESADE is increasingly focussing on social impact and innovation. Like it's recent participation in CERN, hosting the Model UNCFF etc. There are notable personalities like Ramon Laguarta who are into sustainability/sustainably developing companies. Electives in Sustainability and Eco Efiiciency will be a great fit.  2. How will you interview a candidate for the program? I'll test the analytical ability and creativity in the first place (a small mention of past hiring experience), EQ level. Also, simulated tests on candidate's soft skills in a multicultural environment and how they prioritise the opportunities provided by ESADE, considering their goals. I also gave a general suggestion on how they could connect us with the current students. I got a student ambassador brochure from HEC. She made a note of it. When it came to questions for the interviewer, I asked her experience in ESADE and how the student trends are. Also what's the number of Indian students in the current batch. 18/187! She said Indians lead in almost every club and events. *Proud moment*! Positives: - She appreciated the pay hike (100%) that I got through my job shift and my surprise element answers. - Suggestions on funding and offering to connect me with the alumni and current students. - Also appreciated my NGO side of things. I followed up for the alumni/current student connection. She put me in touch with a current student from India. Another surprise: in the start of my first call with the student, she said, “besides answering your questions about the school, we’ll also have a short evaluation as the interviewer wanted a feedback on your profile!” It was to gain more perspective and insight on my profile and goals. I was not prepared for this! Guess it went fine. All the best :)"

"Since I've already spoken to the interviewer before when I was still deciding which schools to apply to, she had a lot of information about me before this official interview so not a ton of questions were asked. not in any order: 1. Why MBA now 2. why international MBA specifically 3. Why ESADE 4. If you were admitted to the universities you applied to, what is your priority in terms of deciding which school to accept 5. How did you narrow down Europe (I only applied to European schools, universities in two countries to be specific) and why Barcelona? 6. A time when you were in a team and you faced a challenge, how did you resolve it 7. How would you describe yourself, and what do you do outside of your work 8. If someone isn't doing their part in a team, how would you handle it 9. Who is your role model and why We talked a lot about the ESADE program and the different things that interested me. Also talked a bit about women in business etc. It really seemed more like a conversation than an interview. Very friendly. That's all I can remember. Interview took around 45 minutes."

"Interview lasted about 1+ hour and very friendly. Normal questions: - Tell me a little about yourself? (different from walk me through your resume) - Walk me through your resume? - Why an MBA? - Why an MBA now? - What's the plan post MBA? - Which country do you want to work in post MBA? ) - Which industry are you targeting? -What's your short term goals and long term goals post MBA and how can ESADE help you achieve them? - did you apply to any other school? and what's your thought process? - How did you study for your GMAT? - Tell me something you are proud of and something you regret? - Biggest challenge and biggest success professionally? and some normal follow up questions. Behavioral questions: - Imagine that you had to explain your job to your grandmother, what would you say? - Best advice someone told you? - Tell me one thing you would like to stop, continue and start? - What kind of leader are you? - If someone is slacking off in your team, how would you react? That's all what I can remember. Best of luck"