SKEMA Business School's AST2 motivation interview lasts about twenty minutes, but it carries real weight in the selection process on its own: this is where the jury judges the coherence of the professional project, well beyond what the academic file alone can suggest. A well-built cover letter directly prepares this interview.
What the SKEMA jury looks for
The AST2 interview jury, usually made up of two to three people - a faculty member and an alumnus - primarily assesses how consistent the candidate's background is with the program applied for, their ability to project themselves into a specific professional future, and their level of English, a decisive criterion at SKEMA given the school's international focus. SKEMA itself makes this clear in its official advice 🔗: the interview is structured in two phases, an introductory presentation of the candidate and their project, followed by a more open exchange where the jury asks about elements from the "projective resume" submitted with the application.
Beyond academic skills, the jury values a genuine drive to get involved - student associations, personal projects, international experiences - and a certain maturity in how the candidate justifies their choices, including ones that might look like detours (a career change, a failed attempt at another exam, a change of track).
Standard structure of the cover letter
An effective cover letter for SKEMA's AST2 follows a tight structure, never exceeding one page:
- A personal hook that explains in two sentences why SKEMA specifically, not a generic business school - the tri-campus setup (Lille, Nice, Paris, Raleigh) or a specialization (finance, data, entrepreneurship) are credible anchor points.
- The background and its coherence: what past experiences (internships, academic projects, extracurricular involvement) reveal about a genuine interest in the field targeted.
- The professional project, phrased precisely enough to be discussed at interview without sounding like a rehearsed script - a project that's too vague ("working in finance") weighs almost as much against you as one that's too rigid and leaves no room for discussion.
- A conclusion that ties the project back to the school, mentioning a concrete element of the program (dual degree, a professor, a student association) rather than a generic formula.
💡 To build the resume that accompanies this letter, our guide SKEMA Parallel Admission Resume explains how to structure an academic resume consistent with this same professional project.
Common interview questions
The two-phase format described by SKEMA translates into recurring questions in practice: "Why SKEMA and not another school?", "What in your background led you to this project?", "Where do you see your career in five years?", or situational questions in English to assess fluency, not just grammatical accuracy.
The jury also asks follow-up questions on elements from the projective resume - an internship mentioned, an extracurricular experience - to check that the candidate genuinely masters what they wrote and didn't simply copy it from a template found online.
Sample argued answer
To the question "Why do you want to join SKEMA?", a well-built answer could go: "My BTS in Accounting and Management gave me a solid foundation in financial analysis, but I quickly wanted to broaden that base toward a more strategic view of the company. SKEMA's Grande École Program, with its Corporate Finance specialization and its Lille campus close to the head offices of northern France, matches this trajectory exactly. My internship at an accounting firm confirmed this interest: I notably took part in analyzing financing files for SMEs, which made me want to move toward mergers and acquisitions advisory."
This phrasing ties a concrete fact (the BTS, the internship) to a precise choice (the specialization, the campus), which makes the answer verifiable and hard to dismiss as a memorized speech.
Mistakes to avoid at interview
- Reciting the cover letter word for word: the jury already knows it and expects a lively reformulation, not a reading.
- A vague or overly generic professional project: "working in finance" says nothing precise about the role, sector or company size targeted.
- Ignoring SKEMA's specifics: not being able to place the campus, the specialization or a distinctive element of the program signals an application sent to every school without customization.
- An underprepared level of English: short of being bilingual, practicing your key answers in English remains essential.
- Not owning an atypical background: a career change or a failed attempt at another exam must be explained with confidence, not downplayed or hidden.
Succeeding at this interview requires arriving with a resume and a cover letter perfectly aligned on the same professional project, with no contradiction between the two documents. FinanceCV generates a clear, well-structured academic resume, so you can focus your preparation on the substance of your pitch rather than on formatting the document.
Ready to prepare your SKEMA AST application? Write your cover letter at /lettre-de-motivation.