This article offers to craft compelling essays that capture your career progression, aspirations, and personal journey. Follow these tips to highlight your strengths, address potential weaknesses, and showcase your fit for INSEAD’s MBA community.

Job essays

Job Essay 1: Briefly summarize 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)

INSEAD's first essay question requests a snapshot of your current career. Even if you've held various positions within the same organization, focus on your current role. Provide context about your position within the company and your daily responsibilities. Avoid specific project details and maintain a general overview. Specific achievements can be discussed in other essays.

Job Essay 2:What would be your next step in terms of position if you were to remain in the same company instead of going to business school? (200 words, maximum)

This essay aims to understand your professional momentum without an MBA. Outline your next logical steps, such as increased responsibility or a higher position, and an estimated timeline for promotion, if applicable. If growth is not possible in your company, explain external factors like company scale, location requirements, or skills needed for advancement and how an MBA will help you progress.

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)

Provide a coherent overview of your career, demonstrating an upward trajectory. Touch on each full-time position held, reasons for each move, and changes in responsibility. Include lessons learned and skills gained, focusing on career progression and decision-making rationale.

Job Essay 4: Discuss your short and long-term career aspirations with an MBA from INSEAD. (100 words, maximum)

Outline your career goals, specifying the job title and 1-2 organizations you aim to work for immediately after graduation. Describe your 5-10-year plan and the broader impact you hope to achieve. Mention how an MBA from INSEAD will facilitate these goals, citing relevant program offerings.

Optional Job Essay: If you are currently not working or if you plan to leave your current employer more than 2 months before the program starts, please explain your activities and occupations between leaving your job and the start of the program.

Explain your situation if you're unemployed or planning a gap of more than two months before starting the program. Highlight activities like skill development, volunteer work, attending conferences, or securing short-term employment. Show how these activities align with your career goals.

Motivation Essays

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)

Highlight strengths with examples and address weaknesses, ideally, ones you're working on. Reflect on experiences that shaped you, providing a balanced picture of your interests, skills, and experiences.

Introduce yourself beyond your job and hobbies, delving into your personality and values.

Dr Huber

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)

Detail your proudest achievement and an unrelated failure, the impact on relationships, and lessons learned. Provide enough context for the reader to understand the situation, stakes, and outcomes. Organize the essay thoughtfully, possibly treating achievement and failure as separate mini-responses or within a chronological narrative.

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)

Inventory significant past and present activities and hobbies, explaining how they've been enriching. Highlight social or community-based involvements over solo activities, showcasing collaboration and engagement—select activities showing a balanced picture of your interests and skills.

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)

This optional essay allows you to add any information that enhances your application, explains extenuating circumstances, or addresses weaknesses. Consider whether the information could have been covered in other essays before being included here.