With six questions ringing in at nearly a collective 2,000 words, the INSEAD MBA application essays are among the longest of any top-tier school’s application. And that’s not including the optional career essay and the “anything else?” question.
This can seem daunting when you’re first starting out and staring at a blank screen. But what I have found working with more than 100 applicants applying to a range of top schools is that precisely because of their combined length, the INSEAD MBA essays allow you to tell your story — and make a compelling case for your candidacy — better than just about any other business school application out there.
You don’t have to choose between giving the committee insight into your career motivations and achievements and your personal qualities and accomplishments. The INSEAD MBA essay questions afford you ample space to detail all of this, and more. Broken down into two parts — career questions and motivation essays — INSEAD guides you to showcase, in relative depth, the career choices you’ve made leading up to this point, and your post-MBA career vision, as well as the unique personal qualities and experiences that will make you a valuable addition to the class.
At Fortuna, we have unparalleled insight into INSEAD admissions; our team includes several former members of the school’s admissions staff, including the former admissions director. So with countless INSEAD MBA essay examples in mind from reading thousands of applications, we have summed up Fortuna’s expert advice to walk you through every question.
INSEAD MBA Career 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, max)
This question is intended to give the reader a snapshot of where you are right now in your career. Don’t overthink it, as you will have ample space in later essays (and in other elements of your application) to drill down on the details of your major accomplishments. In this question, be sure to mention your title, organization, location and major responsibilities. Do feel free to list a couple accomplishments if space allows, though don’t repeat the accomplishment you use in your accomplishment essay later in the application. If relevant, also include leadership and teamwork, and any international projects or work that has an international scope. Quantify as much as possible throughout.
Try not to get too technical; don’t use industry jargon and keep your language in layman’s terms, as your readers may not be familiar with your industry or function.
INSEAD MBA Career Essay 2
What would be your next step in terms of position if you were to remain in the same company? (200 words max)
Job titles can vary wildly from industry to industry, and even company to company within the same industry. This question aims to give the reader a fuller understanding of where you sit in your company hierarchy and your career trajectory where you are. It’s best to be as straightforward with your answer as possible. Say what your next promotion or title would be and list any new responsibilities you may have and /or management of others under this new role. This answer can often be quite short, about 100 words.
INSEAD MBA Career 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 max)
Your CV shows the positions you’ve had, but this essay allows you to go deeper, giving insight into why you made the choices you did. This is a critical part of your overall narrative as an applicant, so do be sure to give it the attention it deserves. A wonderful feature of this essay is that it allows you to explain the value-add of career choices that may not be obvious from a read of your CV. For example, a past client turned down an offer from Bain & Co to work at a boutique consulting firm without wide scale brand recognition because it allowed him to work directly with CEOs and other C-level clients from day one. Another took a cut in salary to gain critical in-market international experience. Another passed up a promotion, opting instead for a lateral move that would better position her in the long-term.
Approach this essay in chronological order, starting with your first role after university until present day. Remember that you will have space to detail your accomplishments in your CV. By all means, show your career progression and promotions at each organization, and if you have room for a major accomplishment or two you can add that, too. But, particularly if you’ve had extensive career experience or held several different roles in the time you’ve worked, you’ll want to save the word count for the main focus of this essay, which is the rationale behind your choices.
INSEAD MBA Career Essay 4
Discuss your short and long term career aspirations with an MBA from INSEAD. (100 words max)
With only 100 words to work with, you’ll need to be as straightforward as possible in how you answer this question. What is your immediate post-MBA career goal, where do you see yourself in 10 – 15 years, and what is the route between the two?
Try to get as specific as possible (even though it’s hard to know) with sample company names and ideas of certain titles of the jobs you seek. You can even include geographic location. Ideally, try to include one or two sentences about why you are passionate about this career trajectory.
INSEAD MBA Career Essay 5
(Optional) If you are currently not working or if you plan to leave your current employer more than two months before the programme starts, please explain your activities and occupations between leaving your job and the start of the programme. (No word limit but we suggest 300 max)
Only complete this essay if it adds value to your narrative and if you do have a plan. Given the length of the INSEAD application, it’s better to leave the optional essay blank rather than to fill the space with nonessential info (and of course it’s not needed if the scenarios in the essay prompt don’t apply to you).
However, this could be an opportunity to address gaps or weaknesses in your profile, such as if you are light on extracurriculars or volunteering. Perhaps you can take some time before the start of the program to strengthen this weakness, such as volunteering in X country to help Y organization. Better still, lay out a plan that shows you’ve already taken the initiative and thought through the details. For example, you have reached out to X organization and have agreed to a two-month pro-bono project in Y country, during which you will work on Z problem with a goal to deliver A, B and C results.
INSEAD MBA Motivation Essay 1
Give a candid description of yourself, 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 max)
Through this question, the committee is seeking to understand both who you are as a person — your unique characteristics, motivations and values — and the major life events and people who have helped shape you into the person you are today. It requires a great degree of self-awareness and cannot be answered well without some deep introspection. Clients say they get an enormous amount of value working with a coach on answering this question that extends well beyond their business school applications.
In answering this question, favor depth over breadth. It’s best to structure your answer around 3 – 5 main themes, weaving in the story of your background and upbringing, and intertwining your strengths and weaknesses. You can bring in examples from your professional life, but keep in mind that your professional story is well told throughout a lot of other aspects of your application. This is an opportunity to bring the Admissions Committee in on your personal story, and that is where the focus should be. Do not be tempted to gloss over your weaknesses or try to position your weaknesses as strengths. The seasoned admissions reader will see right through this, and it signals a lack of self-awareness and maturity in discerning where you stand to improve.
INSEAD MBA Motivation Essay 2
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? (hard cut-off at 400 words)
Here the school is looking for you to get honest and real. So first of all, don’t make the mistake that some candidates do, which is picking an example that actually you are quite proud of, and presenting a success as a failure. For example, this could be a situation where you worked too hard and perhaps neglected your personal life — but actually the story is all about how hard you worked and how much you achieved. Side-stepping this question and failing to come up with a good example of failure is a surefire way to annoy the file reader!
It may seem counterintuitive, but it is usually better to have an example of a big failure rather than a small failure. Big failures can demonstrate that you are a risk-taker; schools know that anyone who achieves great things has a few disasters along the way. Meaty failure stories will also give you much more scope to show what you learned and how you have grown from the experience.
Owning up to real failure requires self-awareness and maturity – skills that the school looks for in all MBA candidates. It also is an important signal of whether you will be a good student, because being open to your own flaws and weaknesses is critical to a strong learning orientation.
Examples from a professional or nonprofessional setting (such as from your extracurriculars) are equally valid. Notice the wording in the question about “your interactions with others” – so ideally, you should pick an example where you were working with others (for example, perhaps it was the first time you had management responsibility) rather than a situation that only affected you (such as failing an exam).
We suggest using about half the word count to describe the situation and the failure itself, and then the remaining space to address how you reacted to the situation, what you learned about yourself and your impact on others, and perhaps how you have done things differently since then. Highlight soft skills that you learned from the experience – soft skills that will make you a better addition to your study team and INSEAD class.
INSEAD MBA Motivation Essay 3
Is there anything else that was not covered in your application that you would like to share with the Admissions Committee? (optional; hard cut-off at 300 words)
Use this space if you have something that the INSEAD admissions committee may need to know that is not covered elsewhere in your application, or something interesting that doesn’t fit in any of the questions above.
Possible examples could be:
- A side business that you started
- An opportunity to address how your GMAT score does not represent your true quant or verbal capabilities — and justify why
- A gap in your career timeline
- Additional context and depth about your career plan, since the career vision essay is so short, at a mere 100 words
- Detail on extracurricular hobbies, volunteer activities or community involvement if significant, because an essay on extracurriculars was eliminated in 2024. However, you might expect to get a question on extracurriculars in INSEAD’s video interview questions.
However, don’t feel you need to use the space if you don’t have anything you need to say here; it’s absolutely fine to leave it blank.
FINAL TIP: The school will ask you about your motivation for the school (eg Why INSEAD, Why an MBA etc.) at the interview stage, so you do not have to write about it in the INSEAD MBA application essays.
Want More Free Advice?
For insider insights on what INSEAD adcoms are looking for and how to master the many INSEAD MBA essay questions, view our MBA Admissions Essay Masterclass below.
Other sessions from our MBA Admissions Essay Masterclass series are available on Fortuna’s YouTube channel.
For more insights and advice on INSEAD, view:
- How to Get Into INSEAD: Advice for 6 Common Profiles
- INSEAD’s Admissions Director Talks: 7 Top Takeaways
- Insider Tips for the INSEAD Admissions Interview
- INSEAD B-School Profile
You can also check out related video strategy sessions, including: Everything You Need to Know About the INSEAD Interview. And for a candid assessment of your chances of admission success at INSEAD or other top MBA programs, sign up for a free consultation.
Fortuna’s Cassandra Pittman is an MBA Admissions coach & former member of admissions teams at London Business School and INSEAD. She is also a Columbia MBA alumna.