ISB MBA Essays Analysis 2010-2011

May 22, 2010

Categories: MBA Essay Writing Tips 2010-2011

Job responsibilities

Please give a detailed description of your job, including nature of work, major responsibilities; and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, number of clients/products and results achieved. (250 words)

A) This question asks for numbers and data so be as specific as possible. Take an overall view of your job avoiding the details about individual projects. Write about broad skills or functional competencies that you have developed, e.g. planning and budgeting skills, and then justify this with relevant data/ numbers. To respond to the part on employees under your supervision, don’t just mention a certain number but also add in what capacity you supervised them, bringing out the extent of managerial responsibility you held.

Q6 Career description

Please give us a full description of your career since graduating from university. If you were to remain with your present employer, what would be your next step in terms of position? (250 words)

A) Share your unique growth story. If you have been through several role changes and level changes, you can showcase your accomplishments and hence growth. Without repeating the job responsibilities, talk about how you have been vested with increasing levels of responsibility or how have you broadened your exposure to different areas/industries through your role changes. As far as your next position with your employer goes, you can sneak in a bit about your special accomplishments that propel you towards the next level of responsibility/seniority. You can also touch upon what opportunities you will forego in order to pursue an MBA at INSEAD.

Q7 Description of yourself

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. (400 words)

A) This seems like the easiest question, because it talks about the person most familiar to yourself – you. However, resist the temptation to make it a set of adjectives for a matrimonial posting. Rather, dig into your experiences and find qualities which will help you stand out at INSEAD ? like show your academic promise or leadership potential. Do not be shy while talking about your weakness/es ? this shows your self-awareness and maturity. Be honest and select weaknesses which are mild and workable. Divide your write-up among 2-3 strengths and 1-2 weaknesses, giving example of each.

Q8 Most substantial accomplishments

Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words)

A) A good approach is to select two accomplishments from two different realms – one professional and another to do with a hobby/ an academic achievement. Why these achievements were substantial – because of the results you achieved or the exceptional effort you put in or the challenges you overcame to succeed? Paint a broad picture of the landscape against which you achieved the results, such as the extent of competition, the scarce resources that you had to work with or the punishing deadline you met. At INSEAD, show strengths like ability to contribute to the class, cultural acclimatization, maturity and leadership.

Q9 Personal objectives

Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. (250 words)

A) Can you analyze a situation where you failed and draw lessons from it?

It is important that you cite the objectives, your role, failure statement, analysis of what went wrong and your learning. Therefore, the failure itself is not as important as how you viewed it, how you introspected and improved for similar future assignments. Thus, devote good words to explain how you were affected by the failure and what did you learnt from the whole incident.

Q10 Career goals

Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will they contribute to your professional career. (500 words)

A) Get to the goals straight and do not talk about career summary or progression.

Think hard about the career choice you wish to make post MBA. Again, it is not so important that you have the next twenty years of your career path neatly charted out but it is important that you understand your personal aspirations and the impact of an MBA, an INSEAD MBA on your future.

Get to learn more about academics, experiences and opportunities at INSEAD (read http://mba.insead.edu/academics/ and http://knowledge.insead.edu/home.cfm) and attend information sessions, meet current students or alums, research INSEAD?s online resources and visit the campus, if possible.

Q11 Culture shock

Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? (250 words)

A) The intention here is to find out if an applicant can acclimatize in an alien environment.

INSEAD is acclaimed for diversified cultural interactions and it is very important for a new student to feel comfortable. Talk about incident/s when you experienced a new culture, found something out of your perceived notions and were in for a shock! Now, talk about how you coped with the frustrations, adjusted to the surroundings and came out as a winner. This experience could make you learn something about yourself, help you look at things from a different perspective, give you a new professional direction or gradually appreciate the goodness in that new setting.

Q12 Foreigner

What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country? (250 words)

A) Are you knowledgeable about your country and can you help others to enjoy their stay? Keep the tone of this answer even and balanced. You neither have to sing paeans in praise of your country or its culture, and nor should your answer read like a list of do’s and don?ts for a foreign immigrant. The question has to be answered more in abstract and general terms and you should not unnecessarily get into factual details about your country. Informative advice can be the main theme. For example you can write about common social and cultural etiquette followed in your country that can help an immigrant acculturate himself in dealing with your country’s people. You could also point out some interesting pursuits or activities or suggest groups which he could associate himself with in order to learn more about and establish a social network in your country.

ISB essay questions 2010-2011
Q1. If we were to admit one more student to the class of 2012, make a compelling argument as to why that student should be you? (300 words)

A sales pitch! Quite similar to what they have been asking in ‘three reasons‘ essay in the past two years. ISB hunts for unique profiles and creates interesting class composition. To make your presence felt, talk about the ‘wao’ factor. It can be one strong reason, which differentiates you from others or that one thing may also be a track record of accomplishments or initiatives or aspirations. You have plenty to think about ? go deeper in your academics or recall special moments during college or think about how you have made your mark at your past/present work place. Remember though that you should highlight a sustainable factor.

Whatever you decide to write, keep in sight that ISB should not only like you as a candidate but also see how you can help ISB’s brand as a worthy student and an alumnus. Yeah right, you need to not only do some soul searching but also connect with ISB students/alums/professors to understand what is valued at ISB and how can you make a difference.

Q2 What are your short term and long term goals? How will the ISB help you achieve the same? (300 words)

This is the second time that ISB has included a typical career goals question in its application. A goals question can be very tricky to respond to, especially if you are not allowed to enter a single word above the 300 words limit. Visible or not, the question aims to know about your career progress, vision and possible path to follow. Here, the expectation is to understand how clearly you have understood your own strengths and charted out your aspirations. If you have good work experience under your belt, you should be specific about your goals. If you are not, you are at a risk of showing immaturity and wrong decision making by applying to ISB. Another part of the story – Why do you think ISB will provide you the right tools? You can talk briefly about how your goals flow from your work/personal experiences and what do you access as your weak links. Now, take inputs from your research about ISB and which ‘specific’ offerings will help you successfully achieve your goals. Wear your thinking hat and consider the clubs, courses, entrepreneurial opportunities, international immersion and other offerings at ISB. So, goes without saying, put special efforts to connect to ISB student body. Again, make your goals discreet and realistic. Do not get tempted to reuse the goals essay that you have written for other schools. Remember that India is a different market altogether!

Q3 Please provide additional information, that will significantly affect the consideration of your application to the ISB (300 words)

Asking for additional information, yet this is not an additional question. After all, you have just got 600 words to talk about your candidature. Now use this space and get your imagination going. Review your application and write details supporting your candidature. Some things worth capturing can be your leadership experience; special achievements or circumstances . . . Do not make this a place to talk about a weakness in your profile unless necessary. And few words of caution: in previous years, some of the applicants have tended to brag. Believe us such responses easily stand out in the negative sense. Ensure that you draw a thin line between boasting and identifying genuine strengths.

If you require any help with your ISB MBA application, please check out ApexWriters’ MBA essay editing and admissions consulting services. Our complete application package includes brainstorming discussions on your profile and application strategy, essay editing for ISB and critique on recommendation letters (if available). You can buy the package of your interest at ISB MBA Essays Service.

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