Learn how to Answer INSEAD MBA's Job Description and Motivational Essays with F1GMAT's INSEAD MBA Essay Guide
Job Essays
Question 1: Provide a summary of your career since graduating from university, explaining the rationale behind your key decisions and career progression. Include a description of your current (or most recent) role, covering the scope of your work, major responsibilities, employees under your supervision, budget size, clients/products, and any notable results achieved. (500 words)
Question 2: Describe your short and long-term career aspirations, including your target geography, industry, and function. How do you plan to bridge the gap between your current position and these goals, and how will INSEAD help you achieve them? (300 words)
Motivational Essays
Question 1: Give a candid description of yourself as a person and a leader, emphasising the strengths and weaknesses you recognise in yourself. Explain how you are actively working on your development, sharing key experiences that have shaped you, providing specific examples where relevant. (500 words)
Question 2: Describe a highly stressful situation you faced and how you managed it. What did this experience teach you about yourself and your interactions with others? (400 words)
Question 3: Is there anything else that was not covered in your application that you would like to share with the Admissions Committee? (maximum 300 words)
22 Sample Essays Included in F1GMAT's INSEAD MBA Essay Guide
Job Description Essay – Career Summary
1) Sample Essay One: Summarize Current job Nature of work Major Responsibilities (Investment Banking) (488 Words)
2) Sample Essay Two: Summarize Current job Nature of work Major Responsibilities (Operations and Business Development) (500 Words)
Job Description Essay – Career Aspirations
3) Sample Essay: Short-Term and Long-Term Career Aspiration (Energy and AI Consulting – Global Projects) (297 Words)
4) Sample Essay: Short-Term and Long-Term Career Aspiration (Boutique PE to Large PE Deals) (291 Words)
5) Sample Essay: Short-Term and Long-Term Career Aspiration (Empowering Women Microentrepreneurs) (300 Words)
Motivational Essays
6) Sample INSEAD Essay One: Candid Description, Strengths & Weaknesses (Ethics, Cultural Sensitivity and Leadership) (494 Words)
7) Sample INSEAD Essay Two: Candid Description, Strengths & Weaknesses (Design Thinking) (496 Words)
8) Sample INSEAD Essay Three: Candid Description, Strengths & Weaknesses (Non-Traditional Background in IB and Networking) (495 Words)
9) Sample INSEAD Essay Four: Candid Description, Strengths & Weaknesses (From Privilege to Serving the Vulnerable) (500 Words)
Highly Stressful Situation You Faced Essays
10) Sample INSEAD Essay One: Highly Stressful Situation You Faced (379 Words)
11) Sample INSEAD Essay Two: Highly Stressful Situation You Faced (370 Words) (Comeback After a Deal Failure)
12) Sample INSEAD Essay Three: Highly Stressful Situation You Faced (Ethics, Generative AI, and Bias) (392 Words)
13) Sample INSEAD Essay Four: Highly Stressful Situation You Faced (Censorship and Class Divide) (Censorship and Class Divide) (386 Words)
14) Sample INSEAD Essay Five: Highly Stressful Situation You Faced (Low-Income Family, Success & Mental Health) (397 Words)
Additional Information
15) INSEAD Additional Information Essay One: Hiking and Writing (299 Words)
16) INSEAD Additional Information Essay Two (298 Words) (Improv and Listening)
17) INSEAD Additional Information Essay Three (288 Words) (Failed NASA Dream, Teaching, and Patented Technology)
INSEAD Video Essay Questions
18) Sample INSEAD Video Essay – What do you know about INSEAD MBA (183 Words)
19) Sample INSEAD Video Essay – Response to Team’s Underperformance (176 Words)
20) Sample INSEAD Video Essay – Work well with a person with differing opinion (169 Words)
21) Sample INSEAD Video Essay – Success for me in a Career (158 Words)
22) Sample INSEAD Video Essay – Unethical Leadership (194 Words)
How to Chapters - Included in F1GMAT's INSEAD MBA Essay Guide
- How to Answer the INSEAD Summary of Your Career Since Graduating from University?
- How to write about Notable Results Achieved
- How to Answer the INSEAD short-term and long-term aspirations career aspirations Job description Essay?
a) Post-MBA Placement Trends: By Industry
b) Post-MBA Placement Trends: By Function
c) Post-MBA Placement Trends: By Region
d) Curriculum - How to write about your Strengths and Weaknesses
- How to write the Additional Information Question
- How to Answer INSEAD Video Essay Questions
F1GMAT's INSEAD MBA Essay Guide will:
1) Show with 22 Sample Essays on how to create memorable narratives for your Written and Video Essays
2)Demonstrate with W-Pattern Narrative on how to use context and roles to describe your strengths and weaknesses
3) Show you how to use the IMPACT table to list your greatest achievements
4) Show you how to write about Weaknesses without getting too defensive
5) Show you how to write about extra-curricular activities
6) How to Script the Video Essay Questions with Samples to demonstrate tone and style
Who Should Buy INSEAD MBA Essay Guide?
If your essay looks too bland, INSEAD MBA Essay Guide will show you, with examples, on how to use the elements of Storytelling like Incorporating "The Struggle", using Emotional connectors, narrating the Journey and the use of Chronology, Vividness and Active Verbs to transform your essays.
If you are stuck in the Writing process, INSEAD MBA Essay Guide will show you how to silence the Analytic Mind and overcome mental blocks.
If you feel that the Essays are not persuasive, INSEAD MBA Essay Guide will teach you how to use the W-Pattern narrative, Contexts, Turning Points and "The Show Don't Tell Approach" to write a Winning MBA Essay.
If you don't have enough leadership experience, INSEAD MBA Essay Guide will show you how to highlight non-obvious qualities like Trust, Focus, Listening Skills, Personal Responsibility, Humility, Self-Knowledge, and other secondary traits to prove your leadership.
If you don't know how to review your essays, INSEAD MBA Essay Guide will demonstrate how to improve readability with the power of iteration, and maintain your original voice by removing review biases.
Author: Atul Jose, Founding Consultant (F1GMAT)
Over the past 15 years, Atul Jose has helped MBA applicants gain admissions to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, INSEAD, MIT, Chicago Booth, Kellogg, Columbia, Haas, Yale, NYU Stern, and other top schools.
Through F1GMAT's Essay Guides, Atul is bringing the secrets of creating persuasive essays into an easy-to-read book format.
Book Details
Page Length: 369
Entering Class: 2026
"Of all the books on essay writing, this has to be the best! This is not a generic "you demonstrate these qualities while you write your essay for INSEAD" type of book. It is a step by step how-to book on using W-Pattern narrative on context and roles. I have read this book over 3 times, and each time I find new tips on improving my essay. I'd say that if you are applying for INSEAD Full-time MBA, you have to read this book." - Verified Purchase
"If you are trying to bring personality to your essays, you need to get this book. Not only does the author draws on techniques of storytelling used by novelists, but he shares a secret to structure the essay using patterns. It doesn't matter if you are good at writing or you need specific examples for INSEAD essays, the book has 3 Sample Essays for INSEAD and hundreds of pages on improving the craft of writing." - Verified Purchase
"Best money I've spent on an essay guide. This book straightaway takes you on how to write INSEAD MBA Strengths and Weaknesses essay based on an event instead of listing generic qualities. The book is easy to read. Not verbose nor high-concept. Just straightforward advice filled with Sample Essays- from an applicant working in Advertising to one who is in Technology Consulting. After the INSEAD essay tips, the author demonstrates how to use storytelling, leadership narratives and ends with chapters on editing and reviewing essays. " - Verified Purchase
"For me, this was not just an essay guide but a book on writing. The chapters on storytelling finally made me realize that it is time to stop playing around and start writing. There were many ah-ha moments in each chapter, and sometimes I had to read the chapter again to pick the wisdom. The impact table used to demonstrate achievement changed how I look at my accomplishments. My biased view was broken when numbers were captured for each project. This book was recommended to me by an INSEAD MBA student. A strong 4.9 out of 5 stars. " - Verified Purchase
"Original and practical. I recommend this for all INSEAD MBA applicants, those who have not written any words to those who have a draft. I guarantee you will find a strategy or two you have never seen in any book on writing. The framework on using W-pattern and examples used from the 16-personality types have helped me find the qualities that are relevant for INSEAD. This is the book on essay writing that should be the reference for all your MBA application essays, not just INSEAD" - Verified Purchase