INSEAD MBA Essay Questions for September 2012 and January 2013

Here I discuss INSEAD's essays for  September (Class of July 2013) 2012 intake and the January (Class of December 2013) 2013 intake. The questions are taken from the PDF.  INSEAD changed the essays for the first time in many years. In 2011, INSEAD changed the essays for the first time in many years.  The deadlines for September 2012 and January 2013, can be found here.  As of January 30, 2012, the deadlines for the September 2013 intake are not yet on the INSEAD website.

Over the years, I have had an opportunity to work with a large number of clients admitted to INSEAD. I have had 5 client admitted for 2012 so far,  6 clients admitted for 2011, 3 for 2010, 2 for 2009, and 2 for 2008. Testimonials from clients admitted to INSEAD can also be found here.

In September 2011, I visited the Singapore campus.  My report can be found here.

The INSEAD application, which a PDF based thing is a bit different from most other business school's online applications. No resume is required, so providing as complete an answer to all application form questions is especially important.

Job Related Essays

A core substitute for the resume are the job related essays, which give applicants an opportunity to explain and analyze their professional experience. As the questions are concerned with the applicant's professional experience, I think the following from my interview with Deborah Riger, who was the INSEAD MBA Programme's Assistant Director of Marketing at the time of the interview should be kept in mind:

"ADAM: Regarding professional experience, what to do you look for in younger (very early twenties) and older (late twenties or thirties) applicants?

DEBORAH: For all applicants we want to see a track record of professional accomplishments that sets them apart from their peers. For those with only 1-2 years of professional experience, they must demonstrate something distinctive in their profile, perhaps they have started their own company. I would suggest, it is in the benefit of all younger applicants to work for a minimum of two years before applying to business school as they will get more out of the programme if they have experiences to reflect back on. For older applicants, we are looking for a strong professional track record and clear goals toward career change or advancement. If an older applicant has been in the same role for five years that might not demonstrate potential for growth, overall ambition or success relative to his/her peers."

Based on my experience with INSEAD applicants, the above statement from Deborah is completely accurate.  INSEAD is relatively forgiving of those with limited (1-2 years) of professional experience as long as there is something distinctive about their background, but for most applicants, INSEAD is expecting to see a clear pattern of career growth.  While INSEAD can actually be quite flexible about the level of international experience that an applicant has, when it comes to those with 3-10+ years of experience, career growth really matters.  Deborah's comment about applicants in the same position for five years is also really telling as it points to the fact that INSEAD is looking for applicants who are not complacent.  Keep in mind that an INSEAD admission committee consists of faculty and alumni and the later, in particular, are likely to have clear expectations of what good career growth looks like. 

I think it is also important to keep in mind that a business background is not a necessity for admission to INSEAD, but that good professional experience is.  See here.  Based on my experience working with clients coming from a variety of professions, I can say that having a non-business, but solid professional career, can be a real advantage.

As I already mentioned, keep in mind that INSEAD does not require a CV or resume.  Therefore these job essays below are critical pieces of the application. As you will see, the INSEAD application has relatively limited space to discuss your past experience in typical resume style.  You should consider that these  essays will really provide INSEAD with their primary interpretation of your career.

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. (250 words maximum)

This is a very straightforward question for most applicants. For those who are unemployed, I suggest you write about your last position held. 

You want to focus on both major responsibilities and major results.  Since results (accomplishments) are likely to be specifically connected to responsibilities, I would prioritize them in your description. I think for many applicants, the easiest way to organize this essay will be in terms of discussing their 2-4 most important results and/or responsibilities.  Here is one possible organizational scheme.

1. Brief introduction indicating the nature of the position and employer. 50 words.

2. Most important responsibility that lead to a result.  50-100 words. 

3-5. Subsequent responsibilities-results. 25-100 words.

The Details:  If you don't have employees working during under your supervision, you should still indicate any project-based and/or team-based leadership. As with a resume or CV include any numbers that will help INSEAD understand the extent of your results or responsibilities.   Even approximate quantification is better than no quantification if it helps to positively showcase your career.

Keep in mind that you should be focused on your job, not on your personality.  Interpret your job, don't just summarize it. Explain why the work you do is significant.

2. 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)

This essay should be a growth story.  If it is not a story that shows how your career has positively evolved, it is unlikely to be very effective.  You might be unemployed at the moment, but what has been the trajectory so far?  Did you take a big risk along the way?  Point that out.  We each have our career ups and downs, especially anyone who has taken risks.  Don't shy away from discussing the risks, but the overall focus of this essay should be positive.  In my experience, INSEAD rewards those who take risks and does not look kindly on those that stay in the same position for five years or more. Change or become boring!  If you have been working in the same position for five years or more, you will need to really show how you have demonstrated growth in terms of results or responsibilities, which would have been primarily discussed in Job Essay 1.

In terms of organizing this essay, think about the key turning points in your career.  Help INSEAD understand how you have evolved professionally.  Assume that you are being judged critically and consider how to both effectively and honestly present your career.  

The final part of this question is what I would call an "opportunity cost" question, in other words, by going to INSEAD, you will be sacrificing the opportunity to take the next step at your current employer.  If you are unemployed, the way to handle this question is to discuss the kind of position you would obtain if you were not seeking an MBA. For everyone else, I think you should be realistic, but also present the best possible version of your next position, which will show that you are seeking an MBA to move beyond what would follow without it.  A bad answer to this question would involve identifying a next step that is the same as the short term goal you discuss later in Essay 4 because this would undermine much of the value of obtaining an MBA.  I think INSEAD asks this question not only to determine whether you have a clear sense of your career trajectory, but also to confirm that you have thought deeply about what you are sacrificing by pursuing an MBA.  Given the need to analyze your entire career development, for most applicants, I would suggest providing a brief (50 words or less) answer to this part of the question. 

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

This is the only completely new question on the INSEAD application.  It is a good addition as there was no place other than optional essay for applicants who are not working to discuss their situation.  I think it is critical to provide a honest answer to the question and one that hopefully shows that you are using your time well.  Possible topics to discuss:
1.  Learning activities (NOT APPLICATION PREP PLEASE! That would be really weak)
2. Language learning
3.  Internships
4. Volunteer activities
5. Travel

The Essays

THE WORD COUNTS ARE NOW LISTED WITH MAXIMUMS. This a change from prior years were approximate counts were given.  

1. 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)

With a question like this I think it is important to understand that you are actually being asked to think about your strengths and weaknesses in terms of your overall personality and development. What is important here is provide both an analysis about specific characteristics of yourself and to help admissions understand who you are. YOU NEED TO TELL A COMPELLING STORY ABOUT WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON!  I put this in bold because I get far too many essays from my clients that end up focusing on professional content, that don't focus on personality and personal background, or are otherwise not really effective portraits.  When I get such initial drafts, I usually either write really long comments or have a conversation with my client restating my analysis here.  

Think of this essay as a highly focused portrait of yourself that will give admissions great insight into your life story and your characteristics (strengths and weaknesses).  The most effective answers here consistently combine revealing parts of the applicant's personality and background while discussing strengths and weaknesses.

Obviously the strengths and weaknesses should be ones that relate to your character, not to a skill set. Given the word count, I suggest focusing on no more than about two strengths and two weaknesses. I would try to give fairly equal consideration to both weaknesses and strengths.

EMBRACE WEAKNESS!
I find that many applicants resist writing about their own weaknesses, yet to do so reveals self-awareness and maturity. While I think it is necessary to practice good judgment when writing about weakness, I think it is also important that you provide something beyond the routine.

One standard defensive strategy that many applicants seem drawn to is to write about knowledge or skill areas where they are weak, but this is not suitable for INSEAD's question because they want you to stress personal characteristics.

STRENGTHS
Compared to weaknesses, strengths are easier for most people to write about. Given the limited space here, you might find it helpful to write about a strength here that is discussed in greater detail in another essay. In other words, you might discuss the origins of one your key strengths and trace its connection to your personal or professional accomplishments.

IS IT A GOOD STRENGTH OR WEAKNESS?
Some questions to ask yourself:
1. Does the strength demonstrate one's potential for future academic and/or professional success? If so it is a probably a good topic. If not, why does INSEAD need to know about it?
2. Is a weakness fixable? If you are writing about a weakness that cannot be improved upon through your program at INSEAD, why do they need to know about it?
3. If your strength or weakness is not related to leadership, why does INSEAD need to know about it?

Finally, if you are having difficulty thinking about your strengths and weaknesses in relation to your future academic and professional goals, please see my analysis of Essay 4 because in it I discuss how to think about strengths and weaknesses in relation to goals.

2. Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments (if possible specify one personal and one professional, to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words maximum)
Since INSEAD is now asking that, if possible, you make one of your accomplishments one personal and one professional, I strongly advise that you do that. 

Some key things to keep in mind when answering this question:

-Accomplishments reveal your potential to succeed at INSEAD and afterwords.

-Accomplishments reveal your potential for contributing to your classmates.

-Everyone has had accomplishments, so it is easy to compare applicants.

-What you consider to be an accomplishment are real tests of your self-awareness and judgment.

The following grid is the kind I have used successfully with applicants preparing this question:

(CLICK TO ENLARGE. )

How to use this grid for outlining your answer to Question 1:

Row 1: "Stories." The first thing you need to do is think of the accomplishments. These will eventually take the form of stories, so that is what I call them. A few things to keep in mind:

• Your accomplishments maybe personal, professional, or academic.
• While it is very important that your accomplishments be distinct so as to reveal different things about you, there is no single formula for what their content must be. It is quite possible that you might have three professional accomplishments or one personal/one professional/one academic or two academic/one personal. It will really depend on your background.
• The key consideration is that each accomplishment must be substantial and that you can explain why that is the case.

Row 2: "What skill, value, or unique experience is being showcased?" Your accomplishments need to reveal valuable things about you. Some will call these selling points, but more specifically they consist of skills, values, or unique experiences. One might use a specific accomplishment to emphasize one's leadership skills, another to show one's ethical values, and another to explain a significant barrier that was overcome. The point is that each accomplishment must at its core reveal something key to understanding who you are.

Row 3: "What potential for success in the MBA program or afterwords is demonstrated?" You may or may not be directly stating this in the essay, but you should think about what each accomplishment reveals in terms of your potential. INSEAD Adcom will most certainly be considering how your accomplishments demonstrate your potential to succeed at INSEAD and afterwords, so you should as well. One key way of thinking about the MBA application process is to see it as a test of potential. Potential itself can mean different things at different schools and so you must keep in mind differences between schools and in particular must pay close attention to what schools say really matters when they assess applicants. Please click here to read about what INSEAD values in applicants. Please keep in mind that a core part of your own application strategy should be determining which parts of you to emphasize both overall and for a particular school.

Row 4: "Will this be a contribution to others in the MBA program? How?" Just as with potential, think about whether your accomplishments demonstrate your ability to add value to other students at INSEAD. Given space limitations, it is not likely that you will be explaining how one or more of your accomplishments will be contribution, but rather this is a strategic consideration. The dynamic nature of study groups at INSEAD is very much based on what each student contributes. Think about whether any of your accomplishments demonstrate how you will likely add value to other students INSEAD experience. Not all substantial accomplishments will have this quality, but many will.

Row 5: "Why does Adcom need to know about this?" If your accomplishment has made it this far, chances are it is substantial. That said, I have two simple tests for determining whether an accomplishment really belongs in this essay. The first is whether INSEAD really needs to know about this accomplishment. After all, you might consider getting the love of your life to marry you to be one of your most substantial accomplishments, but will Adcom care? If an accomplishment does not reveal (whether stated or implied) potential and/or contribution, chances are likely that it is not significant enough.

Row 6: "Is this something Adcom could learn about you elsewhere? (If "YES," find another accomplishment)" The second and final simple test I have for determining whether an accomplishment really belongs in this essay is based on the idea that something that is totally obvious about you to anyone looking at your resume and transcript is probably not worth mentioning. If you were a CPA, having an accomplishment that merely demonstrated you were good at accounting would not be worth writing about. Instead it would be important to show something more specific that reveals something that is not obvious by a mere examination of the basic facts of your application.

Finally, as I mentioned above what you include here is a real test of your judgment, so don't just write about your obvious accomplishments. Think deeply and come up with a set of unique accomplishments that reveal distinct, interesting, and the most important things about you that will compel admissions to want to interview you.

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

This is a fairly standard failure question. It is important to remember that you might very well succeed from the perspective of others, but fail from your own perspective.

It is critical that you learned something meaningful about yourself. 

The basic components of an answer:
1. Clearly state what the failure was.
2. Clearly state your role.
3. Clearly state the result.
4. Explain the effect in terms of what you learned and perhaps also how you applied what you learned.

If possible, show how you applied what you learned to a new situation because the application of abstract learning to a new situation is a key indicator of real learning.

4. a) 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)

THESE ARE FUTURE DIRECTED QUESTIONS Unlike some other "Why MBA" questions, INSEAD is not asking about the past. You will write about that in the other essays. Instead focus on your goals and the skills that you will obtain at INSEAD that will help you accomplish those goals. You must offer  both a short term-plan and long-term vision for your intended future.  Given the short length of the INSEAD program, it really is quite important that you give them a clear future post-MBA  plan.
a) Discuss your short and long term career goals. (300 words maximum) 
Given the intensive nature of the INSEAD experience, you need to go into the program with a clear idea of what you want to do after your MBA. Of course, this might change, but given the program length and the reality that you will need to begin recruiting/internship hunting soon after entry, you will need a clear plan for your future.  If you are having difficulty articulating such a plan, I suggest you go through the following formal analysis:

You can use my GAP, SWOT, AND ROI TABLE FOR FORMULATING GRADUATE DEGREE GOALS for this purpose (see below). I think Gap, SWOT, and ROI analysis are great ways for understanding what your goals are, why you want a degree, and how you will use it. (Click here for a GMAC report on MBA ROI.)


(To best view the following table, click on it. )


How to use this table:

Step 1. Begin by analyzing your "Present Situation." What job(s) have you held? What was/is your functional role(s)? What was/are your responsibilities?


Next, analyze your present strengths and weaknesses for succeeding in your present career. REMEMBER: WHEN YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS DON'T ONLY THINK ABOUT WORK, THINK ABOUT OTHER ASPECTS OF YOUR LIFE. In particular, some of your greatest strengths may have been demonstrated outside of work, so make sure you are accounting for them.
Strengths: What are you good at? Where do you add value? What are you praised for? What are you proud of?
Weakness: What are you bad at? What are you criticized for? What do you try to avoid due to your own limitations? What do you fear?

Next, analyze the environment you work in right now. What opportunities exist for your growth and success? What threats could limit your career growth?

Step 2. Now, do the same thing in Step 1 for your "Post-Degree" future after you have earned your graduate degree. IF YOU CANNOT COMPLETE STEP 2, YOU HAVE NOT SUFFICIENTLY PLANNED FOR YOUR FUTURE and therefore you need to do more research and need to think more about it.

Step 3. If you could complete step 2, than you should see the "Gap" between your present and your future. What skills, knowledge, and other resources do you need to close the gap between your present and future responsibilities, strengths, and opportunities?


Step 4. After completing Step 3, you now need to determine how an MBA will add value to you. It is possible that an increased salary as a result of job change will be sufficient "ROI" for the degree to justify itself, but you should show how a degree will allow you to reach your career goals. How will the degree enhance your skills and opportunities and help you overcome your weaknesses and external threats? If you can complete Step 4, then you should be ready to explain what your goals are, why you want a degree, and the relationship between your past and future career, as well as your strengths and weaknesses. If you know about INSEAD, you are ready to write about your goals, whether in Question 3-4 or elsewhere in the essay set.


The above table will also help you answer such common interview questions as: Where do you want to work after you finish your degree? Why do you want an MBA (or other degree)? What are you strengths? What are your weaknesses? What are your goals?

b) How will studying at INSEAD help you achieve your vision? (250 words maximum)

As with other schools, I strongly recommend becoming informed about INSEAD. Attending admission events, meeting alum, and making full use of INSEAD's online resources is critical for making the strongest possible case for why your goals require an INSEAD education. You should most certainly look at INSEAD KNOWLEDGE and listen to some INSEAD Knowledgecasts. Finally, keep in mind that INSEAD is a fun school, so express your personality in terms of why you want to attend it. Perhaps this video will inspire you:

5. Please choose one of the following two essay topics: a) Have you ever experienced culture shock? What insights did you gain? (250 words maximum), or b) Describe the ways in which a foreigner in your country might experience culture shock (250 words maximum)

One core characteristic of those who are admitted to INSEAD is that they are international in their perspective and experience:

The INSEAD MBA equips our alumni to work anywhere in the world. Accordingly, we attract applicants with cross-cultural sensitivity and an international outlook.

I have found that it is usually those with extensive international experience that have the greatest likelihood for admission.  That said, in my interview with Deborah Riger, I asked her about this issue:

"ADAM: Is it possible to be accepted to INSEAD without having international experience?

DEBORAH: Yes, it is possible to be admitted without significant experience outside of your home country. While it is important for all applicants to show their international motivations in their essays, it is especially critical for those who lack international exposure to do so. Applicants need to share how they are comfortable and confident in their own culture, why they are seeking out the international exposure in the MBA and sharing perhaps how the world has come to them at home."

Both options for Question 5 are really great ways for INSEAD to gauge your global perspective.

a) Have you ever experienced culture shock? What insights did you gain?
This is a very standard question that frequently gets asked in interviews and has appeared on a number of MBA applications. It is also a question with significant room for saying something stupid and potentially fatal to your application. Some topics to avoid:

1. Topics where you negatively stereotype another nation: Martians are argumentative, so I was surprised to learn that some of them are not.

2. Topics where you are the victim: The Martians lied to me and as a result I lost the contract to a local provider.

3. Topics where you don't actually learn anything: This situation taught me the importance of human communication.

Successful versions of this topic almost always involve real learning. I suppose it is possible for something to mean much to you without learning something important, but I can't recall a successful version of this essay that did that. After all to be shocked is to experience something outside of your previous understanding. Getting shocked teaches something important that changes your perspective. This may lead to a new career decision, a new way of looking at oneself, a new way of interacting with other people, or a myriad of other possibilities.

b)  Describe the ways in which a foreigner in your country might experience culture shock
American Adam's bad answer:  Those traveling to America might be shocked by the need  to tip.

Why is that answer bad? It certainly is useful to know how to tip. I can think of almost nothing more annoying in the US than our system of tipping and how it would be a bit of a culture shock to someone not used to doing it. Every time I go back to the US, I am at a loss. Doesn't this make for a good topic? NO, BECAUSE IT IS OBVIOUS, IS COVERED IN EVERY TRAVEL GUIDE, AND WOULD GIVE ADMISSIONS NO REAL INSIGHT INTO YOUR ABILITY TO HAVE INTERESTING AND USEFUL THINGS TO SAY ABOUT YOUR OWN COUNTRY. Uppercase is used here in the hope that I don't have to read another version of this essay where the writer says commonplace things about their own country that any tourist would know and probably would not be shocked by.

If you write on option b),  think deeply about how your knowledge of your country will contribute to your fellow classmates at INSEAD. INSEAD is a place were students really have the option of getting to know (and drink with) people from all over the world. It is truly international in a way that no American program could ever claim. This question directly relates to your own self-consciousness about what is different about your country. They will, to some extent, depend on you for their knowledge of your home country. Don't tell them the easy stuff they can get by flipping through the first few pages of a Lonely Planet travel guide to your country. Give them real insight. The kind of insight they could use if they were going to move there.

Now while the question is not in regards to your classmates, I think it is useful to think of it that way so that you focus on writing something that would actually be interesting and useful to someone who visits your country.  You don't have to write on a business related topic, but if you have a good one, do so.  The following questions should help you:
1. What kind of problems have you seen foreigners have when communicating with people in your country?
2.  What do people say in your country about foreigners?  Do they have a bias against them or even a bias for them?
3.  What most annoys you about your own country that would be something that someone coming from outside of it is likely to experience?
4. What aspects of your country's culture seem hard for foreigners to handle (Not just the language as that is too obvious)?

6. Is there anything that you have not mentioned in the above essays that you would like the Admissions Committee to know? (350 words maximum) This essay is optional.
While this question is optional, I have every client write about something here.  There has to be an explanation for an application problem, extracurricular activity, professional experience, personal experience, and/or other matter that you can add here to provide another positive perspective about you.

This is a completely open question. While you might very well need to tell the Admissions Committee something negative, such as an explanation for a low GPA, I would suggest using at least part of it to tell them something positive about you. Feel free to write on any topic that will add another dimension to Admissions' perception of who you are. I would not treat it as optional unless you truly feel that the rest of your essays have fully expressed everything you want INSEAD to know about you. I don't suggest writing about something that would be obvious from reviewing your application, instead tell INSEAD that one or two additional key points that will give them another reason to admit you.

7. In case of reapplication, please provide an update on any new aspects of your professional, international, academic or personal profile that would not have been included in your previous application. Please also explain your motivation for re-applying to INSEAD. (400 words maximum)

For reapplicants, it is critical that you provide clearly stated updates that show growth since the last application.  Whatever form(s) this growth takes, please provide a summary of it here, even if you have addressed the topic elsewhere in the application.  In addition, beyond what you write about INSEAD in Essay 4b, please provide a clear explanation of why INSEAD is your first choice.  I think it is especially useful to show what steps you have taken to learn more about the program.


FINALLY: For information about INSEAD interviews, see http://adam-markus.blogspot.com/2011/04/insead-mba-interviews.html.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

IMD Essays for January 2013 Admission

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE QUESTIONS FOR IMD CHANGED FOR JANUARY 2014 ADMISSION.  I have posted analysis for January 2014 admission questions here.

IMD (The Institute for Management Development), consistently ranked among the best MBA programs in the world, is a small intensive one-year program that starts in January.  IMD, along with Columbia January Term and INSEAD (INSEAD has both September and January start dates) are three of the best options for those who want to start in January 2013 at a top MBA program.

To learn about IMD, visit the website. You should download three PDFs from the website: "MBA Program Brochure," "MBA Class Profiles," and "Class and Placement Overview." I will refer to these below. In addition, if possible, I suggest either attending an information session or visiting. Getting an alumni perspective would also be particularly helpful. Review the website completely and by all means read the MBA Diary to get IMD students' perspectives. Japanese applicants should also look at IMD Japan Club 2012.  To learn about IMD faculty perspectives, please visit Tomorrrow's Challenges.

I also suggest reading my interview with Lisa Piguet and also my Q&A with a former client who is a member of the Class of 2009. I think this interview will provide you with some key insights into IMD. My own report on my visit to IMD can be found here.

IMD's small size sets it apart from other top programs, as its brochure states: "90 Exceptional People Who Will Shape The Future of Business." While it is not easy to get into IMD, it has an acceptance rate of 27%, it has an 76% yield, one of the highest yields worldwide. If you get into IMD, chances are quite high that you will go there.

When you think about IMD, two keywords to focus on are "international" and "leadership." Based on my experience working with clients admitted there for the Class of 2011 (See here for a testimonial), Class of 2010 (See here for my client's testimonial),  and Class of 2009 (See here for my client's testimonial), I can say that IMD is looking for those individuals who both already have and aspire to increased capacity in both being international and being leaders. 

In any given year, I work with only a few people applying to IMD because this is most certainly a very unique program.  For the Class of 2012, I had two clients who were offered interview, but one was admitted to his first choice school and did not interview and the other, was unfortunately dinged after interview.  Getting dinged after an IMD interview, especially for candidates without solid English ability, effective presentation skills, and the perceived potential to work well in a small group is common enough.

THE ESSAYS ARE THE EASY PART OF THE IMD APPLICATION PROCESS.
There is no MBA interview that compares to the day of trial that IMD puts potential applicants through.  Reading a report of an IMD interview makes me feel exhausted.  The particular style of group and individual interviewing and observation admissions does, is truly impressive and totally necessary given their class size and reputation.   The IMD interview eliminates those who will not be able to survive in a very intense program. IMD interviews 46% of those that apply, which is a rather high percentage on the face of it, but again, the program is rather self-selecting so this percentage makes sense. Consider that IMD is trying to fill a class of 90 and received 441 applications.  They are working with limited numbers and based on my 2010 conversation with the admissions director, I know that they are being highly selective when it comes to making final decisions. 


INTERNATIONAL
Like its bigger rival INSEAD, IMD is truly an international program with a very diverse student body and faculty. You can actually view all of the Class of 2009 as well as read a statistical summary of their backgrounds on PDFs found on the IMD site. Doing so will certainly help you understand that IMD students are incredibly diverse and multilingual.





LEADERS
The IMD program is focused on making leaders, not managers. It also is not designed for those who want to develop expertise in a business subfield. IMD makes the program's focus very clear on page 2 of the PDF version of their brochure:
Top executives of leading multinational companies tell us clearly: they need leaders, not managers. Leaders with the insight and ability to address issues and problems that are more complex and changing more quickly than ever before. Leaders who are confident, creating their own solutions to these emerging issues with integrity and high ethics. Leaders who understand themselves and how they interact with others. Leaders who understand the needs of their organizations and their business environments. Leaders who can drive change through innovation. Leaders who can move their businesses forward. The single aim of the IMD MBA program is to develop these leaders.

If you are not looking for an education focused on leadership, do not apply to IMD, but if you are, IMD offers a very intensive one-year leadership education:
The program starts with a foundation in the core business courses, e.g. accounting, finance, marketing and operations. This helps you to understand all of the functional areas of the organization and how they work together. It continues with real-world projects and additional courses that allow you to apply what you have learned in the classroom to real leadership situations

A review of the program structure makes it perfectly clear that it is not a degree for those wanting expertise in a particular business subfield (e.g. finance or marketing) because there is actually only one three-week period of study available for electives.

THE QUESTIONS
Considering the above, I will analyze IMD's 12  "essay questions." I have taken the questions from the online application.  While there are 10 questions that are called "Essays" in the application, there are actually 12 such questions. I think IMD's "essay" designation  is incredibly confusing for no particular reason.  As you will see the first two questions below are clearly essays, whereas some of IMD's "essays" are more administrative questions.

Position sought after graduation
Please give us your short term career goal post MBA (up to 5 years). Describe how the IMD MBA will help you achieve this goal and how you will approach your job search. 2000 Characters Maximum.
Curiously, the standard why MBA /Short term goal only is not called an essay, yet clearly it is. It is also the single longest essay in the entire set of IMD questions. THIS QUESTION DOES NOT FOCUS ON YOUR LONG TERM GOALS.  It is about a post-MBA plan and how IMD will help you carry out that plan. The focus should be on your plans and not your motivation for those plans.  Certainly mention the motivation, but conceptualize  this as a very practical question regarding your 5-year plan post-IMD and how IMD figures into that plan. Don't forget to answer "how you will approach your job search?" because this is an important part of your plan. IMD is looking for applicants who can take charge of their own careers and drive them, not people who expect a career services office to simply take care of them. Explain what resources you can leverage to launch your post-IMD career.
If you are having trouble formulating your plan, you might want to go through a formal analysis of why you need an MBA.
 
You can use my GAP, SWOT, AND ROI TABLE FOR FORMULATING GRADUATE DEGREE GOALS for this purpose (see below). I think Gap, SWOT, and ROI analysis are great ways for understanding what your goals are, why you want a degree, and how you will use it. (Click here for the Businessweek MBA ROI calculator. Click here for a GMAC report on MBA ROI. )

(To best view the following table, click on it.)

How to use this table:

Step 1. Begin by analyzing your "Present Situation." What job(s) have you held? What was/is your functional role(s)? What was/are your responsibilities?

Next, analyze your present strengths and weaknesses for succeeding in your present career. REMEMBER:WHEN YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS DON'T ONLY THINK ABOUT WORK, THINK ABOUT OTHER ASPECTS OF YOUR LIFE. In particular, some of your greatest strengths may have been demonstrated outside of work, so make sure you are accounting for them.
Strengths: What are you good at? Where do you add value? What are you praised for? What are you proud of?
Weakness: What are you bad at? What are you criticized for? What do you try to avoid due to your own limitations? What do you fear?

Next, analyze the environment you work in right now. What opportunities exist for your growth and success? What threats could limit your career growth?

Step 2. Now, do the same thing in Step 1 for your "Post-Degree" future after you have earned your MBA. IF YOU CANNOT COMPLETE STEP 2, YOU HAVE NOT SUFFICIENTLY PLANNED FOR YOUR FUTURE and therefore you need to do more research and need to think more about it.

Step 3. If you could complete step 2, than you should see the "Gap" between your present and your future. What skills, knowledge, and other resources do you need to close the gap between your present and future responsibilities, strengths, and opportunities?

Step 4. After completing Step 3, you need to determine how an MBA will add value to you. It is possible that an increased salary as a result of job change will be sufficient "ROI" for the degree to justify itself, but you should show how a degree will allow you to reach your career goals. How will the degree enhance your skills and opportunities and help you overcome your weaknesses and external threats? If you can complete Step 4 than you should be ready to explain what your goals are, why you want a degree, and the relationship between your past and future career, as well as your strengths and weaknesses.

The above table will also help you answer such common interview questions as: Where do you want to work after you finish your degree? Why do you want an MBA (or other degree)? What are you strengths? What are your weaknesses? What are your goals? Thinking about these issues now will help you to develop a fully worked-out strategy for how you will best present yourself both in the application and in an interview.

After going through this formal process, review what you know about IMD again. In your answer to the question, please focus on showing how IMD will help make your post-MBA future objectives a reality.  BOTTOM LINE: Conceptualize this as a business plan with IMD as a partner who will help enable that plan.

Most important achievement

What do you consider to be your single most important achievement and why? 1230 Characters Maximum

This question is not called an essay either, but it is.  Clearly you need to write on something different from the two topics you cover in Essay 1.  See my analysis of HBS Essay 1 as it applies to this question and also to Essay 1.  My analysis of HBS will also help you choose and differentiate between the topics in the this essay and in Essay 1.
 
The 10 Essays

LENGTH
Each essay answer is quite short, just a maximum of 1230 characters with spaces for each required answer. Essay 1 requires two separate answers. Each answer would be a maximum of about 200-300 words each.


Essay 1: Two situations of importance to you
Situation 1
Situation 2
You have 1230 characters for each situation. On the online application they are treated as separate answers, so I suggest you treat them as separate essays.

I don't necessarily suggest answering this question first due to its open-ended nature. Instead, first determine what topics you will write about for Essays 2 through 5. Essay 1 is what I call a "balance question" because you can use it to make sure that you are emphasizing all of your most compelling personality characteristics, background, and strengths in your application. Given the limited space in Essay 4 to write about strengths, I think it is fine if you briefly mention a strength in Essay 4 that is substantially proven by one of the situations you write about in Essay 1.

While situations of importance to you may not be accomplishments, many applicants will use this essay for that purpose. If you write about accomplishments, please see my analysis of HBS Essay 1 as it would apply here. I think most applicants will consider it to their advantage to have at least one of these situations be an accomplishment. Of course, you will have already written about your "single most important achievement."
.

Essay 2: Failure to reach objective
Please comment on a situation where you failed to reach an objective and what you learned from it.
INSEAD asks almost the same question, so if you are applying to both, excepting for possible differences in word count, you could use the same topic.

This is a fairly standard failure question. That said, I think it is important to remember that the objective you fail to reach might very well be your own personal objective and not one imposed on you. You might very well succeed from the perspective of others, but fail from your own perspective.

It is critical that you learned something meaningful about yourself. And your learning about yourself should be important, otherwise why tell admissions about it? Therefore the key constraint of this question is that whatever the failure is, you have learned something important from it. While not stated, you may very well find that one way of showing what you learned is to discuss how you applied your lesson to a new situation.

I would, in fact, argue that the heart of any sort of "failure question," whether it is an essay question or an interview is what you learned. Also depending on what your role was, how you reacted is also very important.

The basic components of an answer:
1. Clearly state what the objective was.
2. Clearly state your role.
3. Clearly state your failure.
4. Explain what you learned.

The word count is limited, but, if you can, show how you applied what you learned to a new situation because the application of abstract learning to a new situation is a key indicator of real learning.


Essay 3: Leadership
Describe a situation where you had to demonstrate strong leadership skills. Explain how effective you were and what you learned.
Obviously, given the centrality of leadership to IMD, use your best (or one of your best) leadership story here. This should be a story where you demonstrate your strengths as leader, have a concrete result, and are able to provide IMD with an interpretation of your actions.

I have developed the following grid to help you outline leadership stories. The categories this grid employs may go beyond any particular school's essay requirements. Filling it out completely will help you write about your leadership in a way that will convince admissions of your leadership potential.
CLICK TO ENLARGE. EMAIL me at adammarkus@gmail.com if you want the original excel version.

How to use the grid:
1. Decide on a specific story.
2. Identify the most significant things you did in the situation, these are you action steps.
3. For each action step identify:

• What skills or qualities you demonstrated to complete this step.
• The strengths you demonstrated to complete this step.
• The kind of leadership you demonstrated.
• What you still need to learn about leadership.

4. Think about the results and identify how they relate to your action steps. So, at minimum, you should be able to state the impact on others and/or yourself.

5. After completing the chart you will see that some aspects of your action steps may be repeated. If there is a total duplication and nothing new is shown, either you need to redefine the action step or you may decide not to focus on it very much.

6. Once you think you have two to four fully worked-out action steps, start writing your essay.

7. Next, start re-writing. Eliminate duplicate points made between action steps. Make choices about what parts of each action to step to highlight. Given that there are usually word limits, you will have to make some decisions about what to include.

Simply providing a description of your actions, is not enough. Think about what it signifies about you. Think about what your actions reveals about your leadership potential. State what you learned.

Finally, thinking and writing about leadership is an important part of preparing for interviews because you can be certain that you will have to talk about leadership. So you might find that the parts of the outline you jettison now will become valuable when you will want to have alternative stories for your IMD interview.

Essay 4: Describe yourself
How do you imagine your superior would describe your strengths and weaknesses to someone who does not know you?
With a question like this I think it is important to understand that you are actually being asked to think about your strengths and weaknesses more objectively than you might otherwise. In particular, you need to judge yourself from the viewpoint of a hypothetical supervisor who is describing you to someone who does not know you.

My suggestion is to think about what your supervisors in the past have mentioned to you as both your strengths and weaknesses. Of course, this should reflect the perspective of your current (or most current supervisor). Don't feel obligated to focus on that exclusively, but just make sure that your strengths and weaknesses are ones that your superior could recognize.

Obviously the strengths and weaknesses under consideration are mostly, though not necessarily exclusively, of a professional nature. Given the word count, I suggest focusing on no more than about two strengths and two weaknesses. I would try to give fairly equal consideration to both weaknesses and strengths.

EMBRACE WEAKNESS!
I find that many applicants resist writing about their own weaknesses. Yet, to do so reveals self-awareness and maturity. While I think it is necessary to practice good judgment when writing about weakness, I think it is also important that you provide something beyond the routine.

One standard defensive strategy that many applicants seem drawn to is to write about knowledge areas where they are weak. While this can be OK in some cases, it tends to lack any real depth. One thing to avoid is to discuss a skill that you need for the future, but don't need now as a weakness. It is not a weakness because up till now you have not needed it.

STRENGTHS
Strengths are easier to write about, but do keep in mind that you want to be specific about them. Given the limited space here, you might find it helpful to write about a topic here that is discussed in greater detail in another essay.

IS IT A GOOD STRENGTH OR WEAKNESS?
Some questions to ask yourself:
1. Does the strength demonstrate one's potential for future academic and/or professional success? If so, it is a probably a good topic. If not, why does IMD need to know about it?
2. Is a weakness fixable? If you are writing about a weakness that cannot be improved upon through your program at IMD, why do they need to know about it?
3. If your strength or weakness is not related to leadership, why does IMD need to know about it?

Essay 5: International Exposure
Describe a situation where you successfully worked across cultures and/or nations.
What this is not:  It is not a culture shock question.  While most everyone who applies to IMD has international experience, the topic of this essay ineed not be outside of your home country: It just needs to involve dealing with a different nation or culture.  The point is that it has to be an accomplishment story involving an international component.  For many applicants to IMD, this will be easy because a significant percentage of their work will be international. Working across cultures or nations, may mean something professional, but if you don't have such a story, think of a successful experience you had that involved more than one culture or nation. For some applicants this essay will be about a major accomplishment, but for others it will simply be about being effective in an international or multi-cultural setting.

Essay 6: Differentiators

IMD receives numerous applications per year. Give us four bullet points that clearly differentiate you from this applicant pool.

1230 Characters Maximum
In a Class of 90, there is no room for letting in someone who can't function well and does not have something distinct to contribute. I like this question because it forces applicants to really think about their core selling points.  Clearly, there will be significant overlap with other essays. Think of this as more than an executive summary because really it is a your "elevator pitch" to IMD.  What are the key statements that IMD really needs to know about you that will make them want to invite you for their interview?

Essay 7: Alternatives
If you are not admitted, what alternatives will you consider?
This question is designed to test both your real motivations and your ability to develop a plan for meeting your own professional objectives. Therefore I think it is important to consider it in relation to your answer to"Position sought after graduation" above.  How will you still work towards your five-year plan without an IMD MBA?

While a successful answer to this question can certainly include the fact that you have already been admitted elsewhere, that would not be a sufficient answer. You would also want to explain why IMD would be a better choice for you than that other school.

Some think about stating they would reapply. If you are not company-sponsored, that certainly is an option. If you are, it is probably not.That said, simply stating that you would reapply is not enough, instead you need to think about how you will move forward to accomplish what you would have tried to accomplish at IMD.

Essay 8: Finance
Please explain how you intend to finance your studies at IMD. What would be your budget?
This should be treated as more of an administrate rather than an evaluative topic. You just need to state your plan for financing your education. Stick to the facts and make sure what you write is easy to understand and will in no way be a source of concern to the admissions committee.

Essay 9: Disability / illness
Do you have a disability or illness that could affect your performance at IMD? If so, please explain.
If you have no disability or illness of significance, you need not answer this one. In that case, just write "Not Applicable" or words to that effect. If you do have a disability or illness, then I suggest taking the time to contact IMD first, so you can get a better idea about how to best answer this question. If some sort of special arrangement would be necessary for you, please contact IMD to make sure that they can provide it.

Essay 10: Additional Information Optional question: Is there any additional information that is critical for the Admissions Committee to know which has not been covered elsewhere in this application?
While I suppose it is possible to answer this question with "No," in most cases I would not recommend doing so.

For some applicants who have to discuss something negative such as a low GPA, the topic for this essay will be clear enough. Just make sure your answer is a clear and believable explanation and not an excuse.

For those who have nothing negative to write about, think about one or two topics that you believe would help admissions to understand you and support your admission. Be careful that you do not pick a trivial topic.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

10 Ways to Blow an MBA Admissions Interview

In the post, I wanted to provide some overall advice about MBA admissions interviews, by focusing on what not to do. My advice is based on over ten years of experience helping clients prepare for admissions interviews to the world's most selective MBA programs.

My prior overall MBA admissions strategy interview posts are  here, here, and here. My school specific interview posts (At the moment consisting of CBS, Chicago Booth, Cornell, Haas, HBS, INSEAD, Kellogg, Michigan, MIT, Stanford, Tuck, and Wharton) can be found in the "Key Posts" section in the left-hand column.

TEN WAYS TO BLOW AN MBA ADMISSIONS INTERVIEW

1.  Not reviewing your resume and essays before the interview.  This is rather basic because even admissions offices regularly give this advice to applicants.  If you are preparing for a blind interview, one where the interviewer has only your resume, the content that comes out of your essays (and not just  the essays for the school you are interviewing with!) can easily serve as a core basis on which to build your overall content strategy.  For interviews, such as HBS, MIT, IMD, LBS, and NYU, where the interviewer will have read your essays, you want to make sure that your interview answers are  both consistent with and build beyond your essays so that you are not merely telling the interviewer the same stories that they have already read.  Regardless of the type of interview you have, mastering your resume is critical because you should assume the interviewer will ask you questions that come directly from it.  Mastering your resume means being able to effectively interpret your resume (Answering why, how, when, what, who in relation to EVERYTHING in your resume), being able to anticipate any negative issues (The 1 year gap in employment, the frequent job change, the lack of extracurricular activities, the lack of international experience, etc. ), and being able to sell your experience by effectively presenting a core set of messages about your strengths when discussing your past experience.

2. Not being audience friendly.   Consider who you are talking to and how best to present information to them.  Your job is to present yourself effectively under time limited circumstances to someone you probably have not met before, whose job is to make a recommendation as to whether you should be admitted or rejected from the program. They are not your friend. They are not your enemy. They are humans with a limited capacity to absorb oral information, so don't recite your essays from memory in such a manner that that it would be overwhelming. Provide well organized responses that demonstrate your potential for operating effectively the typical interactive environments in and out of class that one would find in an MBA program.  You must make the transition from reciting a text to speaking. One reason I view intensive scripting of full answers as a problem for most applicants is that having a script makes the transition to speaking harder for many people.  Scripted answers are useful as an initial starting point for applicants with limited English ability, but even such applicants need to get beyond the script so that they are providing engaging, direct, and seemingly spontaneous answers to questions.

3. Not learning enough about the school. This is simply inexcusable. Beyond being able to discuss yourself, the other main topic you need to be able to handle is the school itself. If you cannot effectively address what you will contribute to the school, why it best meets your professional objectives, and why you are passionate about attending the school, you will likely have a problem in the interview.

4. Not having good questions for the interviewer.  For most interviews, assume that you will have time to ask at least 1-3 questions for the interviewer.  As such you need to think about what you will ask. For alumni and student interviewers, this is easy because you can simply ask them about their experience and ask for advice about the program.  For admissions officers, I think this can be trickier because often it is not really clear what to ask.  I suggest you focus your questions for admissions interviewers on your academic needs ("Will Professor Smith be teaching his famous course on... next year? I really want to take it"),  your personal needs related to the program ("My partner will be coming with me, what sort of support does your program offer?"),  and perhaps location ("Aside from campus housing, where would you recommend living?").  If you put a little thought into it, it should not be hard to come up with some questions to ask.  The point of asking such questions is to further demonstrate your passionate interest in attending the program.

5. Not getting feedback before you interview. Whether you use an an admissions consultant or not, get some feedback before you interview from someone who can at least judge your performance if not your content.  While I think getting holistic feedback on both your content and performance is best, given that an interview is largely about making an effective overall impression, at least getting feedback on that is better than nothing. The better the quality and extent of the feedback, the more you can anticipate potential problems in your answers, can gain confidence in your delivery, and can become comfortable performing in front of an audience. The amount of feedback someone needs varies from minimal to extensive.  I have clients who are natural interviewees and only need to do a limited amount of preparation. I have other clients who must prepare extensively to even begin to feel comfortable with their answers.

6. Not explaining why the school is your first choice.  For some schools, like Columbia Business School, assume you will be asked not only why you applied to the school, but where else you applied, and even which school is your first choice.  There is only one right answer, which is that the school the interviewer represents is your first choice.  You need to explain why.  Assume if you say the school is one of your first choices or is your second choice, you will get rejected.  Many interviewers don't ask this sort of question, which is an extremely unfair line of questioning, so just be prepared for it.  Have a solid, well reasoned answer why even your backup school is your first choice.  Pure honesty, when asked an unfair question, is not necessarily in your interest.

7. Not dressing appropriately.  This is the basic department, but admissions officers mention this all the time.  Assume formal dress unless the school states or the interviewer lets you know that business casual is fine. Dress like a clown and you should expect to be treated like one. 

8. Not reviewing the common questions the interviewer is likely to ask.  The lovely thing about MBA interviews is that there exist large pools of online data that can provide you with the questions you are likely to encounter. If you have not visited accepted.com and clearadmit.com's great collections of applicant's interview reports, you must do so!  In my own school specific posts, I include lists of common questions specific to the school.  The fact is that for some schools, the interviewers really do stick to a fairly narrow set of questions. At many schools, you can anticipate 80% to 100% of the questions you will be asked.  What makes an HBS interview hard is in part that the percentage of common questions that are asked varies widely from from 10% (Extreme, but I have seen it) to 90%. For interviews like HBS, other tactics are required (See #9).

9. Not anticipating questions. Assume the worst case scenario: Whatever questions you don't want to be asked are the ones that you will be asked.  Whether these are the standard sort of questions that most applicants hate ("What are you weaknesses?" "Tell me about a time you failed." "Tell me about an ethical dilemma you experienced.")  or questions specific to you ("Why did you quit X company after only six months?"  "You don't seem to have any extracurricular activities on your resume, why?"  "How long have you been playing piano?"), your job is prepare for such questions.  For interviews where the interviewer will have read your full application, see my post on HBS interviews for detailed advice on anticipating questions specific to your application

10. Not recovering from a bad answer.  While it is possible to give a fatally bad answer ("I am applying to your school because it is my backup."), most bad answers are not inherently fatal if you can recover.  An interview is about an overall impression and if you can recover, you can still make that positive impression. Some applicants have the ability to recover and simply move on. Other people lose it. My advice is to feel free to kick yourself in the head after the interview, but to mitigate a bad answer by moving onto the next question and not losing confidence during the interview. Next, if possible, if you can mitigate whatever was bad about your answer, try to do so.  Question-time in the interview is always a possible place to do this, by simply asking to clarify an answer you provided.  As I will discuss in another post, confidence is at least as important as content.

Click here to find out about my interview preparation services.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.