Tuesday Tips: INSEAD MBA Essays and Tips for 2024-2025
INSEAD, whose slogan is “The Business School for the World,” is a top-ranked program that attracts a diverse and international student body. The INSEAD MBA program is only 12 months long and provides multiple campuses and practical business experience.
For these essays, the INSEAD MBA admissions team advises all applications to be original, focus on the details, and be specific about work experience. According to SBC consultant Lucy, a former INSEAD AdCom member, applicants should keep the following in mind as they work on their essays: “To truly be themselves, clearly explain their story, what their goal is, and how can the INSEAD MBA help them achieve it. And to mention what they can bring to the program and the INSEAD community.”
Visit the INSEAD MBA website for more essay tips, and don’t miss our INSEAD admissions overview for more program details.
Curious about your chances of getting into a top B-school? Contact us to talk strategy with a free 15-minute advising session with an SBC Principal Consultant.
Job Description Questions
The job questions are not essays. Hence, the number of words is not so important. People need to be comfortable writing 3 lines or 20. Some applicants work for companies that are well known, and only 3 lines are sufficient to describe them; others work for small companies where it is more important to give the full picture.
All of the job questions are short answers. INSEAD advises applicants they can answer them in as little as one line. Or in as many as twenty lines. You could think of the entire set of essays as one narrative. First, you start with your current job, then discuss what you would do next in your role. Next, talk about your background. Finally, end with a brief explanation of your goals and where an MBA fits.
Make sure to use the space efficiently and answer the questions directly. INSEAD MBA admissions is not looking for an extensive explanation. There is no need for background beyond the questions answered.
Question 1: 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 max.)
This question focuses on your current (or most recent) work situation. Providing relevant context for your current role is appropriate. However, make sure you devote most of the space to describing the details of your day-to-day responsibilities. If you have less experience supervising others or managing a budget, use the space for key responsibilities and results.
Question 2: What would be your next step in terms of position if you were to remain in the same company? (200 words max.)
If your boss has already talked to you about the next step, this question is easy to answer. If you have not explicitly discussed promotion at work, what would be the future role you would ideally pursue?
Maybe you are pursuing an MBA because you want to make a career change or because the next step at your current company is undesirable for other reasons. If so, this may be a place to describe what that next step would be. Also, consider why you do not wish to pursue that next step.
Question 3: Please give a full description of your career since graduating from university. Describe your career path with the rationale behind your choices. (300 words max.)
Even if you have a relatively straightforward career path, you can take the opportunity to comment on some of the learnings from each position. Use those learnings to create the story of your past, present, and future plans to build your career narrative. This should be a short answer like the others. Therefore, focus only on the moves you have made in your career and the reasons behind them.
Question 4: Discuss your short and long-term career aspirations with or without an MBA from INSEAD. (100 words max.)
A top-tier program like INSEAD is an accelerator for your career. The INSEAD MBA program can introduce you to a broader network than you would otherwise have. INSEAD will expand your skillset into new functional areas and expose you to people from around the world.
Think about how you plan to use your INSEAD MBA to advance your current career (or change paths entirely). If you did not attend INSEAD, how would you achieve your goals otherwise? Think of this short answer essay as a thought experiment to show that you can plan two routes to one goal.
Optional Question: If you are currently not working or if you plan to leave your current employer more than 2 months before the programme starts, please explain your activities and occupations between leaving your job and the start of the programme.
If you are unemployed at the moment, you will want to answer this question. Use the space to show how you spend your time without full-time employment. Ideally, you are currently involved in an activity that will further your career. If not, you are pursuing personal goals at this time. The best answer shows you are self-motivated and do not need paid work to continue developing yourself.
For example, perhaps you are volunteering at a non-profit related to your career goals, working with a friend on a start-up, or consulting and building contacts in your industry.
Maybe you are out of work only briefly or planning to take just a few months off before school starts. If so, it’s reasonable to pursue travel or other activities. Focus on areas that develop your international awareness and perspective. However, make sure that your actions can tie back to your long-term goals.
Motivation Essays
Essay 1: Give a candid description of yourself (who are you 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. (max. 500 words)
Strengths and weaknesses are a common topic for MBA applications. The purpose of a question about strengths and weaknesses is to evaluate your level of maturity and self-awareness. This is an opportunity to highlight leadership, teamwork, or other qualities that will drive your future career success.
Examples aren’t explicitly required, but consider that the INSEAD MBA admissions team is reading a lot of essays. Concrete examples can help you stand out. When describing weaknesses, focus on those weaknesses that you have taken tangible steps to fix. Or, that have been a route to learning more about yourself. Often, strengths and weaknesses are two sides of the same coin, and you can tie your key weaknesses to your key strengths.
It is difficult to write about weaknesses without sounding either overly self-deprecating or humble-bragging. Therefore, this is a critical essay to share with others to seek feedback on tone.
Essay 2: Consider a situation where you failed to achieve your objective(s). How did you handle failure? What did you learn about yourself and/or your interactions with others from this situation? (400 words)
If you are a person who tries, you have failed. INSEAD wants to understand how you handle the inevitable failures on your journey. When approaching any failure essay, it’s essential to use a real failure that has emotional resonance for you. An accomplishment framed as a failure will be easy to see through. Use a real failure to demonstrate your maturity and ability to grow. If you can explain how you changed due to the failure, that is excellent.
The last part of the essay deals with how this situation impacted your relationships and what you learned. Whether you were part of a team or the main impact was on a loved one, this part of the essay is about how others felt. Additionally, you should indicate what you learned about yourself. Especially if you learned how to tackle the next challenge and succeed as a result of this failure.
While failure is usually considered a setback, it could have led to a learning experience for your organization. Or an opportunity opened up for someone else. Possibly it was a chance for you to be closer to another person through a team challenge. Think creatively about this aspect.
Optional Essay: Is there anything else that was not covered in your application that you would like to share with the Admissions Committee? (max. 300 words)
This essay is 300 words, and you can use it for anything you would like to cover. Because INSEAD MBA’s questions are thorough, you may have covered all aspects of your candidacy. Think of topics that couldn’t work into the rest of your application. Make sure you have included personal qualities. This might be a good place to describe an interesting hobby or key accomplishment.
If you did cover everything, you can feel comfortable skipping this question (it IS optional). However, if you have problems like a low GPA or a failing grade in college, this is the place to cover it. It’s far better to explain any issues in your application thoroughly. You do not want to leave the INSEAD MBA admissions committee to guess what happened.
Explain the issue and focus most of the essay on the correction for the problem. Demonstrate what you learned from the experience. Then, show you have been an ideal citizen ever since. Finally, avoid blame and show that this incident is in your past and will stay there.
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Stacy Blackman Consulting offers multiple services to meet your MBA application needs, from our All-In Partnership to test prep to hourly help with targeted tasks. Contact us today for a free 15-minute advising session to talk strategy with a Principal SBC consultant.
Here’s a snapshot of the caliber of expertise on our SBC team.
Ashley
Ashley is a former MBA Admissions Board Member for Harvard Business School (HBS), where she interviewed and evaluated thousands of business school applicants for over a six year tenure. Ashley holds an MBA from HBS. During her HBS years, Ashley was the Sports Editor for the Harbus and a member of the B-School Blades Ice Hockey Team. After HBS, she worked in Marketing at the Gillette Company on Male and Female shaving ...
×Kerry
Kerry is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). During her 5+ year tenure at HBS, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a wide range of backgrounds across the globe. She also led marketing and outreach efforts focused on increasing diversity and inclusion, ran the Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP), and launched the 2+2 Program during her time in Admissions. Kerry holds a B.A. from Bates College and ...
×Pauline
A former associate director of admissions at Harvard Business School, Pauline served on the HBS MBA Admissions Board full-time for four years. She evaluated and interviewed HBS applicants, both on-campus and globally. Pauline's career has included sales and marketing management roles with Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, and IBM. For over 10 years, Pauline has expertly guided MBA applicants, and her clients h ...
×Geri
Geri is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). In her 7 year tenure in HBS Admissions, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a diverse set of academic, geographic, and employment backgrounds. Geri also traveled globally representing the school at outreach events in order to raise awareness for women and international students. In additio ...
×Laura
Laura comes from the MBA Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS) and is an HBS MBA alumnus. In her HBS Admissions role, she evaluated and interviewed hundreds of business school candidates, including internationals, women, military and other applicant pools, for five years. Prior to her time as a student at HBS, Laura began her career in advertising and marketing in Chicago at Leo Burnett where she worked on th ...
×Andrea
Andrea served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years. In this role, she provided strategic direction for student yield-management activities and also served as a full member of the admissions committee. In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School – a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School. Andrea has also served as a Career Coach for Harvard Business School for both cu ...
×Jennifer
Jennifer served as Admissions Officer at the Stanford (GSB) for five years. She holds an MBA from Stanford (GSB) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jennifer has over 15 years experience in guiding applicants through the increasingly competitive admissions process into top MBA programs. Having read thousands and thousands of essays and applications while at Stanford (GSB) Admiss ...
×Erin K.
Erin served in key roles in MBA Admissions--as Director at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Assistant Director at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB). Erin served on the admissions committee at each school and has read thousands of applications in her career. At Haas, she served for seven years in roles that encompassed evaluation, outreach, and diversity and inclusion. During her tenure in Admissions at GSB, she was responsible for candidate evaluation, applicant outreach, ...
×Susie
Susie comes from the Admissions Office of the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she reviewed and evaluated hundreds of prospective students’ applications. She holds an MBA from Stanford’s GSB and a BA from Stanford in Economics. Prior to advising MBA applicants, Susie held a variety of roles over a 15-year period in capital markets, finance, and real estate, including as partner in one of the nation’s most innovative finance and real estate investment organizations. In that r ...
×Dione
Dione holds an MBA degree from Stanford Business School (GSB) and a BA degree from Stanford University, where she double majored in Economics and Communication with concentrations in journalism and sociology. Dione has served as an Admissions reader and member of the Minority Admissions Advisory Committee at Stanford. Dione is an accomplished and respected advocate and thought leader on education and diversity. She is ...
×Anthony
Anthony served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise. During his time as a Wharton Admissions Officer, he read and reviewed thousands of applications and helped bring in a class of 800+ students a year. Anthony has traveled both domestically and internationally to recruit a ...
×Meghan
Meghan served as the Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute, a joint degree program combining the Wharton MBA with an MA in International Studies. In her role on the Wharton MBA admissions committee, Meghan advised domestic and international applicants; conducted interviews and information sessions domestically and overseas in Asia, Central and South America, and Europe; and evaluated applicants for admission to the program. Meghan also managed ...
×Amy
Amy comes from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she was Associate Director. Amy devoted 12 years at the Wharton School, working closely with MBA students and supporting the admissions team. During her tenure at Wharton, Amy served as a trusted adviser to prospective applicants as well as admitted and matriculated students. She conducted admissions chats with applicants early in the admissions ...
×Ally
Ally brings six years of admissions experience to the SBC team, most recently as an Assistant Director of Admission for the full-time MBA program at Columbia Business School (CBS). During her time at Columbia, Ally was responsible for reviewing applications, planning recruitment events, and interviewing candidates for both the full-time MBA program and the Executive MBA program. She traveled both internationally and dome ...
×Erin B.
Erin has over seven years of experience working across major institutions, including University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, and NYU's Stern School of Business. At Columbia Business School, Erin was an Assistant Director of Admissions where she evaluated applications for both the full time and executive MBA programs, sat on the admissions and merit scholarship committees and advised applicants on which program might be the best fit for them based on their work experience and pro ...
×Emma
Emma comes from the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School (CBS), where she was Associate Director. Emma conducted dozens of interviews each cycle for the MBA and EMBA programs, as well as coordinating the alumni ambassador interview program. She read and evaluated hundreds of applications each cycle, delivered information sessions to audiences across the globe, and advised countless waitlisted applicants. ×
