INSEAD MBA Motivation Essay Prompts

ESSAY 1: GIVE A CANDID DESCRIPTION OF YOURSELF (WHO ARE YOU AS A PERSON), STRESSING THE PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS YOU FEEL TO BE YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES AND THE MAIN FACTORS WHICH HAVE INFLUENCED YOUR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT, GIVING EXAMPLES WHEN NECESSARY (500 WORDS MAXIMUM).

ADMISSIONADO COMMENTARY

This has been an INSEAD staple for a few years now. The only real change here is in word count. Now, the one thing they haven’t done here, which they should have, is to distinguish between a passive description and an active one. A passive description just tells you about something, and it ends there. “The ink stain is permanent.” “This coffee is very hot.” Thanks, but we don’t want passive. We want that other thing — the description that teaches us something. Makes us develop an ATTITUDE about the subject.

“The ink stain is permanent, and it’s a good thing—I don’t ever want to forget the day the woman I fell in love with haplessly broke the cartridge over my white shirt. Crazy as it may sound, this blemish is a living monument of her innocence.”

Oh, so… the ink stain being permanent here was a GOOD thing! Hah! Without that context, we had no idea. Context, folks. Your job here is to describe yourself… with context. Give us a reason to learn something about you. Adjectives by themselves are meaningless.

How can you figure out WHICH characteristics give you your color? Have contributed to your personal development? Make you… you? (And not just “you” but… interesting, compelling, worth meeting, etc.)? That’s the hard part, isn’t it. Here are some tips to help:

• Has there been a moment in your life where you experienced a fundamental SHIFT in thinking? And we’re not talking about switching from Coke to Pepsi, but rather, an EPIC shift in worldview?
• Was there ever a moment where you acted in a way that was truly SURPRISING to others? And even to yourself? Where you went against the grain?
• Was there ever a moment that challenged you to your core? Requiring considerable strength or courage to overcome?

Defining moments that taught you something about what you were made of… really made of. Strengths and weaknesses are fair game here. Acknowledging weakness can be a sign of GREAT strength, and can be extraordinarily appealing. The guy who can introspect like that probably cares about improving. That’s the guy I want on my team, not the guy who is comfortable with finding himself to be flawless, beyond reproach, etc. Don’t shy away from this, if you have a neat weakness to talk about. Humility (especially in Europe) can go a long way.

Outlines for this essay can take many shapes and forms. But consider hitting these pieces in whatever you end up with:

• Provide examples of the traits. In fact, walk us through an action that DEMONSTRATES the trait over merely telling us about it.
• But then, make sure you give a reason we should care—this is the “context” we alluded to above. So what, the ink stain is permanent. Give us the VALUE.

ESSAY 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 MAXIMUM).

ADMISSIONADO COMMENTARY

400 words for both essays tell you something, because there are a lot of components to this one. Let’s break it down:

1. Explain your top-most achievement (what it was, why should we impressed)
2. Then, explain why this ranks highest among all your achievements
3. Next explain a key failure (what it was, exactly)
4. Then, explain the ways in which these experiences impacted your relationship with other people (this is a twist – very few schools ask about this specifically)
5. What were YOUR lessons?

Those all need to be dealt with, and you have 400 words. So, be straightforward, folks. It’s actually a great exercise in high-yield communication. Let’s focus on #4 though. How does a success or failure leave some kind of imprint on the way in which you relate to others? This is where you need to paint by clear examples. Imagine DELTAs between each scenario. There was a before and after associated with your success story. Somehow, that success affected the way you related to people – thus, the delta between before and after. What was it? Similarly, before you failed, you related to people in some way. Then after that failure, things changed with respect to your relationships with others. What changed? Examining those DELTAs will be the first KEY step toward crushing this question, and demonstrating how thoughtful and strategic you can be.

ESSAY 3: 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 MAXIMUM).

ADMISSIONADO COMMENTARY

Part I of this essay will be all about the stuff, and a very clear indication of how involved you are. Leadership roles, special awards and distinctions, etc. Anything that gives us a clue about how excited you are about any particular activity, is good. Part II is about the way in which any given activity has made you… cooler. “Enriched” you. Again, we return to the concept of deltas. Picture what you’d be like without the activity, or all of them. How different would you be? What qualities, therefore, do those activities nurture in you? This doesn’t have to be separated into Part I – Activities, Part 2 – Enrichment. They can be integrated as you’re going through each activity.

Don’t leave your passion out here. Straightforward, yes, but… if your extracurricular activities seem to be part of a checklist routine, you’re not gonna excite anyone. The idea here is to come across like a sparkplug. Someone dynamic with interests and hobbies and talents and THIRSTS for things. The awareness that is revealed through articulating just how each activity has improved you in some way is icing on top.

OPTIONAL ESSAY: IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT WAS NOT COVERED IN YOUR APPLICATION THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH THE ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE? (300 WORDS MAXIMUM)

ADMISSIONADO COMMENTARY

Standard optional essay stuff. INSEAD’s applications are famously kinda bloated, so, whereas for schools that ask for only a SINGLE essay, we may recommend seizing this opportunity, for INSEAD, we’d recommend using some caution. Sure, address red flags, but in terms of telling “that one extra story you think will push it over the top…” give a hard think, cuz if you’ve done it correctly, you’ve already found a way to weave in your “greatest hits” into your main INSEAD essay questions.

You can also read through our team’s analysis of the rest of  INSEAD’s application essays.

Learn more and explore each step of the INSEAD full-time MBA application process here.

INSEAD MBA Job Essays

JOB ESSAY 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. (200 WORDS MAXIMUM)

ADMISSIONADO’S COMMENTARY

Okay folks, no real need to be creative here, or dramatic, or “interesting.” Why say that? Because if you attempt it, it may come across as an insecurity. You’re the guy who doesn’t understand when straightforward is actually a show of strength.

Be brief, straightforward, and get into the details…fast. One way of looking at this is simply to flesh out (somewhat) your latest entry on your resume. Just, turn it into a readable paragraph so that anyone reading it can understand exactly where you work, exactly what it is you do, and exactly what your accomplishments mean (i.e., you’ve given us enough context to be able to make sense of them). And that’s all, folks.

JOB ESSAY 2: WHAT WOULD BE YOUR NEXT STEP IN TERMS OF POSITION IF YOU WERE TO REMAIN IN THE SAME COMPANY? (200 WORDS MAXIMUM)

ADMISSIONADO’S COMMENTARY

Assume for a minute that you are going to STAY at your current place of work for the next twenty years (just pretend). Presumably, you’ll rise in the ranks in SOME capacity. Even if you’re the CEO of a start-up, your position will evolve somehow as your company grows. Imagine that spectrum between today and 20 years from now sub-divided into five major bumps. What’s the very next one? Explain the bump in terms of what is it you do/oversee today and how it will CHANGE once you’re promoted or rise in the ranks some other way.

All we’re trying to do is understand where you are in life. That’s it. No need to explain that you truly want to do something else; we’re just getting our bearings.

JOB ESSAY 3: PLEASE GIVE A FULL DESCRIPTION OF YOUR CAREER SINCE GRADUATING FROM UNIVERSITY. DESCRIBE YOUR CAREER PATH WITH THE RATIONALE BEHIND YOUR CHOICES. (300 WORDS MAXIMUM)

ADMISSIONADO’S COMMENTARY

This is where it starts to get real. Whereas the first few can be extremely devoid of “carefully chosen words,” here, you need to express ideas clearly, and compellingly.

…and this is gonna take some thought.

Start by explaining the context behind your very first post-graduate decision, by way of some overarching goal — as clear or as nebulous as it may have been. Given that you one-day wanted to X, you decided to pursue Y as your first official move after university. Explain your developments, skills gained, ways in which you advanced your career interests (or gained clarity on what it was you truly wanted to do), and let that guide your description of whatever major thing happened next. Presumably, you were promoted, or you chose another job, or you chose another industry, or a life circumstance spun things in a new direction, etc. Whatever it is, keep in mind that this is all part of a single narrative that connects each juncture along a single spectrum that takes us from the first job after university to wherever you are today, with your decision-making as your rudder at each key moment. We should be able to read this essay and then repeat back not just what the steps were of your career, but why you made your choices at each step.

OPTIONAL JOB ESSAY: 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.

ADMISSIONADO’S COMMENTARY

Only answer if this one if it applies to you. If you’re explaining the “not working” aspect, be extremely straightforward. The more it seems like you’re justifying something, the “guiltier” you’ll come across. Imagine you’re re-assuring the person who just hired you why there’s this strange gap that we just noticed. Before we get cold feet, make that feeling go away quickly, with extreme confidence, clarity, and brevity.

If you’re answering the other option, CREATING a gap (whether by choice or not) that gives you the ability to spend your time somehow before the program begins, you’ll want to approach it similarly, but this time, you may need to add a touch of justification, lest it arouse suspicion. Say, for example, that gap is six months, and there doesn’t seem to be any real reason for it. Here, you may have decided to travel the world, or learn a new language, or… you get the idea. Just about anything CAN be an amazing reason, we just need to be sold on it, is all. Brevity here is your best best best friend. A long optional essay can be a death sentence. Stay crisp, aim for 150-250 words.

You can also read through our team’s analysis of the rest of  INSEAD’s application essays.

Learn more and explore each step of the INSEAD full-time MBA application process here.