Briefly summarise your current (or most recent) job, including the nature of work, major responsibilities, and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, clients/ products and results achieved. (200 words)
INSEAD is among the world's best business schools. And seeks to admit the best of the best candidates from across the globe. Through this question, the INSEAD MBA admissions team wants to understand the scope and impact of your work.
INSEAD also wants to know the exact level you are in your current role, your managerial experience and thus your leadership potential, so make sure you capture all this information clearly.
While addressing the seven parts of this question, we suggest that you give special attention and space to your accomplishments. Your work experience and your responsibilities are only one aspect of your profile, INSEAD is interested in knowing your achievements and estimating how much you are capable of achieving.
What would be your next step in terms of position if you were to remain in the same company? (200 words)
Use this MBA essay to describe in detail the next step in your career and when and how you plan to reach there.
The more information you give about your expected responsibilities, the easier it will be for the INSEAD reader in imagining your expected career progression as well as your potential and caliber.
Your answer to this MBA essay will also help the INSEAD admissions team understand how your career plans relate to MBA and if you are indeed the right candidate for INSEAD MBA. E.g., if you are expecting to reach a senior management position soon without an MBA, and it is very similar to your post-MBA goal, then the school might question your decision to go for an MBA. So be careful!
Please give a full description of your career since graduating from university. Describe your career path with the rationale behind your choices. (300 words)
Do you recognize the most important keywords in this MBA essay?
INSEAD wants to know the "rationale behind your choices".
Most students make the mistake of just describing their career path and not telling the INSEAD admissions team why they chose the jobs and roles that they chose.
When talking about your professional journey, you should show clearly why you chose a given path and what influenced you to make those career choices. Ideally, all the turns on the road would fit nicely into a consistent theme. To find the themes - dig deeper and show the adcom your true motivations.
As much as possible, demonstrate that you chose your career proactively not passively. If you have made unexpected career moves, then put more emphasis on explaining those choices because that part of your story needs to be credible.
At all times avoid technical jargon and keep it simple.
Discuss your short and long term career aspirations with an MBA from INSEAD. (100 words)
INSEAD has consistently reduced the allowed word limit for this question. The main reason, as we assume, is that they are putting more emphasis on your accomplishments and what kind of person you are, what are your values - and lesser weightage on what you want to do after INSEAD MBA.
Of course, your career goals should be clear and realistic, and impressive - but INSEAD wants to know about them only on a high level and in brief.
So very succinctly, talk about your desired role, function, industry, and if possible also the geography.
Best business schools want to see their MBA students and alums become visionary leaders, so it would be great if you could present your vision for your industry and how you will make a positive impact on the world.
Give a candid description of yourself (who you are as a person), stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors, which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary. (500 words)
INSEAD is one of the few top business schools globally that gives significant importance to its students' values, characters, and personal qualities.
To answer this ambitious MBA essay aiming to know the real you, you will need to introspect deeply and look at themes and patterns in your life and the choices you have made.
An example is like a picture- if you can paint vivid imagery with details, your reader will see and feel your strengths very clearly. So use examples generously.
Go beyond academics and career, and try to see yourself holistically. Use the space to reflect on your passions, desires, dreams, wishes, and life experiences that have left a deep impact on you.
If relevant, write about your childhood, your family, your circumstances while growing up, and all other factors that have shaped you to become who you are today.
When describing your strengths, it would be prudent to pick those that will also make you an attractive MBA candidate. After all, these essays are your selling pitches for INSEAD!
For the weaknesses, it might help to see that sometimes, one of the strengths can become a weakness in certain contexts. E.g. a highly organized person might struggle with dealing with change or creativity, while someone very creative and good at thinking out of the box, might not be very good with analytics-heavy work. There can be ample examples like these. So think deeply and write a thoughtful and reflective answer.
Describe the achievement of which you are most proud and explain why. In addition, describe a situation where you failed. How did these experiences impact your relationships with others. Comment on what you learned. (400 words)
Although the first part of this essay might look like a traditional success story, it is not that. Not only that.
Pride is a deep emotion. So your achievement story should be one of the most important and memorable achievements of your life. And your narration should be brimming with passion, enthusiasm, and pride. You will also need to explain why you are choosing this particular story, and why it matters so much to you.
If possible, stay away from talking about academic successes. Not only do such anecdotes become cliched, but more importantly your most significant life achievements would be quite likely about more profound aspects. Clearing specific exams or scoring good grades, or getting a coveted job offer, don’t usually cut it. You can talk about professional achievements but try to go deep deeper into what it really means to you.
Similarly when talking about failure, focus on yourself without showing issues or faults with others or situations. INSEAD wants to see your humility, understanding, maturity, and growth. Of course, we all make mistakes, but the wise ones learn from them, and that’s what INSEAD wants to see in you- what you have learned from both situations.
One big mistake students tend to make in this essay is either ignoring or trivializing the part about the impact on your relationship with others. It's a critical component of the essay!
Yes, it might not be very easy to see the effect if you are very close to the situation but take a step back and think about the impacts of these two situations. Introspect and you will get your answer. If you are still struggling we are here to help!
Describe all types of extra-professional activities in which you have been or are still involved for a significant amount of time (clubs, sports, music, arts, politics, etc). How are you enriched by these activities? (300 words)
While you can talk about many types of activities here, take a cue from the second part of the question to answer the first. Choose and write about the activities that have or have had a significant impact on you and have enhanced you.
Since you have only 300 words, we suggest that instead of listing a lot of activities, stick to a few in which you invest or have invested significant amounts of time and effort and those that will also showcase strengths as a potential INSEAD MBA student.
Also, keep in mind that you are not writing this answer in isolation; it is part of your bigger marketing pitch to INSEAD, so treat it as one piece of the entire puzzle and use it to show distinctive aspects of your candidature.
Go for it!
Is there anything else that was not covered in your application that you would like to share with the Admissions Committee? (300 words maximum)
Attempt the optional essay only if it will improve the factual and material strength of your application.
Do not submit your INSEAD optional essay as an addendum to any of your essays or because you feel that the quality of your earlier essays is improvable – in that case, simply double your efforts on those essays and leave the optional essay alone.
Use the INSEAD optional essay to explain shortfalls in your application that you feel are truly detrimental to your candidature. Areas of underperformance (academic or professional or GMAT) or events which stick out (gaps in your resume or a previous MBA) can be commented on if you have an explanation that is intelligent, interesting, and credible.
This optional essay can also be used for mentioning impressive data points that can't be accommodated in the other INSEAD essays.
Once you complete your INSEAD MBA online application, shortly thereafter, you will receive an e-mail notification from Kira Talent with a unique link to complete 4 video interviews. INSEAD usually gives you about 48hours to complete the videos.
Through the videos, the Admissions Committee seeks to obtain an authentic view of you as a person, to see how you think on your feet and how you convey your ideas. MBA video tips
INSEAD MBA application requires you to submit a one-page resume along with details about your employment and academics. The typical INSEAD MBA resume format consists of employment, education, and extracurricular details. MBA resume tips
In your INSEAD application, you will be asked to provide two MBA letters of recommendation - from you current or previous supervisors. Like many top business schools, INSEAD asks several letter of recommendation questions. MBA LOR tips
INSEAD conducts two interviews with INSEAD alumni in your regions. All INSEAD MBA interviews are by invitation only. Students typically would receive an invite 4-6 weeks after submitting their MBA applications. MBA interview tips
