Dear Applicant,
In the next few posts, I aim to decode the INSEAD MBA essays. I will also be sharing some sample/ winning essay excerpts of a client who I worked with recently, who received the INSEAD admit with a scholarship (Jan'24 intake).
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 (maximum 500 words).Top 5 Tips:1. Reflect on your (personal) journey and creating a master list of incidents, both highs and lows, that have had a major impact on your life so far. Then weave a story around the major incidents, indicating your values/ traits and showing your growth trajectory. Follow the
CARL structure: for any incident/ story: mention the Context, Action, Result and Learnings.
2. Carefully identify the key strengths that helped you grow, and
back any claims with data. For example, just saying "I am resilient and adaptable" is much weaker than when you add a sentence backing that claim "I have had to stay strong due to my father’s chronic kidney failure and subsequent transplant, while at the same time managing multi-million client projects in my day job and running a fledgling business on the side"
3. Be
honest about your weaknesses. These should be areas in your life where you could have done (or can do) better. Try to avoid pseudo weaknesses, or masquerading a strength as a weakness, as these indicate that you are either not self introspective, or not honest enough to admit your weaknesses. For example, being a perfectionist by itself is not really a weakness. On the other hand, being overly risk-taking (and thus facing the down-side) is indeed a weakness, as it impacts you negatively (ref. below essay).
4. Aim to
strike a balance between highlighting your strengths and addressing your weaknesses. The key is to be honest, while aligning to the values and traits that INSEAD looks for in a candidate, and clearly indicating how these attributes have helped you evolve as a person.
5.
PRO TIP: Though the question does not specifically ask for it, briefly indicate
how an MBA and particularly INSEAD can help you in your future journey.
Sample/ Winning Essay"
Looking back on my life, I would say my journey so far has been one of using mental resilience and adaptability to overcome adversity. My mental fortitude has helped me deal with the pressures of running a sprawling business and with bouncing back from its eventual failure. I have had to stay strong due to my father’s chronic kidney failure and subsequent transplant, while at the same time managing multi-million client projects in my day job and running a fledgling business on the side. These high-pressure life experiences have helped me develop a strong work ethic, intense focus and a deep appreciation for the value of teamwork.
I become self-reliant and adaptable to change at an early age. My family periodically relocated cities due to my parents’ transferable job, and I had to develop the ability to take in the new circumstances and make friends quickly. This habit served me well later on in life when I was selected for a prestigious undergraduate internship at the University of Bath, UK. I felt invigorated and excited by the exposure to a new culture. Interacting with a diverse group of people imparted a sense of belonging in me after my fragmented childhood social life.
Another trait which has helped me in my professional life is my appetite for competition – I am excited in the face of a challenge and always put my best foot forward. After coming back from the UK I set my sights on securing a consulting analyst role at one of the MBBs. Despite competition from 400 of my fellow students, I was the sole person selected for the top business consulting internship at Microsoft from my college. Through my dedication and with the help of my prestigious internships I finally achieved my goal and secured a placement offer as an analyst at Bain.
My ambitious and dedicated nature also has its downsides, in that I sometimes take big risks without adequate preparation, and put too much pressure on myself when I am not ready to handle it. This trait is what made me abandon my placement offer at Bain to try and save my newly established family business. Despite my best efforts I was unable to prevent its failure. In hindsight, I can clearly see that I did not have the requisite business experience and skills to take on that challenge, and I should not have taken that risk.
My resilience and determination helped me to bounce back from this failure. I got back into consulting with an Analyst role at (Confidential), where I achieved 2 promotions in subsequent years through my hard work and dedication. I combined my learnings and utilised my strengths to launch new entrepreneurial ventures in the F&B space, which I have grown to $100K+ in revenue in the first year itself. I feel the INSEAD MBA is the perfect place to work on my areas of improvement and utilise my strengths to take my career forward."
To be continued..
Regards,
Arvind
HEC Paris MBA alum, Admissions interviewer
W:
https://admitstreet.com | E:
consultingteam@admitstreet.com
Switch to Desktop Site