INSEAD 2012 - 2013 Essay Tips

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. (250 words maximum); Please give 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 maximum)

• Questions 1 & 2 go together; between the two, they should cover the breadth of your professional experiences, as well as be an articulate point-in-time snapshot of your career as it stands today
• Regardless of whether you are an individual contributor, or the manager of a small or large team, be candid about your day-to-day; the AdCom really wants to understand what you do
• Re-read your answer to confirm that it would make sense to someone who knows little about your industry or function; start at the top and provide some context if necessary
• In Q2, it's even more important to (a) provide context about your industry, function, role and (b) avoid technical jargon, especially if it comes across forced.

If you are currently not working, what are you doing and what do you plan to do until you start the MBA programme if applicable? (250 words maximum)

• Even if you don't have very structured plans, try to address this question as thoughtfully as possible - they want to see that applicants are fully productive and making good use of their time even if they aren't employed
• If you are working currently, no need to answer this question

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. (600 words maximum)

• Try to limit to two strengths and two weaknesses
• The best essays will have a coherent description of your personality – supported by some examples – where the strengths and weaknesses will jump out to the reader without being called out explicitly.
• It’s important that all of these attributes come together to describe you!  Avoid sounding bipolar or schizo as you describe it

Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date (if possible specify one personal and one professional), explaining why you view them as such. (400 words maximum)

• The best advice we got for this essay was to first write it as though it were two separate accomplishment essays (in as many words as you need) and then edit it down to approximately 200 words each - it becomes much less daunting this way
• A lot of applicants will have a central theme woven into both the accomplishments - this is great if there is a legitimate theme that applies to both accomplishments, but it's better to have no theme than to force one into your essay
• This one is obvious, but try to showcase accomplishments that highlight different aspects of your experiences - the template most suggest and use is one each of professional, personal and/or community

Describe a situation taken from your personal or professional life where you failed. Discuss what you learned. (400 words maximum)

• The most strong applicants have invariably been through a number of high-stakes setbacks in their lives, so this is a great question to ask of everyone
• A failure could be not getting selected for an opportunity that you wanted, or not being recognized for something as you expected - it is, in most cases, a deviation from your expectations of an outcome
• Describe how you dealt with the failure - show your mental strength and how you recovered from it.
• This can often be the most painful essay to read and edit - why?  Because 80% of candidates try to mask achievements or strengths as setbacks - PLEASE DON'T DO THIS.   Remember: it's not as important that you lost in the major leagues as much as that you played in them!

Discuss your short and long term career goals. (300 words maximum) and b) How will studying at INSEAD help you achieve your vision? (250 words maximum)

• Three parts – describe the path that you’re on, what skills you need to add to your repertoire, and tie it in to INSEAD’s offerings
• Especially if your career goals include high-buzz areas like “micro-finance”, “renewable energy”, or a high-tech entrepreneurial project, a word of caution:  please make sure it’s clear how your path so far, and future goals are tied together – a LOT of people have similar goals, so it’s important to distinguish yourself!

Have you ever experienced culture shock? What insights did you gain? (250 words maximum)

• Why do schools ask this culture shock question?  They do it to understand what you’ve adapted to you in your past – so it doesn’t have to be moving to a new country – it could be a new job in a very different industry, a new culture, etc.

Describe the ways in which a foreigner in your country might experience culture shock. (250 words maximum)

• Great question – regardless of what country you’re from!  Strongly recommend that you answer this – your opportunity to make your country sound welcoming, exciting and warmly embracing.  Think of how you’d project it to a classmate – and you’ll get great results!