JOB ESSAYS

• Please give a detailed description of your job, including nature of work, major responsibilities;and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, number of clients/products and results achieved. (250 words)
• Please give us a full description of your career since graduating from university. If you were toremain with your present employer, what would be your next step in terms of position? (250 words)

ESSAYS

Each essay topic listed below and in the subsequent pages must be answered.

• Give a candid description of yourself, 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. (400 words approx.)
• Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words approx.)
• Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. (250 words approx.)
• Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will they contribute to your professional career. (500 words approx.)
• Please choose one of the following two essay topics:
  1. Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? (250 words approx.), or
  2. What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country? (250 words approx.)
• Is there anything that you have not mentioned in the above essays that you would like the Admissions Committee to know? (200 words approx.) This essay is optional.
• In case of reapplication, please use this page. Your essay should state any new aspects of professional, international, academic, or personal development since your last application. We would also like you to explain your motivation for re-applying to INSEAD. This essay should not exceed 400 words.

INSEAD Essay 1. (Required) Please give a detailed description of your job, including nature of work, major responsibilities; and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, number of clients/products and results achieved. (250 words)

Essay Tips : The question clearly focuses on your current job, its nature and your responsibilities at work. Answer the question in the same order bringing in account your skills, your relationship with people at work and your management experience in different domains. Also, do not forget to mention your projects (in brief) with key clients, budget size and your accomplishments while working in various projects in different geographies highlighting cross cultural experience as well(if any) Recollect and write about different facets of your leadership style, strengths and impact on the organization. Select the example based on the extent of your contribution to the team's success and what the story tells about your performance.

Do not forget to highlight any awards or recognition received in your present job. If you make it simple and straight, then you are in for a good start.

INSEAD J Essay 2. (Required) Please give us a full description of your career since graduating from university. If you were to remain with your present employer, what would be your next step in terms of position? (250 words)

Essay Tips : This essay clearly stresses on the career path – designation, responsibilities etc. Do not forget to highlight how you have progressively moved from a technical position to a more managerial position requiring strong leadership skills.
The second part of the question is more to do with the role that you would like to take up if you were to stay in your present organization. You can mention a more leadership oriented role that matches with what you aim to do after MBA. Write to the point and approach it with simple and straight focus.

Essay 1. (Required) Give a candid description of yourself, 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. (400 words approx.)

Essay Tips : This essay reflects YOU. Therefore, with much self-introspection write clearly about your key strengths, what makes you going, what drives you, what leads you to achieve or do things etc. Further, write about weaknesses but do not go overboard about the same. Reflect your weakness as an asset at times and be genuine saying that you are working towards improving it. There is no harm in even accepting YOU and being fully honest about it.
Keep in mind the following things while writing the same: a) Showcase your characteristics b) Your key Strengths c) Your personal growth d) Give specific examples related to Job experience( team work, handling complex case etc), personal ( your relationship with people)
Eg: If you say that you possess strong leadership qualities then do mention a professional/ personal incident where you demonstrated leadership skills by motivating your team members or by implementing processes in an unstructured environment etc. Do not forget to mention how your efforts impacted your organization and if you won awards / recognition for the same.

Essay 2. (Required) Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words approx.)

Essay Tips : A clear cut opportunity to write about your success in professional and personal world. It is advisable to select one story from your personal life and one from your professional life.

Highlight your strengths and also state how your efforts helped/ impacted your organization / friends.

Essay 3. (Required) Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. (250 words approx.)

Essay Tips: First and foremost, you should understand what your personal objectives are. Keep in mind, INSEAD will follow your thoughts through your essay questions. Therefore, you should not contradict yourself anywhere. Write about an incident(s) where you did not achieve the intended objective. Also, with complete integrity do mention how you were affected by the same. This question allows the room for a situation that may have been objectively successful, yet did not meet your personal objectives.

Do not forget to mention the lessons you learnt and what precautions you take in order to avoid similar crisis.

Essay 4. (Required) Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will they contribute to your professional career? (500 words approx.)

Essay Tips : The first part is more of a career vision question. You need to be very clear and precise in terms of your short term goals. You need not be as clear about your long term goals but do mention what do you finally intend to achieve. INSEAD gives due importance to work experience and therefore handle the first part one by one. Define goals then how you have achieved them and how will you achieve them in near future. (GOALS HOW HAVE YOU ACHIEVED THEM? HOW WILL YOU ACHIEVE THEM?)

Be specific, about your skills, the industry and the role that you are seeking, and why. Be clear about the skills you have learnt in your professional life, so far, and then mention what gaps can INSEAD help you bridge. The first and foremost tip is to please go through the INSEAD Brochure thoroughly which gives an insight into what the institution is about and its vision and beliefs. This helps you to support your answers with examples especially in questions like “Why INSEAD?”. Be generous in writing that each school you have applied to has its merits and characteristics but the MBA at INSEAD will give you an advantage because of …. (give specific reasons).

Be specific about the courses, programs and professors you are looking forward to learn from.

Essay 5. (Required) Please choose one of the following two essay topics: a) Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? (250 words approx.) or b) What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country? (250 words approx.)

Essay Tips : This is indeed a very sensitive question. INSEAD cross cultural connection can be confirmed by the number of students from different geographies in 2009-10 batch. For your reference figures are given below

Africa : 4 % , Asia: 24 % , Eastern Europe and Central Asia: 7 % , Latin America and the Caribbean: 6 % , Middle East: 7 % , North America: 13 % , Oceania : 3 %

Whichever question you choose, be honest about the incident you are mentioning. At the same time, INSEAD would like to see your interest and sensitivity towards various cultures. Sometimes, people get shocked by food habits or other customs at work.

Be sure to mention about your learnings from different situations.

Essay 6. (Optional) Is there anything that you have not mentioned in the above essays that you would like the Admissions Committee to know? (200 words approx.)

This essay is definitely not an extension of what you have missed in previous essays. However, this is a space to talk about important and positive accomplishments or some important aspect of your life that you would like INSEAD to know. It can range from some specific association with community work to exceptional achievements at work or projects.