Common interview questions

The following is a list of typical interview questions that employers will ask MBA candidates. Read through the list of questions and prepare some answers. Ask a friend or colleague to "role play" the interviewer and give you feedback on your response.

Most Common Questions
Tell me about yourself. Why are you interested in this organisation? What were the factors you took into account when deciding to do your MBA? What are your 3 main strengths? Weaknesses? Why do you feel you are suitable for this position?

Personality/Character
How would you describe yourself? Tell me about a difficult problem you have encountered and how you dealt with it. What are your interests outside of work? Tell me about your leadership style.

Motivations and Career Objectives
Describe the attributes of your ideal job. How important is money to you? Where do you see yourself five years from now? Are you interviewing with the firm you did your summer internship in? Why/Why not? Given your background in engineering, how did you decide to become a financial analyst?

Education
How has your experience at ESADE prepared you for your professional career? Which part of your experience during the MBA has given you the most satisfaction? What prompted you to choose your exchange program/specialisation? Describe a situation during your MBA where you had to act as a leader.

Previous experience
Why did you leave you company X to join company Y? Give me an example of a time when you came up with an innovative solution to a problem. Tell me about a conflict situation you encountered and how you dealt with it. Give me an example of your analytical thinking skills. Give me a second example. Have you ever failed? What did you do about it?

The Industry/Company:
What have you read about our company lately, aside from our recruiting materials? Why are you interested in this industry/function? Which other companies are you currently interviewing with? What will be your criteria in selecting between job offers?

The Position
Describe your ideal job. What do you think your key responsibilities in this position would be? Who have you met from our firm? What did you learn from him/her? What salary do you expect?

Tough Questions

These questions are designed to be difficult. There is not necessarily a right answer; interviewers want to see how you deal with problems. Try to relax, deal with them calmly and think through each problem logically:

• How many pharmacies are there in the United States?
• If you were editor of The Economist/Financial Times, what would be your headline tomorrow?
• I have been out of the country for the last 10 days. Fill me in on what has been happening.
• If you could have lunch with any person, living or dead, who would it be? What would you ask him/her?
• Which individual has had the biggest influence on your life?
• If you were working on a client project and had a strong personality conflict with one of the clients, how would you manage it?
• Is it more important to be facts-oriented or to be creative?
• If you were to start a company, what would it be and why?