INSEAD Essay Tips 2025-2026

What’s Important to Keep In Mind Is INSEAD’s 4 Criteria, Their Rubric for Evaluating You.

1 - academic capacity (transcripts, scores)
2 - leadership potential (chiefly this means taking the initiative to solve problems that make an organizational impact, but people management can also be part of this)
3 - ability to contribute - bringing something unique/additive to the class, having a pay-it-forward mentality (keep in mind they have 2 alums interview each candidate!)
4 - international motivation - openness and also goals/need/motivation for a UN-style program

So, you want these to be felt in the various parts of the application.

Question 1: Job Description/Career Trajectory "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 maximum)

This is an on-paper “walk me through your resume” and your recommenders are asked a similar question. INSEAD is trying to get a sense of your career trajectory, but also, understand how you might answer the “walk me through your resume” question when interviewing with their recruiting companies.

What I often see is a “resume redux” which is a bit of a missed opportunity. You want to focus on your “why” –  this is especially advantageous if there is a specific passion or purpose behind your choices, a throughline. A higher overarching purpose.

This question also sets the perfect context for the next question on your goals. Once they have the TLDR version of where you have been, and where you are now, they can see if your goal sounds achievable. And if they can help you with the gaps you hope to fill at INSEAD to position yourself for success.

Question 2: Goals + Why INSEAD "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 maximum)

Work experience + INSEAD = short term goal + experience = long term goal
Your goal should be within reach, where it’s clear that you can reach it with the requisite effort and that INSEAD adds value.

In the current environment, you might want to be more conservative on-paper. Even if you have a finance background, you might pick going to work for a portfolio company vs. VC, making VC the long-term goal.

If you’re a consultant, PE might be possible post-MBA in some geographies, but it might be wise to state IB as your goal (if you are going for January intake, of course.)

If you want to crack MBB, or T2, it’s important to show you have done enough research to know what you bring to the position and also what you’re up against. What qualities will help you pass behaviorals? Have you tried solving a case? How are your modeling skills?

Speak confidently but candidly - and specify how the resources at INSEAD will fill the gaps. If you can manage to fit it, speak to interactions you had with alums or at events to substantiate your statements about what INSEAD offers.

Question 3: Strengths & Weaknesses "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 maximum)

It's interesting they have now added “and a leader” and “actively working on your development” to this already ambitious prompt. I imagine they wanted to give applicants another opportunity to demonstrate leadership - one of their four criteria - beyond the resumes and recommendations. Also, it seems they might be trying to protect the student experience by sifting out those afflicted with narcissistic personality disorder, who don’t believe they have any flaws or need to develop themselves.

I think the best approach here would be to share one or two experiences that have shaped your strengths, one as a person, and one as a leader. Then, share one or two experiences where you became aware/made to face your weaknesses. Share the efforts you’ve made to work on one or more of these weaknesses. Ideally one of these weaknesses might speak to the “gaps” you hope to work on at INSEAD.

I wouldn’t recommend turning this into another letter of recommendation but rather touching on more universal themes (with specific examples, however) so they can get a 360-degree perspective on who you are.

Question 4: Stressful Situation "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 maximum)

Would recommend you use CARR format for this: challenge, action, result, reflection.

What they are seeking is self-awareness, humility, and capacity to adapt and grow.  One of my clients wrote about how he and his team had failed to do a deep-enough dive into the culture and presented a solution that went against the spiritual beliefs of the village they were trying to help.

Do not fear discussing similar setbacks. Often, I find applicants are very preoccupied with putting forth a strong face, but this creates a barrier to admissions trusting you or feeling a connection with you. If you only show strengths and successes they won’t feel they are getting to know you, which is the only reason they are reading all this stuff anyways.

Facing challenges and learning from setbacks is what shows leadership, and what makes your application relatable and interesting. It also shows maturity, coachability, and readiness to gain what INSEAD could give you.

Question 5 –  Activities

"Describe the activities you listed above and explain how they have enriched your life (e.g., skills developed, personal growth, community impact)." (300 words maximum)

So, the CV, recommendations, and job essays all speak to your professional life, and this is your chance to show how you have achieved impact outside of work.

INSEAD is an especially social program, and they want to know you would be a social value-add. You want to present yourself as well-rounded and multidimensional, someone who can talk about things other than work with your fellow INSEADers. In sum, interesting.

While they do speak about community impact, I encourage you to include the more hard-hitting numbers in your CV and use this section more to speak from the heart on how various activities have shaped your values and enlivened you. Switch gears here and take a softer and warmer approach that helps them get to know you as a person.

So commonly I see dinged applications where the candidate “made their case” in an almost defensive way, telegraphing arrogance or insecurity, rather than talking to admissions as you would a friend. This is what they mean when they say, “be yourself” or “don’t tell us what you think we want to hear.”

INSEAD says on their blog:

Be original

We encourage you to stay away from clichés and to create original content. In other words, we want to get to know the real “you”, so be honest and reflect deeply on what unique experience you can bring to the programme. It may help you to think about what you would say to a friend or a sibling over coffee in response to each of the questions.

It’s really a simple switch in mindset from trying to prove yourself to letting someone into your world, vulnerably yet confidently, knowing the little things that make you “you” are enough.

Question 6 – Optional Essay

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)

Optional essays come in 2 forms, either explanations for red flags or space to share more about yourself. Given there is no language here saying “please only share” or “do not consider this an additional essay” you have complete freedom.

Reflect on what you (and possibly your recommenders) have already shared and what you still need to illustrate in terms of their criteria of academic capacity, leadership, contribution and international motivation.

This looks a bit different for each person. If your GMAT quant score is low, but you tutor math or statistics to masters’ students, that might be a great way to show both academic capacity and contribution.

Usually, I recommend articulating how you intend to contribute at INSEAD in this essay because there is no specific place to include this elsewhere (the why INSEAD part is combined with goals, but the “why you” isn’t).

Think about what skills or areas of specialized knowledge you have, and how it might help others. For example, if you have a long work history with green energy, maybe you could do a workshop that might help sponsored consulting students get those kinds of projects returning to MBB.

This essay is an opportunity to showcase the research you have done on the program. Ask the head of the consulting club, VC club etc, what could be done better, what is missing there that I could help with?

INSEAD is looking for people who are community-builders who have a generous spirit. Having 2 alums interview you is a big commitment on their part, so you might want to speak about how you can contribute while you are there, but also beyond.

Having worked for many large MBA prep firms earlier in my career, I am proud to be a boutique provider who only handles 4-5 clients per round. I get to know my clients inside and out, which allows admissions to as well. Partner with me to significantly increase your chances of being admitted to your top choice MBA program. Complete my contact form to receive CV and profile feedback.