INSEAD Achievement & Failure Essay

Question

Hi all,

I am applying for the next January intake. My application is ready and I'll probably hit the submit button soon. However, I am still not 100% comfortable about my answer for the Achievement and Failure Essay (2nd question). After speaking with some friends and coaches, I wrote about one achievement in my professional life (a big win which can showcase more my professional competences). However, I personally consider that it's just a win, and since the question asks for THE achievement, I should write about something more meaningful and personal about my life.

Indeed, I have material to tell about my personal life. I came from an Asian country to an EU country years ago to study and I now have a perfectly established professional network and I am completely integrated culturally. For me, this story is more personal and I consider it my big life win so far. However, since INSEAD asks their candidates for international motivation, there are maybe thousands of same stories in their candidate pool.

Also, the same question asks for a failure and the lessons learned. Do these two stories have to be linked somehow?

Thank you guys in advance for your advice

All the best,

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pabpinor · Answer

Hey, I had the same struggles, I did a mini-professional achievement and a personal one, for the failure I did a personal/professional one.
I believe it is more relevant if it is personal to you, if you can link both stories, better, but do not overkill you for that.

I hope it helps!

Regards,
Pablo

metal1106 · Answer

Thank you for your feedback. I hesitate to do the same but it is extremely hard to squeeze 2 achievements and 1 failure in 400 words...

MBADecoder · Answer

HI,

Your achievement and failure essay need not be connected. However, its important to explain why the said story is your biggest achievement and what you learned from it (also what you learned from the failure).

The INSEAD application is loooong, and I believe both your personal and professional side should be aptly covered through the different essays. It might be a great idea to talk about the personal experience you have mentioned above in the candid description essay. There, you'd have space to also describe how it impacted your personality and helped you build certain strengths.

I will agree with the people who have advised you that somewhere in the application, you should also mention your biggest professional achievement because you are applying to business school after all, and professional experiences are relevant.

That said, I haven't seen how your essays line-up, so it will be difficult to pin point which story to use among the two in the achievement essay. If both have equal significance in your life - if they have influenced you in some way and taught you lessons- then you should mention both in one or the other essays of the NSEAD application.

bb · Answer

INSEAD Achievement & Failure Essay

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