INSEAD Business School Sample Essay

Are you interested in pursuing Business studies? Have you heard about the INSEAD Business School? INSEAD is one of the world’s most popular graduate business schools which offers a wide variety of Finance, Management, Executive Education, Business Administration, and Foundation courses. Its main campus is located in Fontainebleau, France, while the other campuses are situated in Abu Dhabi, San Francisco, and Singapore. Studying at the prestigious INSEAD Business School is a matter of great accomplishment. However, getting admission into a top-tier institution like INSEAD is not an easy task. As several students apply for an INSEAD program, there is intense competition. To ensure that there is a fair admission process, the INSEAD Business School asks students to submit essays. Your chances of admission significantly improve, if you write an impressive essay. 

Now, let us get to know what you have to write in an INSEAD essay. In such an essay, you need to write about your strengths and weaknesses, interests and abilities, and the factors that have shaped your personal growth and development. You also need to write about major milestones in your life, how failures have taught you important lessons, and the types of extra-curricular activities that you take part in. By this essay, the INSEAD admissions committee gets to know the kind of person you are, and how studying a course at their institution will help you achieve your goals. Overall, you need to present your story in a way that makes you stand out as a worthy candidate who deserves to be a part of the INSEAD Business School.

INSEAD Essay Questions

While writing an essay for pursuing a course at the INSEAD Business School, you need to answer certain questions. Some of the commonly asked INSEAD essay questions are:

• Who are you as a person? Focus on your strengths and how you work on your weaknesses. 

• Give a full description of your academic profile so far.

• Describe your career after graduating from university, and the rationale behind your choices.

• Briefly summarize your current or most recent job, your roles and responsibilities, and if you made any significant achievements.

• How do you deal with a setback on the professional front?

• What inspires you?

• Why do you want to pursue business studies?

• What is the impact of social media on business?

• Why do you wish to study a course at INSEAD?

• What would be your next step in terms of position if you were to remain in the same company instead of going to a business school?

• Consider a situation where you failed to achieve your objective(s). How did you handle failure? What did you learn about yourself and/or your interactions with others from this situation? 

• Describe your short and long-term career goals. How will studying at INSEAD help you achieve them?

How to Write an Impressive INSEAD Essay?

Before you begin writing, first understand properly what you have been asked to write about in your essay. You should be able to provide sufficient details about the questions asked. Here are some useful tips, which can help you write an impressive INSEAD Essay.

• Transparency- Ensure that you are being truthful about yourself. Write about your academic and professional life and significant milestones in your life in a way that makes you come across as a genuine candidate. 
• Portraying that you are a Proactive person- Focus on key aspects of your personality, behavior, and way of working that make you come across as an individual who is ready to face challenges and come up with effective solutions in a rapidly changing business environment. You can give examples of how you dealt with a personal or a professional setback and the valuable lessons you learned from it.
• Communicate specific reasons why you are a great fit for the school- Describe your academic and professional life and talk about how your experience so far has made you want to pursue higher studies. Write about how studying at INSEAD will help you achieve your career goals.
• Highlight your Global Perspective- A prestigious institution like INSEAD emphasizes diversity and global perspectives. If you have worked in a foreign country, have grown up in various countries, or been a part of a diverse society, then write about how your cultural exposure has shaped your worldview. Write as to how this has helped you in adapting to different situations and how this experience will help you overcome challenges in a business setup. 
• Insight into your post-INSEAD plans- You need to provide a clear understanding of your career trajectory after completing your studies at INSEAD. In your essay, write about your short and long-term goals, and how studying at INSEAD will help you in achieving your goals. You need to align your goals with INSEAD’s curriculum, alumni network, and industry connections.

Give a candid description of yourself (who you are as a person), stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary (maximum 500 words).

Journeys are the roadways to novel things in life. It is not the destination but the very path of reaching it that ensures optimum learning for one. My locomotive journey is one of the major factors that contributed to my growth and development and culminated in my confident persona. Being a son of a civil servant we kept on moving from one place to the other every three years. This meant many new beginnings for me. I have studied in 6 schools so far situated in different Indian states. The starting of a new phase in life was difficult as I found myself in the pool of a different culture altogether. Initially, it seemed like swimming against the current but with little time, the tact of camaraderie, and my friendly nature, I managed to stay afloat. The very situation which seemed difficult initially began to look natural gradually and it became easier for me to go with the flow thus winning many friends and earning a good relationship with my teachers. Eventually, this became the pattern of my life and it came to me naturally to adjust and make the best of what was provided to me. At this point, I can comfortably say that I don’t have a comfort zone. Instead, I try to create one at every new place I visit. Additionally, what I am particularly proud of is that in this era of specialization, I can call myself a polyglot as every place instilled in me its language and culture in its subtle way.

This quality enhanced my adaptability and ability to learn quickly. Things came to me relatively easily as compared to others. I have always been keen on taking up tasks that challenge me and I work best in multicultural group activities. This factor was strengthened when in college I took up the task of conducting various events and fests. Each had numerous people involved in it. My skills helped me approach the situations from a different angle thus helping me achieve what was required and it was approved by my teammates which reinforced a sense of independence in me. I learned that an emphatical understanding is very crucial to handling diverse environments. Though there was strife, mismanagement, and sometimes people lacked the vigor to work hard which seemed like a drawback in a team of 50 students I knew what was required hence I changed my approach from being assertive to presenting the situation as the person wanted to see. The fest was ISO certified and had multiple global performers involved thus it was needed for me to be as comprehensive and patient as possible because that’s how great feats are executed. When you’re dealing with people, one size fits all does not apply to such situations. People are complex beings hence one has to know how to get things done. This enabled me to perform the tasks with efficiency and achieve what I planned not just in my college but professionally too. I am glad I got to see these finer points as later on I worked as a Solutions Advisor where I had to demonstrate customer demonstrations to various clients/prospects and take the feasible requirements only.

Later on, as part of the research internship, I went to remote parts of the country and was taken aback by the sheer disparity and unawareness among children there. They were unable to identify the missile man of India which came as a rude shock to me. I felt the need to work for society all the more. I realized that I carried the potential to change the world hence I consciously worked to promote education for underprivileged kids. I have worked as a core member of the National Digital Literacy Mission of the government, along with being a participant in beach cleaning activities. I believe each one of these tasks has proven conducive to my growth.

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 (maximum 400 words).

‘The Dynamo’ (2017) is the name of the award that I received as a token of appreciation for my consistent hard work. The name fully describes my journey from being an employee to a rising star. I contributed to a Sales Solutions consulting project for improving client acquisition by 40% and increasing projected revenue by 80 million dollars. I was part of 8 client acquisitions across the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and India. It was while preparing for these demonstrations I observed that at certain times code functionalities were not relevant to the innovations in the FinTech field. I initiated the revamp process for the same and it did yield the expected results thus giving me a sense of confidence that I can work well under pressure and later on helped me take up the challenge as a solutions advisor for a major Malaysian client in Kuala Lumpur.

Achievements are worth celebrating but one learns through failures. It was in my college that we planned a grand opening that involved stellar Lantern festivities. The lanterns were meant to be the star attraction as it involved about 2000 lanterns being lit up and allowed to take off lighting up the night at the venue and creating a wonderful spectacle. We were very sure of this hence posted the news of the same on our various social media platforms. Nevertheless, it came as a surprise when the college authorities objected to the idea. We expected a footfall of 20,000 people and this cancellation meant an abject embarrassment for us and the name of our college society. Eventually, a different time slot was decided for it. However, I would say that it was my shortcoming to deny the enormity and seriousness of this matter. I tried to do everything myself and couldn’t manage. I firmly believe that a critical aspect of leadership is the awareness of when to escalate a certain matter without waiting for it to become an unavoidable obstacle to progress. I learned a lot through this event.

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, etc). How are you enriched by these activities? (maximum 300 words)

Society moved towards development via wheels. My interests too rolled on wheels but these were flat and carried the potential to change. I am thankful to my grandmother for giving me her time and the coin India produced 1500 years ago. Numismatics intrigues me and I have collected coins from 60 countries. With my expanding collection, I feel the need to trace history. I believe these little metal discs act as tangible relics that allow me to touch past times and draw associations.

Besides this, it was during my college days I got to interact with international magicians and assisted them with backstage acts. I got to see a lot and learned a few of their tricks which enthralled the audience. Currently, I am interested in cardistry which is a recent trend in the cards section. I also have a quirky habit of enjoying challenging things like bungee jumping and other such sports. Living in Malaysia gave me just the opportunity and I went ahead with various kayaking and bungee jumping events. I even have a courage certificate for the same. At this juncture Kintsugi is on my list, it teaches a person to reassemble broken parts with gold. I read about it and felt the need to learn this skill. It is something peaceful and creative.

Right now all I wish for is that I get to meet people who have a proclivity for novelty in life with whom I would love to share my unusual interests.