The following INSEAD interview report was submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them!
The interview was in an office environment with an alumnus – CEO of a sustainable energy company. The alumnus was very friendly, greeting me, offering coffee and congratulating me on making it so far. The interview questions were in general a combination of casual, relating to life anecdotes, and professional, relating to my career experience/vision.
I was asked about the reason I chose my undergrad degree and about my accomplishments at the companies I worked at. One question that I didn’t expect was about the reason I wanted to chase a different career when it seems that I’m valuable to and have stability at my current organization. In between this conversation I was asked the general questions “why INSEAD” and “what’s your long term career goals.”
One piece of advice that I was given was not to forget that this experience is all about building connections with people. As the alumnus is still in touch with his classmates, I was told there is no correlation between making it to the dean’s list and success. Most of his classmates that were average on paper during the MBA promotion have made it big in the business world while most of his classmates that made it on the dean’s list have a stable, average lifestyle.
Aside from that, I was told not to force this year to be labeled with the cliche phrase “the best year of my life.” I was told to just enjoy it and make it an exceptional year.
Overall the interview lasted an hour and it spoke tons about the caliber of people that are admitted to the school. It never fails to impress me how well connected the alumni community is.
