The Nova SBE MiM Interview: When It Happens & How to Prepare

If Nova SBE invites you to interview, two things are true at once: it is good news, and it is not something you can count on. Nova runs the Master’s interview only “in case of need” — in the school’s own words, “the interview is required by the Master’s Admissions Committee in case of need.” It is a conditional stage, not a guaranteed one. For the International Master’s in Management (IMM), it sits at the end of a sequence: Nova pre-screens your CV and application form, then evaluates your motivation video, and only then may invite selected candidates to an interview with the International Master’s Team.

That single fact reshapes how you prepare. At schools where everyone interviews, the conversation is the main event. At Nova, the written file and the video do most of the work, and the live interview is the exception the committee reaches for when it needs to — to settle a borderline decision, confirm the person in the video is really you, or probe a gap. So the highest-leverage preparation isn’t rehearsing a panel; it’s making the rest of your file strong enough that you either don’t need the interview, or walk into it from a position of strength.

Here is how Nova’s process actually runs, where the interview fits, and how to be ready for it — including the part most applicants underweight. (Confirm the live process on Nova’s admissions page first; the school adjusts components between cycles.)

Where the interview sits in the process

Nova describes the master’s admissions journey as a sequence of stages, and the interview is one conditional step inside it — not a formality bolted onto the end:

1. Online application. Your CV, a one-page motivation letter, transcripts, the three-minute motivation video, an English certificate at C1, and the €51 application fee. (The full document checklist, the optional GMAT/GRE and the 12-week work-experience minimum are in our Nova SBE admission requirements guide.)
2. Selection. Nova pre-screens the CV and application, then evaluates the motivation video, and may invite selected candidates to an interview with the International Master’s Team. This is the conditional step.
3. Decision. Nova assigns each file a final score that determines a ranking, producing an outcome — accept, waitlist, reject or exclude.
4. Enrolment. Admitted students confirm their seat with an enrolment fee of about €1,499.

Because Nova admits over rolling rounds, the selection — and any interview — happens within your round after your file is reviewed. For the September 2027 intake, IMM, CEMS and double-degree applicants apply by the international deadline around 23 March 2027, with a later general round around 30 April 2027, and decisions follow within roughly four to eight weeks. Applying in the earlier round means more seats and more scholarship budget still on the table — and the CEMS and double-degree allocations are decided in Round 1. (For the strategy behind round choice, see Round 1 vs Round 2, and map the live dates on our deadline tracker.)

Why Nova interviews “in case of need”: the ranked-score model

To understand when the interview gets triggered, you have to understand how Nova decides. The committee evaluates every application against a consistent set of factors and converts them into a score that ranks the field. Those factors are explicit: the final classification of your degree, your school of origin, your CV, internships and other experiences, extracurricular and volunteering activity, the GMAT/GRE if submitted, language proficiency, quantitative background, and the motivation letter and overall profile.

When that file — plus the video — gives the committee a clear read, it can rank you without a conversation. The interview is the tool it reaches for when the file doesn’t fully resolve: a borderline score, a question the documents raise, a need to verify that the articulate, motivated person in the video is the one who will turn up in class. That is the honest meaning of “in case of need.” The practical implication is blunt: you cannot count on an interview to rescue a thin application. The written file has to earn every step, and a missing mandatory document triggers automatic exclusion before scoring even begins.

The part most applicants miss: the video is the interview

Here is the reframing that should change your preparation. Because the live interview is conditional, the three-minute motivation video is the one spoken element every IMM applicant submits — which makes it, in effect, your first and often only interview. It is where Nova hears you, watches you communicate, and reads whether the “international career” orientation it evaluates is genuine or recited.

So prepare the video the way you would prepare an interview, not a formality:

• Answer the interview’s questions in it. Who you are, why a Master in Management, why Nova specifically, where you’re heading. The video that pre-empts those questions is the one that makes a live interview unnecessary.
• Be structured and genuinely you. Three minutes rewards a clear arc over a dense script. A reliable spine is to name a situation, the action you took, and the result — the same discipline that makes a good essay.
• Make it continuous with your file. If the video and the one-page letter tell two different stories, that mismatch is exactly the kind of “need” that prompts a live interview to sort out.

Treat the video well and one of two good things happens: the committee has what it needs and ranks you on it, or it invites you to a live conversation already half-convinced. (Nova’s video is part of a wider shift to recorded video assessment in European admissions — our Kira-style video interview guide covers the format and how to record well, and the Nova SBE essays guide decodes the written and video components in detail.)

The format: a conversation with the International Master’s Team

If you are invited to a live interview, two practical facts shape it:

• It’s with the International Master’s Team. Nova frames the IMM interview as a conversation with the people running the programme — a personal, motivation-and-fit discussion, not a panel grilling or a quantitative test. Your aptitude score (the GMAT or GRE, both optional at Nova) has already covered the numbers.
• Plan for online. Nova does not publish a fixed interview format on its admissions page, so take your cue from the invitation rather than a figure you read online. In practice, given the IMM’s 93%-international cohort drawn from 35 nationalities, the conversation is normally held by video. If you interview online, treat it like any high-stakes call: tested connection, quiet room, camera at eye level. Confirm the platform, timing and length in your invitation.

What it is not is also clear: there is no case study, no group exercise and no maths drill. The interview is about motivation, direction, communication and fit — the things a form and a short video can only partly show.

What the interview actually assesses

Strip away the wording and Nova is confirming, in conversation, the same things its ranked-score file weighs:

1. A credible international-career orientation. This is a real evaluation criterion at Nova, not a slogan — the IMM is built for a 93%-international classroom where around half of graduates take their first job abroad. A specific, plausible international direction beats “I’m open to anything.”
2. Motivation for a pre-experience MiM, now, and for Nova specifically. Why this degree rather than working first, and why Nova rather than a higher-fee rival. If your “why Nova” would fit any school unchanged, it isn’t ready.
3. Communication and maturity. With a small, 0–2-years-of-experience cohort, how clearly you articulate a view is a fair early read on how you’ll contribute in a case-led, group-heavy classroom.
4. Fit and contribution. Nova assembles a deliberately small (~69-student), evenly balanced class. The committee wants a genuine answer to what you add and what you want from the exchange.

The questions to expect

Because the interview is built around your own application and video, the single most useful preparation is to know both cold. Described here as themes rather than a script of verbatim questions to memorise, the conversation tends to move through familiar territory — and these are corroborated across recent applicant accounts, consistent with Nova’s stated motivation-and-fit focus:

• Tell us about yourself / walk us through your CV. A crisp, structured version of your story that ends at why you’re applying now.
• Why a Master in Management, and why Nova. Be specific on both halves — the FT-#4 IMM, the oceanfront Carcavelos campus, CEMS membership, the value case at €11,650 base tuition. Generic praise is the most common failure.
• Why now, rather than working first. Nova’s MiM is a pre-experience degree; have a real answer for the timing.
• Your short- and long-term goals — and a contingency plan. Commit to a direction; the committee is testing whether you can form a view and connect it to the degree, and whether you’ve thought past plan A.
• What you’d contribute to the class. A 35-nationality cohort is assembled deliberately; have a genuine answer for what you add.

Interviewers may revisit points from your file or video, so keep your spoken answers continuous with what you submitted — if they thinly echo or contradict the written story, that’s a problem; if they expand and humanise it, that’s exactly what Nova wants. A reliable way to structure the story answers is the situation–action–result spine; our essay-writing tips transfer directly to spoken answers, and how to build a competitive MiM profile covers positioning the whole file.

How to prepare

• First, nail the video — because for most applicants, that is the interview. Everything above about motivation, structure and being genuinely you applies to the three-minute recording before it applies to any live call.
• Know your application cold. Be able to expand any line of it — and any line of your video — out loud. This is the highest-leverage preparation, because the conversation is built around your file.
• Make “why Nova” concrete. The FT-#4 ranking, the Carcavelos campus, CEMS, the specialisation families, the value case — tied to your direction. Don’t confuse the IMM with Nova’s separate Portuguese-language Mestrado em Gestão; international applicants want the IMM.
• Commit to a direction, with a plan B. A specific, slightly ambitious goal beats a safe, vague one — and Nova’s “contingency plan” theme means you should have thought one step past it.
• Prepare two or three stories. A leadership moment, a setback you learned from, a teamwork example — each tellable in about two minutes, with a result. For a pre-experience profile, university and internship examples count fully.
• Practise out loud. Writing a great answer and saying one are different skills. Rehearse speaking — ideally with someone playing interviewer — but keep it natural, not scripted.

For turning the written side of the file into its strongest shape first — the essays and motivation letter the committee scores before any interview — our paid admissions guide’s essay outlines and frameworks do the heavy lifting; this guide stays on the approach so you can prepare the conversation yourself.

The mistakes that quietly cost candidates

• Treating the video as a formality. It is the spoken element that decides whether you need a live interview at all. A flat, read-off-the-screen video wastes your one guaranteed chance to be heard.
• Counting on an interview to fix a thin file. The interview is conditional — “in case of need.” If the file doesn’t earn the next step, there may be no conversation to save it.
• An interview that contradicts the file or the video. Your spoken story should be continuous with your essays, CV and recording — one coherent person, not three.
• Generic “why Nova.” If it would fit any school, it’s not done. Name what’s distinctive — the #4 FT rank, the campus, CEMS, the value.
• Vague goals and no plan B. “I’m open to lots of things” reads as unfocused from a pre-experience candidate; commit to a direction and a contingency.

How the interview fits the rest of the application

The interview — if it happens — sits within a file that also includes your transcripts, a one-page motivation letter, a CV, the three-minute motivation video, a C1 English certificate, and optionally the GMAT/GRE and reference letters, with a €51 application fee and, on admission, a €1,499 enrolment fee against the €11,650 base tuition. Because the written pieces and the video have already done the heavy lifting — and the test and references are optional — the interview’s job is narrow: confirm the person and resolve whatever the file left open.

That’s why preparation is really integration: a coherent application makes the interview either unnecessary or easy. Before you get there, make sure the rest of the file is doing its job — our Nova SBE admission requirements and Nova SBE essays guides cover the written and video components, the cross-school MiM application requirements checklist sets the baseline, and the full Nova SBE IMM profile keeps your “why Nova” accurate. Weigh Nova against the field on best MiM in Portugal, the Portugal MiM hub and the composite rankings, and see it head-to-head in Nova SBE vs Católica Lisbon. For a feel of how other European MiM interviews flow, our ESSEC, HEC Paris and IE walk-throughs and the cross-school MiM interview questions guide translate directly.

Common questions

Does the Nova IMM have an interview? Only “in case of need” — it is conditional, by invitation, after the CV/application pre-screening and the motivation-video review. Reaching it means your written file cleared the first bar.

If most applicants aren’t interviewed, what does the talking? The mandatory three-minute motivation video — effectively your first and often only interview.

What format? Nova doesn’t publish a fixed format; where held, it’s a conversation with the International Master’s Team, normally online for an international cohort. Confirm it in your invitation.

What does it assess? A credible international-career direction, motivation for a pre-experience MiM and for Nova, communication, and fit with a small, highly international class.

How do I prepare? Nail the video first; then know your application cold, make “why Nova” and your goals concrete, prepare two or three stories with a plan B, and have real questions ready.

Sources & how to confirm

The interview as a conditional stage held “in case of need,” the IMM sequence (CV/application pre-screening → motivation-video evaluation → a possible invitation to interview with the International Master’s Team), the four-stage admission process, and the ranked-score selection criteria (degree classification, school of origin, CV, internships and experiences, extracurricular/volunteering activity, GMAT/GRE, language proficiency, quantitative background, motivation letter and profile) are drawn from Nova SBE’s official master’s admission page. The mandatory three-minute motivation video, the C1 English requirement, the optional GMAT/GRE and reference letters, the €51 application fee and €1,499 enrolment fee, the rolling rounds and the September 2027 dates are from Nova’s admission and IMM pages; the €11,650 base tuition, the FT-2025 #4 rank, and the class profile (~69 students, 93% international, 35 nationalities, average age 23) are from our Nova SBE IMM profile, sourced to Nova and the Financial Times. Nova does not publish a fixed interview format, length or question list, and revises its process between cycles, so this guide describes the recurring process and themes with an explicit “confirm in your invitation and on the admissions page” caveat — no invented questions. The question themes are corroborated across recent applicant accounts and our own Nova requirements and essays guides. Last checked June 2026.

• Nova SBE — Master’s admission process
• Nova SBE — Master’s eligibility
• Nova SBE — International Master’s in Management (overview)
• Our full Nova SBE IMM profile
• Our companion Nova SBE admission requirements guide
• Our companion Nova SBE essays guide