Provide a summary of your career since graduating from university, explaining the rationale behind your key decisions and career progression. Include a description of your current (or most recent) role, covering the scope of your work, major responsibilities, employees under your supervision, budget size, clients/products, and any notable results achieved. (500 words) 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)
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.
In the current role section, 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.
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.
Describe your short and long-term career aspirations, including your target geography, industry, and function. How do you plan to bridge the gap between your current position and these goals, and how will INSEAD help you achieve them? (300 words)
Basically this question is why MBA and why INSEAD MBA? Your answer to this MBA essay will help the INSEAD admissions team understand how your career plans relate to MBA and if you are indeed the right candidate for INSEAD MBA.
Your career goals story should be clear and realistic, and impressive - but INSEAD wants to know more clearly what skills, experiences, knowledge areas you currently lack, and how INSEAD MBA will help h level and in brief.
So very succinctly, talk about your desired role, function, industry, geography and if possible also a few target employers.
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.
Describe the (extracurricular/extra-professional) activities you and explain how they have enriched your life (e.g., skills developed, personal growth, community impact). (300 words max)
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!
Give a candid description of yourself as a person and a leader, emphasising the strengths and weaknesses you recognise in yourself. Explain how you are actively working on your development, sharing key experiences that have shaped you, providing specific examples where relevant. (500 words)
INSEAD is one of the few top business schools globally that gives significant importance to its students' values, characters, and personal qualities. They want to groom and build leaders who will have world-wide impact.
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 a highly stressful situation you faced and how you managed it. What did this experience teach you about yourself and your interactions with others? (400 words)
MBA is an intense experience. INSEAD's 10-month MBA provides a rich experience but could also become overwhelming and stressful for some. INSEAD wants to know that you are capable and fully prepped for this intense MBA journey and high-pressure post-MBA career as a leader.
When selecting an example and explaining the situation, focus on yourself without showing issues or faults with others or situations. INSEAD wants to see your humility, understanding, maturity, and growth. Talk in depth about what caused the stress and how you handled the situation.
One big mistake students tend to make in this essay is either ignoring or trivializing the part about the impact on your interactions 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 the situation. Introspect and you will get your answer. If you are still struggling we are here to help!
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.
Shortly after submitting your application form, you will receive a link to a video interview. This video component is required to start the evaluation of your application. Please submit the video interview at your earliest convenience and no later than 48 hours after the deadline to which you are applying.
Once submitted, the video interviews cannot be modified. Therefore, please ensure that you carefully test your devices before starting the exercise.
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 tipsINSEAD 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
