My Executive Education Journey at INSEAD

Last month I completed the modules for my Executive Masters in Consulting and Coaching for Change at INSEAD. I began the program in September 2014 and will graduate after writing my thesis (ongoing) in October 2016.  Regular readers of this blog perhaps noticed a reduced level of posting over the last year and a half.  Along with reducing my client base by about 40%, I also stopped blogging as much as in past years to be able to focus on my program.  I wanted to provide some thoughts on the process for those considering doing this kind of degree.

A key issue for anyone pursuing a part-time degree program is making time for it.  Whether it is a part-time Masters, evening program, weekend program,  MBA, EMBA, or otherwise, making the time is critical.  In my own case, I am fortunate to be my own boss and except for my wife, didn’t need to consider the opinions of others.  I know from both my clients experiences and from those of classmates at INSEAD that getting their organization to give them time if not outright financial support is critical. For me, I just made a decision to reduce my income. I could make this decision because I had the support of my wife. And just like with employer support, having family support is also critical. In our case, we had to consider the financial costs of me attending and also know that me getting to my modules in Singapore would be the highest priority.  If someone has kids, which we don’t, this impact on them also needs to be considered. Executive degree programs t ypically ask about how you will make the time to attend the program and this is for good reason because having the time is the biggest barrier for succeeding once admitted. Everyone in my program, we had a class of 31, completed it and I was impressed by the fact that everyone was present and focused on the modules.

Based on my experience, I can agree with the assertion that one of the advantages of an executive degree is the ability to apply what one learns to the workplace. Given the nature of my own work, I was not looking for an Executive MBA but for a program that would provide me with  an education designed for training someone to be a better coach and to gain a deeper understanding of organizations, leadership, teamwork, and family businesses.  In other words, I wanted a business school education focused on non-quantitative “soft skills” content, which is exactly what I got.  One key aspect of the EMCCC is that its focus is such that problems or issues the participants have in their work or personal lives served core material for the program.  Whether it was business issues or personal ones, we could apply the methods we were learning to them.  Outside of the program, I began applying what I was learning to my own work with clients.  In fact, my thesis will us e a variety of methods covered in the program to both analyze and suggest how to improve client performance in MBA admissions interviews. I have already applied some of these techniques to the way I conduct interview training and I am seeing a significant positive impact for my clients as a result.  Gaining a deeper understanding of the impact I have on others and they have on me, a key aspect of what was covered in a variety of ways in my program, has made me a better admissions consultant and feel that improvement happening throughout the program. Keep in mind that I have been working as an admissions consultant since 2001. Gaining new techniques and feedback from peers and faculty has enabled a renewal and expansion of my ability beyond the kind of incremental improvement I think I had been making previously. My program challenged my assumptions and hopefully gave me the kind of impact that I could feel in my daily work.

Another consideration when considering any sort of education is who your classmates will be because it is really true that some of the biggest learning will happen because of interacting with them. In the case of the EMCCC, my classmates were management and other types of professional consultants, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, HR professionals, executive coaches, family business executives, and even a member of the INSEAD faculty. The age range was from 30 to over 60 and the mix of nationalities, typical for INSEAD, was diverse. The opportunity to interact with mature diverse professionals who were united in their desire to understand themselves and the world around them better was marvelous. I found fit with my classmates and also had an opportunity to go beyond my own professional context and to look at issues in new ways, which is what I was seeking: Renewing my own perspective and gaining a wider network to enable me to take a fresh approach to my work.  I have also made great friends.  So whatever type of program you might be considering make sure you are realistically evaluating who your classmates will be.

Finally, one question I get asked a lot is whether I will be changing my career now that I have my degree.  This was not my primary intention. While I hope to expand the range of work I do, one of my core objectives was to become a better graduate admissions consultant and coach.  I think it is fine to have multiple objectives (some that may be addressed in an application and others that you may prefer to keep to yourself) and depending on what those objectives are, you might be more focused on the short, medium, or long term.  Whatever the case, you should be able to articulate why you want to do the program and what you hope to get out of it. Given the time and money involved you owe to yourself to understand what it is you think you want.

-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.

MBA Applicants: Waiting for interview invites? Start your interview preparation now!

Are you waiting for MBA application interview invitations?  Now is the time to start your preparation.
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
-When to start MBA interview practice? How to prepare?
You can also find my school specific interview posts  in the Interview Section of my Key Posts page.
For information about how I can help you prepare for interviews, see here. 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?

-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.

Yes, you really should write your own MBA admissions essays!

As an MBA admissions consultant, I help clients with their B-school applications. I advise on essays. I sometimes edit essays. I don’t write essays. I believe in helping applicants use their own own voice. I always thought this was the right thing to do and that ghostwritten essays were not only unethical, but highly risky to submit.  The technology for detecting ghostwritten and plagiarized is getting better and better as a recent article, “Cheating MBA applicants: Trick shots,“ in The Economist discusses:

“But while the proportion of people trying to cheat the system may have stayed the same, the number of schools keen to avoid being hoodwinked has increased. Where Smeal was the first to use Turnitin to sift through admissions essays, now there are around 40 big business schools making use of anti-cheating software. This is good in itself. But it may also make economic sense. Investigating academic fraud once classes are underway can be difficult and expensive. Ms Marcinkevage estimates that, by rooting out potential cheats before it gets that far, the anti-plagiarism software has paid for itself. And most importantly of all, it allows harried admissions staff to concentrate on students' essays, rather than fear their work is falsified.”

So, yes. Write your own essays and beware of anyone who gives you completely set phrases and entire paragraphs to insert. Be yourself. Represent yourself. If you need help, get it from someone who will assist you, not do the writing for 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.

Top of the Ecosystem: Why Top 10 MBA Applicants Should Apply to HBS

Every year I have clients who get rejected from HBS and get admitted to other top MBA programs.  This year has been no different.  One of those who was rejected in R1 and offered an interview at another Top 10 business school asked me if it had been a waste of time to apply to HBS.  I responded:

“I think it was worth a shot for you to apply to HBS. The content you generated out of it helped you with your other essays for other schools. It was always a high risk/high return application. Not getting an invite does not mean it was not worth applying. The nature of this process for any applicant is that it involves rejection. Even those admitted to HBS and Stanford have often been rejected at one or more schools. ”

I wish I had added to my response that HBS is at the top of the US Business School Ecosystem because it consistently has the most applicants, is the biggest program in terms of headcount, has the biggest brand name (Regardless of ranking 1, 7, or whatever by the shifting standards of journalists elected by no one whose statistical survey expertise is at best doubtful), is the most important publisher of case studies, etc.  It does not matter if Stanford is harder to get into, more applicants apply to HBS and more applicants who are admitted to HBS go there than any of the other top MBA programs.  It  is the market leader and is at the top of its ecosystem.

Applicants should assume that those who apply to other top US MBA programs have already or will apply to HBS.  Regardless of what HBS’ essay topic is, more applicants will be writing on it than for any other school.  And since, in recent years,  HBS has given a broad topic that can go in an almost infinite number of directions, taking a broad perspective on the self is what will get reflected in many applicants’ essays.

Therefore my primary attitude about application to HBS is this. If you want to want to go there and have time to make an application, apply.  Even if you think your chances are poor, if you view them as at all viable try it. I know getting rejected is no fun, but if you don’t give it a shot you will never know.

Surely some will say that “MBA Admissions Consultant analyzed my profile or someone just like me and said HBS was not possible.”  One of the reasons I have long rejected doing applicant profile analysis on the fly is that it an act of extreme malpractice because it is based on a false assumption:  A mere smattering of facts as the basis for a prognosis.  Such analysis would have meant that my client admitted to HBS last year with a GMAT below 650 and just a so-so GPA from a not so impressive school should not have gotten in.  Almost every year I have clients like that admitted to HBS and other top programs. What mattered were not the numbers or some basic facts but the whole person.  Now it is the case that the particular client I mentioned had a very powerful story and experiences, but to get to those would require a relatively high level of knowledge about the applicant. That is why my intake form is a pain to fill out because I ask for a lot of inform ation. That is why I conduct initial consultations before working with clients on a comprehensive basis.  And even then, when asked to make a prognosis about results, I am humble enough to know that I don’t own a crystal ball. It is understandable that applicants want to know the outcome prior to application, but the reality is that until the race is run, no one knows the outcome.

-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.

Preparing for Wharton Interviews for the Class of 2018

In this post, I discuss how to prepare for Wharton Interviews for fall 2016 entry. My post on Wharton’s essays for the Class of 2018, can be found here.

 

There are two parts to the Wharton interview, the team-based interview and one-to-one interview.  Each part can be prepared for. I am assuming anyone who is reading this post has actually been invited for a Wharton interview and has reviewed the official information regarding it.

 

TEAM-BASED DISCUSSION

I will not disclose the contents of the specific team-based question that Wharton has asked  interviewees to prepare. I do know the question and it has changed from last year, but the question itself  is not really that different: Different topic, but requiring the group to reach consensus on a proposed topic.   I do provide analysis of the TBD discussion question to my own clients, but will not do that here.

Here are some basic group interview strategies to keep in mind:

1. Be someone who makes clear and effective points in the conversation, but does not dominate the conversation.

2. Don’t be rude to others. Rude jerks are the easiest people to get rid of when evaluating participants in a team based discussion. Stanford Professor Bob Sutton’s No Asshole Rule surely applies here:  CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT IF YOU ARE AN ASSHOLE.

3. Listen closely enough to others in order to say something that builds on or reacts against what other people are saying. Refer to what others are saying in order to build consensus. Those that did listen seemed to have a better outcome in previous years of the TBD.

4. Try to provide constructive communication that moves the discussion forward to a positive conclusion. Make an effort to include others in the conversation.

5. Don’t be afraid to make a less than perfect point. If  you were about being perfect, you will never get enough speaking time and perceived as shy and ineffective in team situations. That will get you dinged.

6. Synthesize and summarize the team’s conversation in order to move the conversation forward.

7.  Use hedging language and other forms of consensus building language. Try to avoid being dismissive of the views of others.

8. If you are having difficulty understanding someone because of their accent or because of your poor English listening skills, still engage in non-verbal demonstrations that you understand what they are saying.  Non-verbal communication will surely be observed, so if you look confused or frustrated that could be used against you.

9. Smile and show eye contact with other people.

10.  Make sure that you don’t slouch in your seat, but are sitting tall and look like a positive and engaged person.

11. Be willing to serve as the group in a functional role: timekeeper, notetaker, or facilitator.  Making a contribution is of bottom line importance.

How I prepare my clients for the team discussion: The main thing I can do is go over the question and make sure my client’s prepared opening 1 minute statement is effective.  The nice part of the Wharton team discussion is that you do have the question ahead of time.  I assess the statement on the following basis:

1. Does the suggested answer address the topic directly?

2. Is the suggested answer one that other group members and the interviewer can easily understand?

3.  Can the answer be communicated very briefly? Given time limits you will need to communicate it very briefly.

4.  Is the answer interesting/original/creative?

5. Are there any negative aspects to the proposed answer?

I can’t effectively prepare someone for the actual dynamics of a group conversation on a one-to-one basis, but by at least making sure my client’s opening is solid, I know they will at least be well positioned to start strong.

 

 

SHORT INDIVIDUAL DISCUSSION (ONE-TO-ONE POST TEAM-BASED DISCUSSION INTERVIEW)

Based on what my clients reported to me and the public reports on Clear Admit, the 10 minute one-to-one interview is likely to consist of 4-6 questions, which I have divided  into the following two categories.

 

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE  TEAM BASED INTERVIEW

It appears that all applicants were asked both of the questions below.  Be prepared to provide your feedback on the team-based interview.  Assume that this is a test of your self-awareness of group dynamics, an opportunity to explain the role you took in the group, and a chance, hopefully to correct any misperceptions of yourself on the part of the interviewer.

1) How do you think the team-based interview went?

2) Was your behaviour typical of how you work in a team? / Was your behaviour in the Team-Based Discussion representative of the way you typically act in group settings?

How I prepare my clients for this part of the interview: I can’t really do that because it is based on what actually happened in the interview.  The only thing I can do is make sure that my client realizes that they will be asked such questions and that they should be mindful of the role that they performed in the group. For example,  if the interviewer perceives you, as say, overly reserved or overly aggressive, you need to be ready to discuss that issue.

 

TYPICAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (Assume 2-4 such questions)

For a more extensive list of Wharton 1-to-1 interview questions, see this post.

This is the standard part of the interview. If you are doing more standard interviews, it will be easy to prepare for this part.  For advice on more standard interviews, please see my MBA Application Interview Strategy. I highly recommend reviewing your resume and Wharton essays as part of your preparation.  You should surely be able to explain why Wharton in particular is the ideal place for you to study.  You  should have 1-2 questions available. If you are interviewing off-campus, you should have questions ready for an admissions officer. If you are interviewing on-campus, you had better be prepared to have questions ready for both an admissions offer and a 2nd year student.

Do you want to highlight anything in your application?

Introduce yourself

Discuss your career progress

Tell me about a time when you worked in a group in which everyone did not agree and how did your team resolve the situation?

What is your post-MBA goal?

Why MBA?

Why Wharton?

Do you have any questions for me?

Anything you want to add?

 

How I prepare my clients for the individual interview: I would typically ask my clients these questions in a mock interview.  It would not be completely realistic because I would go over all the above questions just to make sure that my client was covered for all the above topics. If we were preparing for more standard interviews (Booth, Columbia, Kellogg, Haas, etc.), it might not really be necessary to go over this part of the interview for Wharton. For more about my interview services, please see http://www.adammarkus.com/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.