I used one of the best providers in my country (Russia) but still had some technical problems in the beginning which caused a 25 minutes delay. Just before the interview time I received a new extension number that didn’t work. I called to IESE and they said they had problems with their equipment. Then I received incoming call from Barcelona with just 128 kbps quality instead of 384 kbps. Though the quality of video was not very good while sound was even worth (I had to make efforts to hear questions). A guy who interviewed me was quite professional and I wasn’t sure till the last second if he’s satisfied with my answers or not. Our conversation lasted about 45 minutes and started with:
- Where I’m now and what I’m doing in Russia (the issue is that I’m living in USA and at that moment I was in Moscow waiting for a visa extension)
- Why IESE? (Here I began first explaining why I want MBA and then why at IESE)
- What do I intend to do after graduation? In which country?
- We went through my work experience, why I left my job in Moscow and moved to US.
- What will I bring to the table at IESE (Here I guess he didn’t believe my answer, I tried to explain why I’m thinking that was a valuable reason)
- What will be my greatest challenge at IESE, why?
- Following my answer he asked about my weak areas and particular examples from work experience and how I managed to go over it.
- How long I’ve been waiting for visa in Moscow and what exactly I’m doing there now.
- What is/are my first choice school/s and why (I was pretty honest listing more than one school and the criteria).
- How I plan to finance my MBA and my living in Barcelona for 2 years.
Unfortunately for me he didn’t ask anything about my hobbies (I have some very long and interesting passions which dramatically influenced my life).
Then he opened interview for my questions. We talked about issue of getting job in EU for non EU students and I guess time was ending so he finished the conversation thanking me and saying the AdCom will communicate the decision in several weeks or so.
In general I was not nervous, he was very kind and really wanted to understand my issues. Anyway I’m not sure about his overall experience (there were some moments where he seemed not to accept my explanations). But I hope to hear good news back from IESE cause it’s really great school!
