Calling all Applicants: INSEAD Sept 2019 Intake !

I did not get through; typical Indian IT Male profile.

Best wishes to the rest.

Cheers.

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Jurassic

Sorry for your result. Do you have any other schools you are waiting on?

Hi Workout,

Will be applying to HEC-Paris.

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Jurassic

Good luck. Let us know if you need any help.

Sure Workout.Thanks.

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Got a rejection letter just now. Best of luck to those still in the fray.

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ruchitayal85

Did you interview at INSEAD?

Workout....Nope....Didn't get that far. Got rejected at the interview stage itself.

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Same situation in one of my interviewer. Mine has been two days. Is it proper to re-send the request again?

Hold on a bit more. I would say send a follow up e-mail or call them (if AO has given you the number) on the fifth day. If you are unable to establish contact within 7 days then write back to AO explaining the situation.
One of my interviewers too didn't reply to my e-mail. But I was able to get in touch over phone. My second interviewer responded 4 days after I sent the e-mail.

Hi Jurassic and ruchitayal85,

Very sorry to hear that! I hope that the rest of your applications will go well and I strongly believe that you will ultimately be able to join a great school for your MBA with the determination and enthusiasm that you are showing thus far.

All the best!

Congrats to those who landed interview calls.

For the ones who missed out, all the very best with the other applications.

Sharing the debriefs of the two interviews I had. Hopefully it'll be helpful as you guys prepare for your interviews.

I had both my interviews at coffee shops.

Interview 1: Interviewer was an alum from the batch of 2007. Was a very relaxed and chilled out person.

He said upfront that the interview isn't a big hurdle and is just to gauge fit. If you have been shortlisted then you tick all the boxes and this is just sort of a sanity check.

It started off a bit unexpectedly. He said "Lets do it the other way round. What questions do you have for me?"

Discussed in detail about his experience and memories, his learning from INSEAD and about the alumni network.

Then went on to discuss about my career to date and my current role.

Went through the usual questions - why MBA, why INSEAD, what other schools did you apply to and what's the order of preference.

Asked two scenario based questions - a time when you had to overcome language barrier to communicate and areas of weakness you are currently working on.

Overall a very relaxed and comfortable conversation.

Interview 2: Alum was a graduate from the 2006 batch. Again a pretty chilled out and jovial individual.

She started off with her introduction, discussing about her background, her journey after INSEAD and what she does currently.

I followed with my introduction. She asked me to explain my career trajectory a bit in detail. Asked me to talk an interesting project I did and what I learnt from it.

Moved on to the usual suspects - why MBA, why INSEAD, what other schools did you apply to and what's the order of preference.

Had a fairly long discussion on conflict resolution - she laid out the context that in INSEAD you'll work a lot in groups and people will have different opinions. How will you work through that? What role do you play in groups? Are you active or passive? What approach will you take to resolve a conflict with another group member? What will you do if there's a conflict between two other group members?

Moved on what I do for fun and a bit of probing into that. Her last question was what electives I would want to take in INSEAD.

Concluded with me asking her a bunch of questions for about 10-15 minutes.

Lasted about 45 mins. A pretty casual and chilled out conversation.

Hi ayersrock and ch751202,

As nishantd88 mentioned, it is not ideal to follow up only after 1-2 days as the interviewers might require time to revert on a suitable time for the interview. They have until 11th January to wrap up the interviews after all so the best thing to do now is to be patient and follow up only after 4-5 days.

Hope this helps!

Hi nishantd88,

Thank you for sharing this! It is indeed really informative for many of us who are preparing for the interviews.

May I check how long your first interview lasted? It is pretty cool that both of your sessions were at coffee shops and it seems like you really enjoyed your conversations with the alumni interviewers. I read somewhere about the good cop/bad cop approach and I am glad to know that it is not always the case. I think the most important thing for all of us now is to know our story well and take the interview as more like a conversation than a test.

Thanks again nishantd88!

Thanks for nishantd88’s and Hideto’s advice. I will keep waiting for a few more days.

Also big thanks for sharing your interview experience, nishantd88! I read the good cop/bad cop approach as Hideto did. Was nervous for it but feel a bit relieved now. Thanks!!

Both my interviews lasted around 40 mins - 1 hour. I definitely didn't have any good cop/bad cop case. Don't think there's any such directive from the school to the interviewers. For the ones who face it, it might just be the style of the interviewer.

All in all, if you've done your research, know your story well and can demonstrate fit with the school then it should be smooth.

Cheers and good luck!

Awesome Nishantd88! Hopefully everything goes well and we will be able to get through this final round successfully. Cheers mate!

ch751202 and ayersrock would agree with nishantd88
would focus on developing good content for your interview questions - preparing - the fact that they are slow to respond might be an opportunity like give you time to prep. Much of what you will discuss is found in the job essays, but not all.