UPDATE: This article was originally posted on March 18, 2020. It has been updated with 2023/24 information and tips below.
Located in one of the most important up-and-coming cities for entrepreneurship, the IE MBA continues to rank as a top-choice school for globally-minded innovators who seek to use business school as a step toward greater career success.
However, with a highly-customizable yet rigorous 1-year program (nearly the majority of the course is customizable) and a popular Tech MBA, competition to join IE’s elite MBA is more difficult than ever.
That’s why we’ve prepared this guide to help you use your IE admissions interview to stand out. We’ve rounded up not only our best tips but have also included sample interview mocks to ensure you give your IE interview your best shot.
How the IE interview works
Making sure you shine during your IE interview is no easy task.
IE interviews, since they are conducted by the admissions committee, tend to be highly personalized and based on your whole application. During the interview, the interviewer is also trying to gauge how solid your motivations for wanting to pursue an MBA are, how interested you seem in the IE program, and if you are truly a good fit for IE’s flexible curriculum.
Interviewers often ask many standard MBA interview questions, as well as questions designed to test just how collaborative you really are. You can also expect numerous follow-up questions.
Our clients who have interviewed with IE in the past say that the interviewer was very friendly and demonstrated a genuine interest in their answers. Though questions do tend to focus on standard MBA interview questions, be ready for anything.
Who will interview you?
You will interview with a member of IE’s admissions committee.
In some cases, you may have more than one interview. In these cases, the second interview is also a “brain teaser” type interview, designed to test how you think through logic puzzles.
Will the interviewer have read my application?
Yes. The interviewer will have read your entire application. Past reports indicate that interviewers develop specific questions based on your application, so make sure to take the time to review what you presented.
How long will the IE interview last?
45-60 minutes.
Who is IE looking for?
(Photo courtesy of @iebusiness on Instagram)
“We seek motivated, creative and high-potential candidates who stand out for their academic and/or professional achievements, as well as interpersonal skills. We take a holistic approach when evaluating each candidate in order to bring in the most talented people into our international classrooms.” IE Admissions
Every year, IE literally searches the globe (more than 44 nationalities are represented in a class that is 92% international) for the outstanding professionals given the honor of joining one of its two annual classes, each composed of around 350 students. With a strong emphasis on diversity, there is no “typical” IE student, yet the average admitted student is 29 years old.
Beyond the impressive statistics, though, IE is looking for candidates who want to make a positive impact on the world through their careers. That’s why, in addition to strong academic performance (demonstrated through the GMAT and university grades), IE seeks candidates who:
QUESTION THE STATUS QUO
and open your mind to new ways of thinking as a member of a diverse, global community.
DARE TO BE DIFFERENT
and focus on transforming yourself to face new career challenges head-on
ACT OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE
and discover that there are no limits to what you can do.
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
as a future Dream-Doer, with your sights set on success for both yourself and those in your network.
HAVE AN ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT
that pushes you to explore boundless avenues of collaboration and success.
How can you prepare for your IE interview?
Though no interview is 100% predictable, IE interviews do tend to center around a fairly standard list of MBA interview questions. As such, we have prepared some model questions below that previous candidates have received in their past IE interviews.
SAMPLE IE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
The questions below are drawn from our clients’ interview reports, as well as from sites like clearadmit.com. Though these are not all the potential questions you could possibly receive during your IE interview, preparing for these (and any follow-up questions you think you might be asked) should give you a very solid foundation for your interview.
STARTING UP QUESTIONS
- Tell me about yourself. (Expect follow-up questions)
- What was your undergraduate experience like?
- What do you like to do in your free time? How did you decide to become involved in these activities?
- What do you do in your current job?
- What are your short-term and long-term career goals?
- Why do you want an MBA?
- Why now?
- Why IE?
- If you applied to multiple programs, what interests you about each?
- How will you choose between programs if admitted to both/all?
- What will you contribute to IE?
- What excites you the most about IE?
- What other schools have you applied to? If you get into all of them, how will you choose where to go?
- Have you visited campus? Spoken with alumni?
- How do you plan to pay for your MBA?
LEADERSHIP & TEAMWORK
- Tell me about a time when you didn’t get along with your team. What did you do?
- Tell me about one instance when you disagreed with your boss and how you handled the situation
- What is your leadership style?
- What is your communication style?
- Tell me about a time you had to convince your team members to follow a plan or idea you created.
MISCELLANEOUS BEHAVIORAL
- Tell me an example of when things didn’t work out as you planned. How did you adjust?
- Tell me about a time when you were pushed to your limits at work.
- How would your friends describe you?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- Please tell me about a time you failed. What did you learn?
- Tell me who you are in one sentence.
- What is the biggest challenge you have overcome in your career?
- What has been your biggest achievement in your career thus far?
- If your colleagues wrote a book about you, what would the title be?
- What question should we have put in the application and why?
- What is better, to be effective or efficient?
- What would you improve on in the IE MBA program?
- Describe a technical problem you faced. How did you solve it?
TECH-RELATED QUESTIONS
- Which technology do you think will completely disrupt business as we know it?
- How do you think AI is impacting the tech industry?
- Which programming language is your favorite? Why?
- How do you think we can continue to innovate in our use of AI while also respecting individual privacy rights?
- What do you think the future of blockchain looks like? How will this influence other industries?
CLOSING
- Is there anything else you would like us to know about you?
- Is there anything you wished I had asked you?
- Questions for me?
We have found that answering real interview questions on the spot is a much better means of preparation than reading lists of interview questions for most candidates.
We highly suggest you take a look at mock interview questions and sample interview responses before your interview.
Our MBA Resource Center has dozens of real interview mocks from IE, as well as detailed guides to help you prepare for questions ranging from “Why our MBA program?” to “Tell us about a time you failed.”
The Ellin Lolis Consulting MBA Resource Center is your one-stop shop for interview success. Click to join!
If you’re still not quite confident with your interview skills, our interview experts can help you craft your answers or prepare you for the IE interview through mock interviews tailored to your profile.
What to do if you get a question you haven’t prepared an answer for
Despite your most diligent preparation, you will almost always receive a question you had not prepared.
First, stay calm and take a deep breath. You have already made it this far in the process, and one question will not trip you up!
Second, make sure you directly answer the question the interviewer asked you. For example, if the interviewer asks you about a time you had to deal with a difficult manager, make sure to tell a story about a difficult manager and how you handled the situation.
If you’re having trouble thinking of an answer or an example to support your answer, however, take a drink of water to give yourself a few more minutes to think. If you really can’t think of an example from your personal or professional experience, you can use a hypothetical answer about how you would act in a certain situation.
Finally, assume that the interviewer is testing how you think on your feet and respond to questions you didn’t prepare in advance. Though your answer might not be as polished as if you’d had weeks to rehearse it, smile and confidently respond to show you can handle any question they throw at you.
Practice makes perfect!
You have stressed about every aspect of your MBA application, and now you are ready for your interview! With the right preparation, this can be your chance to shine and get a highly-coveted spot at an elite business school.
However, maybe you don’t know where to start in your preparation, or maybe you tend to ramble on and lose focus during interviews. Maybe you’ve even downloaded sample questions and written out your answers. The problem is, when you try to apply these templates to your own story, it doesn’t quite work.
Our interview prep focuses on helping you determine how to present yourself during your MBA interview while using appropriate, impact-driven language without being artificial, or worse, robotic.
That’s the approach we used with our client Carlos, who was admitted to IE:
“I was looking for someone that could help me to achieve my goal of going to an MBA abroad, so a friend of mine recommended Ellin’s services. At first I was a little suspicious because I thought that my only need was for someone to review my essays before sending them in the application process.
But, when I met Ellin, I understood that I had the wrong idea of how she could help me. She is not the basic consultancy services that will help you to go to your dream MBA reviewing your English, she is the person that will help you to understand what you are trying to achieve. This difference makes her services outstanding because to do that she had to deeply understand my profile.
That’s why I would recommend that anyone who is trying to get into a top business school, especially people who do not know exactly what they are looking for, call Ellin. Ellin opened my mind with so many good options besides the ones that I was looking for and helped me to build a plan to achieve my goal.”
Our individual approach is why 98.9% of our clients secure admissions to at least one of their target schools.
Want to put the Ellin Lolis advantage to work for you? Schedule your preparation session with our team of interview experts today!
Real MBA Essays That Got People In
School-specific sample essays that got our clients accepted
