INSEAD MBA APPLICATION INTERVIEWS

My analysis of the INSEAD admissions application essays for September 2014 is here and for January 2015 is here.

Since 2001, when I began doing MBA admissions counseling, I have had an opportunity to work with a large number of clients admitted to INSEAD. Since establishing my own consulting practice in 2007, I've worked with 27 clients admitted to INSEAD. Annual breakdowns and testimonials from clients admitted to INSEAD can be found here. My report on my 2011 visit to the Singapore campus is here.

In addition to this post, my core posts on interviewing can be found in the INTERVIEW ANALYSIS section of http://www.adammarkus.com/key-posts/. I suggest starting with http://www.adammarkus.com/when-to-start-mba-interview-practice/ and http://www.adammarkus.com/mba-application-interview-strategy-3/ and then reading http://www.adammarkus.com/interview-practice-is-about-speaking/ followed by http://www.adammarkus.com/10-ways-to-blow-an-mba-admissions-interview/.  

INSEAD alumni interviews, of which most applicants will have two of, are not necessarily that hard in any obvious way. The INSEAD website states that the majority of applicants will have two such interviews. These interviews are about fit as determined by alumni "gatekeepers." My analysis of INSEAD interviews based on my own personal knowledge as well as reviewing the reports of INSEAD interviews found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com.

Based on what I can see, aside from issues of availability, there is no specific pattern for who interviews you. Like most schools that use alumni interviewers, it is not necessarily the case that the schol has put any significant time into selecting who will interview you. Also, don't be surprised if INSEAD has to change one or both of the interviewers that they initially assign to you because of the potential interviewer's availability. I get the impression that is frequent. It can result in having slightly longer to prep for the interview, which is not a bad thing.

During a Q&A I conducted with an INSEAD representatative, she discussed the whole issue of the two interviewers:

ADAM: Sometimes when I read or hear about INSEAD interviews, it almost seems like one interviewer is being intentionally aggressive and the other much less so. Sometimes I think this is probably just a kind of post-facto perception, but is there some real distinction between the two interviewers?
DEBORAH: The interviewers are given the same instructions. We don’t tell one to be more aggressive than the other. However, when possible, we do try to have applicants interview with one older alum and one more junior alum. We expect the more senior alum to have a stronger perspective on the overall leadership potential of the applicant and the future contributions one might make as part of the alumni community. We would expect a junior alum to assess the applicant from the perspective of a peer. i.e. Will this applicant be happy in the INSEAD programme?"

You may not necessarily find that more senior of the two interviewers is the more difficult one. It is also possible that you might have two interviewers who are not necessarily that different in terms of their age. Depending on where you are located, INSEAD may or may not have many local alumni to choose from. You should treat each of these interviews as separate experiences and if the first one does not go as well as you expected, don't give up. What matters is what both interviewers say about you.
You can provide your interviewers with either a resume or the application form information (non-essay pages) of the application. Some applicants just provide the entire application. I have not really detected any difference in outcomes between sending the application and sending a resume.

My colleague, H. Steven Green, has put the following organized list of INSEAD questions together by reviewing interview reports:

BACKGROUND (Expect answers to be probed for details.)

• Walk me through your resume. (Assumes applicant provided the interviewers with a resume, which is not required).
• What is rewarding about your current role?
• Tell me about yourself. / How did you get to where you are now?
• Tell me about your career progression to-date.
• How does one become CEO in your firm?
• Why did you choose your current firm / current position?
• Tell me about your current work responsibilities.
• Tell me, in detail, about one project in your current job.
• Tell me about your international experience(s) - both work and personal.
• Tell me about the major milestones in you life since university graduation.
• What do you do in your free time?

GOALS

• What are your goals?
• What are your career goals after INSEAD
• What will you do if you do not get the job you want after graduation?
• Why an MBA?
• Why now?
• Why INSEAD?
• Where else did you apply? How would you prioritize your decision if admitted to two or more?
• Why (THE SPECIFIC AREA OF STUDY YOU WISH TO PURSUE)?

STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES

• What is special about you that will make me recommend you?
• Tell me 3 strengths
• Tell me 3 weaknesses
• What is the biggest challenge you have faced?
• When you are in a gathering, what attracts your attention first?
• What makes you angry?
• What are you most passionate about?
• What do you find intolerable?
• Where are your peers that started in the same class with you at your consulting firm?

COMMUNICATION

• What is your style of negotiation?
• How do you deal with a boss who is not as smart as you?
• How do you deal with a person who’s determined not to listen to you even though he/ she knows you are right?

LEADERSHIP

• Tell me about a time when you were in control of a project.
• Tell me about a time when you were in a leadership position?
• What is your leadership style?

TEAMWORK

• What THREE things would you if a team member at INSEAD were not pulling his own weight?
• Tell me about your teamwork experience.
• Tell me about a time when you worked on a team.
• Tell me about time when you had to deal with conflict on a team.
• How do you handle cultural differences on an international team?

BRAINPOWER

• Tell me your opinion about (CURRENT EVENT) (FOLLOW UP)
• Tell me about (SOME ISSUE IN YOUR INDUSTRY)
• How has the economic crisis affected your company/your industry?
• What do you think of (SOME CURRENT GLOBAL ISSUE: POLITICS, ECONOMICS, etc.)
• What is the main challenge your industry/company is facing?

You need to be able to explain in-depth why you should be admitted to INSEAD, what you can contribute, and what you want to learn. Be willing to openly discuss what soft and hard skills you need to improve/acquire. Show yourself to be open, dynamic, change oriented, and a highly motivated person because the alum will be.

Since there will be time for you to ask questions to the alumnus, you need to give some significant thought to formulating those. Consider what year the alumnus graduated and any other background information if you can determine that through Linkedin or other sources of information. Develop at least four or more questions to ask.

Whoever you interview with, they are likely to be quite friendly and the style of the interview is conversational. Just because your interviewer is friendly, it does not mean that you are doing well. Don't assume a friendly interviewer is not actually a super critical one. Take nothing for granted. Also keep in mind that the admissions process at INSEAD is holistic and a great interview is no absolute guarantee of success.

Reported interview length for interviews is from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. It is a good idea to make sure that your own schedule is free for about 2 hours in the event that your interviewer wants to keep on talking. The setting for these interviews is typically the interviewer's office or a cafe.

-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.

INSEAD MBA Essay Questions for January 2015

Here I discuss INSEAD's essays for January 2015 (Class of December 2015). INSEAD has changed the essays this year.  The program deadlines for January 2015 can be found here.

For information about INSEAD interviews, please see here.

By the way, if you are applying for September 2014, see this post as the questions you need to write on are different. For those who have already written essays for 2014 admission, but are now applying for January 2015 admission, please see Converting INSEAD's 2014 MBA Admissions Essays into January 2015 Essays. My post, INSEAD: Applying for September 2014 versus January 2015 Intakes  may also be relevant to you. 


Since 2001, when I began doing MBA admissions counseling, I have had an opportunity to work with a large number of clients admitted to INSEAD. Since establishing my own consulting practice in 2007, I've worked with 27 clients admitted to INSEAD. Annual breakdowns and testimonials from clients admitted to INSEAD can be found here. My report on my 2011 visit to the Singapore campus is here.

The INSEAD application requires no resume, so providing as complete an answer to all application form questions is especially important. That said, the application form is not terribly extensive.

While INSEAD no longer asks a "Why INSEAD?" question, as with other schools, I strongly recommend becoming informed about INSEAD. Attending admission events, meeting alumni, and making full use of INSEAD's online resources are 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. I would also suggest joining  https://www.facebook.com/insead  and 
https://www.facebook.com/INSEAD.Degree.Programmes for the latest INSEAD news. 

Now to the essays, which I obtained from the online application on January 21, 2014.


Job Description Essays  (AND SO MUCH MORE!)
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.

Job Description 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. What would be your next step in terms of position if you were to remain in the same company? (350 words max.) 
The first part of this question is a very straightforward for most applicants. For those who are unemployed, you should 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 in this essay 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.

The second part of this question (Previously part of Job Essay 2)  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. 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. Try to answer this question 50-100 words.  Given that INSEAD no longer has a why MBA question, this is a good place, as well as the next essay, to mention that.

Job Description 2. Please give a full description of your career since graduating from university. It should be written as if you were talking to someone at a social gathering detailing your career path with the rationale behind your choices. Discuss your short and long term career aspirations. (350 words max.) 
(AKA "The Discuss Your Past Career and Future Aspirations at a Cocktail Party Question.")

This essay had changed substantially and to call it a job description is just totally confusing. I guess the admissions office could not be bothered to update that name, but since this essay is now supposed to explain your overall career and your future goals (one assumes post-INSEAD short and long term career aspirations, it can hardly be called a job description, more accurately, it is CAREER MOTIVATION.

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.

Calling this a description is particularly unhelpful because what they are looking for is an analysis of your career. And more specifically...
WELCOME TO THE  INSEAD COCKTAIL PARTY!

Anyone who knows about INSEAD knows it is a party school.  Well, I guess they really decided to flaunt that with this question, in particular: "It should be written as if you were talking to someone at a social gathering detailing your career path with the rationale behind your choices."  That's right, you are at a social gathering, perhaps drinking a martini or a glass of wine or Singapore Sling while explaining to someone at said gathering about your career. Now, unless you are bore, you will not go into details but be painting a pretty broad brush.  But who are you talking to? Maybe you are single and the person you are talking with is someone you want to impress because you really like them. At the same time, you know they are smart so you want to be relatively honest.  Yes, you stare into his or her's eyes, smiling, and attempting to be as charming as possible. Alternatively, maybe you are talking to potential employer or someone who can help get future employment. In this case too, you want to be charming, but perhaps a tad less flirty.  In either case, your job is give them the big picture of where you have been and where you are going.  You must come across as engaging.  After all, if you can't make an effective pitch here for yourself, what will happen when you have to do recruiting interviews?  Or just effectively network?  Networking is  often more than just writing emails, but actually involves socializing. The question thus is measuring your capability to demonstrate how you discuss your career when communicating with others. 

"Discuss your short and long term career aspirations."
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, these aspirations 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, 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.

(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?

3. 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. 
When I downloaded the PDF from the online application on January 21, 2014, no length was specified, but I am assuming this is a typo and that the length is probably 350 words.

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
6. Entrepreneurial activities

You need not be clever here, just clear and to the point. If your answer sounds like total bullshit, you risk trashing your application, so make sure what you have is really plausible.



The Motivation Essays
A number of these questions have changed and the Why INSEAD question has been removed and so has the reapplicant question.

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. (600 words max.) 

This question has not changed substantially from previous years. Though they did slightly change the wording. 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 uppercase 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. 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. Is your strength or weakness being stated without any context or very context and not supported by other essays in your application? If so, you really need to provide enough support for the strength or weakness to make it meaningful.
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 the achievement of which you are most proud and explain why. In addition, describe a situation where you failed. How did these experiences impact your relationships with others? Comment on what you learned. (400 words max.) 

INSEAD previous asked for two achievements (one personal and one professional) and had a separate failure question. This year, they have cut one of the achievements and combined the two questions. In addition, they added question on personal interests.
For an  analysis of achievement and failure questions, see my post on IMD.  If you are also applying to IMD, you will probably find it easier to write their questions first before doing INSEAD"s.  IMD will give you more word count to answer very similar questions.  While the IMD question is on the  most important achievement and the IMD failure question is on leadership, my guidance  in that post should be sufficient for writing INSEAD's essay.

As INSEAD is now asking you to discuss  "extra-professional activities" in Essay 4, I think there is very high likelihood that you will want to write about a professional achievement here. And why wouldn't you want it to be your most important?

Given that INSEAD is specifically asking you to discuss how a failure impacted your relationship with other people (Teams for example), writing about a leadership failure would surely be a good way to answer INSEAD"s question. That said, INSEAD"s question can apply to any type of failure.

To answer this question correctly, you need to do the following:

1. Discuss an achievement. Explain how the achievement impacted your relationship with others. Explain what you learned from the achievement and/or the impact on the relations with others (Not really very clear which, so I will assume both.

2. Do the same thing for your failure.

Now, of course, you can try to combine your achievement and failure together so that they somehow have a common impact on others and/or learning obtained.  Some people will have such situations, but others will probably find it useful to treat each story separately.

An important part of this question is about your relationship to other people. This is a new aspect to the questions previously asked at INSEAD and clearly indicates their desire to gauge your understanding of the impact you have on others.  They are trying to measure your emotional intelligence, though not in in very much detail.  Make sure you address this part of the question.

3. Tell us about an experience where you were significantly impacted by cultural diversity, in a positive or negative way. (300 words max.) 

This is a major change from previous versions of the question because it no longer is asking about culture shock per se.

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."

The nice thing about this question is that it does not require an applicant to have substantial international experience because diversity takes many forms.

Writing about a positive experience is likely to be what most applicants do because it is rather easy.

Writing about something negative can work well, but like previous culture shock questions, 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.

There is a wide variety of possible topics, which makes this a great question  for really emphasizing something not covered well in other essays.  A key consideration is that whatever the topic, diversity impacted you significantly.  In other words, write about something important and not trivial. Write about something that will really help INSEAD understand why you belong in their diverse community because of your attitude and insight into diversity.

4. Describe all types of extra-professional activities in which you have been or are still involved for a significant amount of time (clubs, sports, music, arts, politics, etc). How are you enriched by these activities? (300 words max.) 

While you should feel free to include ALL TYPES OF ACTIVITIES, you should not try to write about ALL ACTIVITIES that you have been or are currently engaged in.  My suggestion is to focus on 2-4 topics because if you do much more than that, you will say very little.

The key to effectively answering this question is to make sure you are addressing the second part of the question: "How are you enriched by these activities?"  In other words, focus on those activities which have really impacted you.  You may want to mention specific accomplishments related to one or more activities, but whatever you do, make sure the activities are actually significant and communicate something important about you.


5. Is there anything else that was not covered in your application that you would like to share with the Admissions Committee? (300 words max.) 
While this question is optional, I have every client write about something here. Beyond any explanation for any negative issues, feel free to write about any extracurricular activities, professional experiences, personal experiences, and/or other matters 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.

I know some applicants will want to write about "Why INSEAD?" here, but they cut that question, for this application,  so be careful with that.  I will be advising my own clients to only discuss INSEAD here if they have something really interesting to write or if they are reapplicants (see next paragraph).

Since there is no longer a reapplication question (at least not in the essay set put up on January 21st), I would recommend that reapplicants use the optional essay for the purpose of providing 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, I think it is especially useful to show what steps you have taken to learn more about INSEAD. For more about reapplication, please see A guide to my resources for reapplicants.

For my post on INSEAD interviews, please see here.

-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.

IESE MBA Application Essays (2013-2014) for the Class of 2016

This is my analysis of IESE Essays (2013-2014) for admission to the MBA Class of 2016.

IESE offers an intensive case study based MBA program. It was founded with the active cooperation of HBS and its first-year is a core curriculum program where a section of approximately 70 students will take all the same classes together.  Learn about the case method at IESE here. While the first-year is set, the second-year allows for great flexibility including the opportunity to take courses in Spanish and opportunities to study abroad.  If you are looking for academic rigour, international diversity amongst students and faculty,  and want to spend two years in one the world’s greatest cities, IESE should be on your short-list.  Based on what I observed during my 2012 visit there and through talking with former clients over the years, IESE offers an intensive MBA education. The f irst-year at IESE is simply extremely hard.

In  2013, I had the opportunity to interview a faculty member at IESE who provides really good insight into the program. While he has since left IESE for another school, he was a longstanding member of the faculty and helped significantly with student recruiting in Japan, where IESE now has quite a strong alumni presence.

One of the nice things that IESE does is actually provide initial feedback to potential applicants. You can get feedback on your profile by completing this feedback form. Knowing whether admissions sees potential fit is a great way to determine whether to apply.

IESE is no party school. It might be in a town well known for having a good time, but if you have any thoughts of  enjoying the fun in Barcelona every evening, I think you will have to wait for the second year of the program for that even to be considered.  During your first year at IESE, expect to be reading cases and talking cases.  Last year, I also visited IMD, another program well known for being intense. I think it fair to say that these two European non-party schools contrast with LBS and INSEAD, the other top European B-schools, but ones well known as Party Schools.

My clients who apply to IESE, typically apply to some combination of the three schools I mentioned in the previous paragraph and/or top US two-year programs.  You can find testimonials from 2 of the 7 clients I worked with who were admitted to IESE in past years.

IESE has 4 deadlines, 2 of which have passed at the time of writing.  I wish I had been able to get this post up earlier.

Essays: Like with many top US schools, IESE has also reduced the total number of essays. Compared to IMD or INSEAD, IESE’s  essay set is small and relatively easy to answer. If you have already done the essays for IMD or INSEAD, the IESE essays will be particularly easy. When considering what aspects of your experience to discuss, I do suggest you reflect on IESE’s mission statement to emphasize aspects of your experience that align well with the program.


IESE Essay 1: Describe your short-term and long-term career goals (post MBA). (300 word limit)
This is a very standard goals statement. The fact that it is brief means you need to provide a future focused statement. Extensive discussion of your past experience or of why you want to attend IESE will just not fit here. However, I think it is important to explain why you want an IESE MBA at least briefly.  Your reader should both understand what your goals and have at least a clear idea, though not the details of why you want an IESE MBA.  This is the advice I have given to my clients applying to IESE.  As is generally the case, conceive of your short-term goal as a plan and your long-term goal as a vision.  Make sure that your goals intuitively connect together because you don’t have space for any sort of extensive discussion of goals that don’t connect together logically.

If you are having difficulty formulating your goals, please see my method for formulating goals, which can be found in my analysis of Stanford’s goal essay.

Essay 2: Describe a recent situation (1-2 years ago maximum) that demonstrates your fit with IESE's mission and values. (300 words)
You can find out about IESE’s mission here. I think any applicant should be able to provide a situation, most likely an accomplishment, which can be connected to IESE’s mission.  I would pay particular attention to this part of the Mission Statement:
“Believing that businesses are above all communities of people who work better in an atmosphere of trust, IESE's mission and core values are articulated in its programs and school culture and carried-out by faculty and staff who lead by example. These emphasize:

• Respect for others
• Commitment to the common good of companies and society
• Humility
• Learning and listening
• Teamwork

With these values as a foundation, IESE programs are structured around five pillars of leadership development:

• A general management perspective
• Human and ethical values
• International dimension
• Transformational impact
• Knowledge development”

The nice thing about both the mission and five pillars of leadership development is that they suggest a wide variety of themes for an essay.  In 2013, I  had an opportunity to attend IESE Dean Jordi Canals' presentation to alumni in Tokyo because I am a sponsor of IESE’s Japan Trek. One point he made was that ethics are incorporated into all the courses at IESE. While I don’t think it is necessary to write directly about ethics in this essay, I do think it is important that whatever you write about shows your  compatibility with IESE’s focus on ethical leadership. 

What I suggest doing is writing about an accomplishment which highlights your fit with IESE.  For a detailed analysis of  how to write an accomplishment essay, see my analysis of IMD Essay 1.

IESE Essay 3: I wish that the application had asked me… (200 word limit)
Think very carefully about how you want to use this.  I would avoid discussing something negative here unless absolutely necessary. Instead focus on something(s) that you think will help IESE understand why you belong in their program.

I don’t suggest using this as a place for simply explaining something negative like a bad GPA or GMAT or TOEFL, instead provide admissions with greater insight into who you are. Use this question to balance out the rest of your application by discussing some aspect of who you are that has not been sufficiently focused on.

Specifically ask yourself, What else can I tell IESE that help them understand why they should admit me?

While you will likely use this space for an essay that might be utilized for another application, it is critical that IESE not get the impression that you have done so. As with any school, I think it is important that IESE admissions gets the impression that you specifically tailored this essay to their school. Since you have already discussed your goals, I would not suggest using the essay for that purpose.

Some Questions to get you brainstorming:
1. What do you want IESE to know about you that would positively impact your chances for admission?
2. What major positive aspects of your life have not been effectively INTERPRETED to the admissions committee in other parts of the application?
3. If you were going to tell admissions something about you that would not be obvious from rest of the application, what would they be? Why should IESE care?
4.  What could you discuss about yourself that you think would really help admissions understand you and want to admit you?
As you can see, these questions would lead to very different kinds of responses. There is no one way to answer this question, but I believe there are right ways for every applicant to do so.

However you answer this question, it should give IESE further reason to want to interview you.

-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.

Columbia Business School MBA Application Interviews

In this post I provide advice on how to prepare for a Columbia Business School MBA interview. You can find my post on Columbia Essays here.

The advice I offer here is based on having helped numerous clients prepare for interviews and gain admission to Columbia Business School.  My client results and testimonials can be found here.  

For my  detailed suggestions on overall interview preparation, please see:
-MBA Application Interview Strategy

-Interview Practice is ABOUT SPEAKING!

-Further Comments on MBA Admissions Interviews 
-General Characteristics of Admissions Officers, Students, and Alumni Interviewers
-Recovering from a bad answer during an MBA admissions interview
-10 Ways to Blow an MBA Admissions Interview
-and my more recent post, When to start MBA interview practice? How to prepare?

Columbia Business School offers only one flavor of admissions interview: “Columbia Business School Ambassador” alumni invitation-only interviews. You will get to select from multiple interviewers, so try to figure out who they are first before contacting them. I suggest using Google searches, LinkedIn, and perhaps your own network to do so. Select someone who you think you will be compatible with. While this interview is certainly important, it is not unheard of for admissions to admit someone the alumni did not recommend or ding someone the interviewer did recommend. The admissions office has the ultimate discretion over this issue and clearly sees the interview as only one factor for determining the ultimate result. That said, the interview is certainly quite important. In my experience, clients who report not having a great Columbia rarely are admitted, so you as a n applicant should assume that like with any interview, it is very important to do well.

In my post, General Characteristics of Admissions Officers, Students, and Alumni Interviewers, I discuss Columbia interviewers specifically: “Among top US MBA programs, the school with the most alumni interview horror stories is most certainly Columbia Business School.  Given their very open process where candidates choose from many possible alumni, there appears to be very little direct oversight over the interviewer selection process. It is no wonder that CBS admissions seems to frequently conduct short follow-up telephone interviews with applicants.”

Still, Columbia alumni seem to be particularly effective gatekeepers for the program. They are well known for relentlessly determining whether Columbia really is the applicant’s first choice. They are clearly told to do this as it is a consistent feature of interview reports. Not only should you be able to explain why Columbia is your first choice, but you had better explain why HBS, Stanford, and/or Wharton is not. Less then clear answers to the why is CBS your first choice question can prove fatal. Beyond that, I think alumni are really looking to make sure that you possess sufficient mental strength, personal drive (aggression), and career focus to become a part of their “club.”Some of the most common question topics you would encounter in a Columbia interview (Based on my colleague Steve Green’s review o f reports at accepted.com and clearadmit.com, which is consistent with what clients have been reporting to me):

RESUME

• Walk me through your resume.  (PICK AND PROBE CONTENT)
• Tell me about a professional achievement
• Explain your professional progression up until now and why you need an MBA?
• What is unique about you?

GOALS

• What are your career goals?
• In addition to applying for an MBA, what other steps have you taken toward your goal?
• Why an MBA?
• Why now?
• Why Columbia?
• How will you contribute to Columbia?
• What are your criteria for an MBA program?
• Where else did you apply?
• What other schools have you applied to?
• What will you do if you don’t get in anywhere else?
• What makes you unique from other (financiers / salesmen / IT specialists, etc.) applying to Columbia?  
• Are there any red flags you think the adcom will find in your candidacy?

LEADERSHIP

• What is your leadership / management style?
• Tell me about a time when you took the initiative.
• Have you ever been in a leadership role?

TEAMWORK

• Tell me about a time when you had a work in a difficult team at your first job.
• Tell me about a time when you had to work with a difficult person.
• What role do you play on teams?
• Example of leading a team.
• Example of contributing to a team.
• Example of a challenging team/group situation.

SELF-AWARENESS

• Tell me about a time when you faced adversity?
• Tell me about a time when you made a major mistake at work and how you dealt with it.

ETHICS (NOTE: IT APPEARS THAT THIS QUESTION HAS BEEN ELIMINATED FROM INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED FOR ENTRY FROM 2013 ON. YOU SHOULD STILL BE AWARE AND PREPARE FOR IT IN THE EVENT THAT AN INTERVIEWER ASKS IT OUT OF OLD HABIT)

• What was an ethical dilemma you’ve faced, and what did you do about it? (Follow up with q's like "What would you do differently?")
• Describe a time, either professionally or academically, when you witnessed others behaving unethically–what did you do about it?

PERSONAL

• Tell me something unique about you
• Is there anything particular you'd like me to add to my report for admissions?
• What do you do in your free time?
• What do you get excited about? What turns you on?
• Why? (sports, hobbies etc.)

• What are 5 adjectives that describe your interpersonal skills and communication style?

If there is anything you wanted to mention that was not covered in your application that you want to bring to the admission committee’s attention, you will possibly have the opportunity to do so because interviewers frequently ask about this.

ANALYTICAL ABILITY / CURRENT EVENTS

• Tell me about a technology trend and how it will affect business.
• What is the impact of the financial crisis on (YOUR) industry?
• Topical questions about the current financial crisis, etc.
• Anything related to interviewee's field:  Future or real estate, health care, etc.

Either walk me through your resume or questions that amount to the same thing are always asked. Expect to be asked one way or another about how you standout professionally. Be honest, but very direct and sell your experience emphasizing your ability to make an impact. A common question is “What improvements have made in the position hold at work?”

Be ready to ask questions to the alumni. Prepare them ahead of time. Assume that unless the alum is a very recent graduate, they should not be asked about recent developments on the campus. This is a good opportunity to ask them about their Columbia experience and about the alumni network.


You probably will not be asked any weird hypothetical questions, but rather expect to cover some variation of the above questions in a great deal of depth.

Reported interview length is typically 60-75 minutes, but some interviews are shorter and some go for 90 minutes.

Brief Telephone Follow-up Interviews with an Admissions Officer: A number of my clients, especially, but exclusively non-native English speakers, have had short 5-15 minute interviews with the admissions office after the alumni interview.  Many of my Japanese and Chinese clients have experienced this for purposes of an English language check, but I have also had clients from the US and Canada who received such calls. Sometimes the admissions office simply as a point of fact in the application that they want to clarify. From what I can gather, getting such a call is neither positive or negative in terms of the final result.

-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.

Stanford GSB MBA Admissions Interviews

Stanford GSB’s is the hardest MBA admission interview invitation to get on the planet.  If you have been invited, your chance of admission just went from about 6.5% (depends on the year) to 50%.   The odds are much better, now you must close the deal.  While a poor interview is unlikely to result in admission,  the admissions process at Stanford is holistic and a great interview is no absolute guarantee of success.
You can find results and/or testimonials from my clients admitted to to the Stanford Classes of 2016 (2 in Round 1), 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010 here.  My full Stanford results prior to the Class of 2014 can be found here. My clients admitted to Stanford GSB have come from China, India, Latin America, Japan, South Korea, and the United States and have had extremely diverse professional and educational backgrounds. The advice I provide below is based on that experience.

Stanford GSB MBA admission  interviews, while so hard to get, are not necessarily hard interviews because (1) most of the questions are relatively predictable,  (2) the overall style of the interview is typically conversational,  and (3) time constraints are either minimal or non-existent.  This is interview about fit as typically determined by an alumni “gatekeeper.” Interviews with admissions or other Stanford staff do happen as well, but this is relatively rare.  Chances are good that this gatekeeper might be in your industry or in some manner have a complementary background for assessing you.  For example, if you might be perceived as lacking a particularly important attribute (professional experience in the field related to your goals or English skills for example), don’t surprised if the alumni is someone who is in a good position to judge this. While I imagine in some places with few alumni, a high level of complementary assessment (e.g., Mc Kinsey applicant interviewed by Boston Consulting Group alumnus) would be less likely, I can say that it is the rule rather the exception if you reside in a location with numerous Stanford alumni.

Interacting with the interviewer
You can typically expect a lively exchange and hopefully a good conversation. If your interview is scheduled for late on a workday or on a weekend or outside of the interviewer’s office, whatever you do, don’t make any plans for it to end on time as Stanford interviews are well known for going long.

Reported interview length for interviews is official 45 minutes, but can go on for longer than that. It usually consists of 30-40 minutes of questions from the alumni followed by 5-15 minutes of question to the alum, but often the interviews go longer, an hour or more is not uncommon. In my own experience with clients, I would say that if the interview goes for an hour or more, that is a good sign, but a 45 minute interview is not necessarily a bad sign. Interviews that last 75 minutes to 120 minutes are not uncommon.

Whoever you interview with, they are likely to be quite friendly and the style of the interview is conversational. Stanford alumni are provided with very clear guidelines for how to conduct interviews. The alumnus will be provided with a list of questions,  which they utilize.  The extent to which the alumnus does this appears to be highly variable. You may get more of an informal conversation with the occasional behavioral question or you might get something consists of many of the standard interview questions mentioned below.

Just because your interviewer is friendly, it does not mean that you are doing well. Don’t assume a friendly interviewer is not actually a super critical one. Alumni are the gatekeepers and Stanford can afford to reject anyone. Take nothing for granted.

Preparing for the interview
Given the mix of standard interview questions and behavioral  questions, I do suggest you prepare extensively for both kinds of questions.   For my  detailed suggestions on overall interview preparation, please see:
-MBA Application Interview Strategy

-Interview Practice is ABOUT SPEAKING!

-Further Comments on MBA Admissions Interviews 
-General Characteristics of Admissions Officers, Students, and Alumni Interviewers -Recovering from a bad answer during an MBA admissions interview -10 Ways to Blow an MBA Admissions Interview

• Tell me about your background/walk me through your resume.

• Tell me a bit about yourself

• What extracurricular activity are you most proud of?

• What did you take away from your undergraduate experience?

• What do you like to do outside of work?

• Tell about a time you streamlined operations/made things more efficient? What did you do?  How did you measure its success?

• What metrics did you use?

• Tell me about your international experience.

• What is your favorite place you've traveled?

• What is your company's strategy?  Is it succeeding?

• Tell me about a specific time when you realized you needed an MBA.

• Why a Stanford MBA?

• Why do you need an MBA?

• Why now?

• Why Stanford?

• How would you decide between schools if you got into multiple MBA programs?

• What will you bring that is unique to the program?

• How will you contribute to Stanford?

• What are your short-term goals? Long-term goals?

• Where else have you applied? How have those worked out?

• Explain how you are ready for academic rigor.

• Tell me about a time you faced an obstacle and what did you do about it?

• Tell me about a time you faced an ethical situation.

• Tell me about a time you had your beliefs challenged.

• Tell me about a time you had to stand your ground and how did you do it?

• Tell me about a time your values were challenged and you had to consult your moral compass?

• Tell me about someone difficult to work with that was in a position above you and what you learned from it.

• Tell me about a time when others have pointed out a weakness of yours.

• Tell me about the most valuable piece of feedback you’ve ever received. How did it change your relationship with that individual? Why was it important?

• What is a valuable piece of feedback you have received?

• Tell me about a time things didn't go according to plan and you failed? What did you learn from it?

• What did you learn from a failure?

• Tell me about an individual or group failure.

• Tell me about a time when you failed. What did you learn from that event and how have you implemented what you learned from that failure?

• How do you deal with failure?

• Name a book that you’ve read recently that was not for work. We then discussed that book.

• What is your favorite book that is not work related?

• What are your 3 favorite books?

• Tell me about what inspires you.

• Is there anything you've done merely out of passion?

• If money were not an issue, what cause would you pursue most vigorously?

• Tell me about a time you wanted to give up but found the motivation to keep going?

• What is your greatest accomplishment?

• Tell me about a time you had to make a trade-off between two equally attractive opportunities?

• Tell me about a time you worked with a difficult team member or manager.

• Tell me about an individual or group failure.

• Tell me about a team experience.

• Have you ever led a team?

• Tell me about a time when you had to lead a team of individuals. What did you learn about yourself? What did you learn about leadership?

• Tell me about a leadership experience.

• Tell me about a time you knew you were an effective leader and how did you know?

• What is your leadership style? Give me an example of how you’ve led that way.

• When have you led peers and how?

• Tell me about a time when a leader fell short and you had to step up and lead.

• Tell me about a time when you’ve been challenged as a leader and what you learned from it.

-and my more recent post, When to start MBA interview practice? How to prepare?

The above posts are my general remarks on MBA admissions interview strategy and apply here.  For  answering behavioral questions, please see MIT Sloan MBA Interviews, which will teach you how to be a STAR (if you don’t know what I am talking about, read the post for sure).


Typical Questions
My colleague, H. Steven Green, has put the following together by reviewing interview reports of Stanford University GSB interviews found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com.
RESUME
GOALS, REASONS FOR MBA, REASONS FOR STANFORD
CHARACTER & CHALLENGES TO YOUR BELIEFS AND VALUES
DIFFICULT WORK RELATIONSHIPS
CRITICISM AND FEEDBACK FROM OTHERS
FAILURE
BOOKS YOU'VE READ
INSPIRATION, PASSION
TEAMWORK
LEADERSHIP


Demonstrate Fit
You need to be able to explain in-depth why you should be admitted to Stanford, what you can contribute, and what you want to learn. Be willing to openly discuss what soft and hard skills you need to improve/acquire. Show yourself to be open, dynamic, change oriented, and a highly motivated person because the alum will be.

Prepare good questions
Since there is supposed to be time for you to ask questions to the alum, you need to give some significant thought to formulating those. Consider what year the alum graduated and any other background information if you can determine that through Linkedin or other sources of information. Develop four or more questions to ask.

For more about my interview services, please see here.

-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.