Job Prospects Post MBA from INSEAD

Question

Hello,

I'm new here, hoping someone could provide some insights on this. I was invited to interview for INSEAD for the January intake. I'm an Indian candidate and looking to switch career post MBA. My entire professional experience till now has been in a warehouse manager role, and I want to move to management consulting post MBA. I've talked to a few folks in the current class and it seems like a big portion of the 20J class is unemployed or are going back to their old jobs, with Indian folks mostly getting jobs in India. I'll be taking a huge loan (~$110K) to pursue MBA from INSEAD, and am a little concerned in terms of job prospects. Additionally, I'm turning 31 soon, not sure how much that impacts in terms of recruitment for consulting.

1. For someone coming from an entirely non-consulting or strategic background, how feasible is it to transition to management consulting post MBA?
2. Can someone, especially a current student or alumni shed some light on job prospects, specifically for Indian folks after graduation?

donesd · Answer

Hi, I'm an incoming student for 21D, just chipping in what I know.

From my understanding, consulting is mostly pre-mba/age agnostic. While having pre-mba consulting experience will give you some advantages, in particular familiarity for case interviews, consulting firms do recruit from varied backgrounds.

From online sources, it seems that the recruiting for Big 4 consulting has been more impacted than that of MBB. At least for Bain, which I attended their webinar, they mentioned that they are not changing the pace of recruitment, however it will depend on the needs of the individual offices. There may be some offices, such as the Singapore office, that don't hire unless you already have work authorization to work in Singapore. Other students/consultants should be able to provide more updated info.

pabpinor · Answer

Consulting for post-MBA is a doable thing, you should prepare hardly with the consulting club.
For jobs prospects, check the INSEAD employment reports and Linkedin, they will provide good insights.

Regards,
Pablo

thedevilinme · Answer

Thank you for your response. I did attend webinars from Bain & Mckinsey recently. However, a few of the current students have point blank told me to not come till 22D class. What I was told is that there is still around 30% of the 19D class, who're unemployed and more than half of 20J are unemployed. I've been following the previous posts to see that countries like London, Dubai, Netherlands, Australia will be an option for me post MBA. It would be wonderful if we have any folks here from 19D/20J/20D, who can share their experience.

donesd · Answer

That is very interesting, as it directly runs contrary to INSEAD's 2019 employment report, which states that of 98% of graduates who responded to their survey, 92% received at least one job offer within 3 months of graduation. The gap between the report and your anecdotes (esp for 19D) is quite wide. I would also be very interested to hear from the recent grads on this.

dadele · Answer

I have also been given a similar response from local alum chapter heads - job market seems tough for 20J and 20D. MBBs do typically hire candidates from non consult backgrounds, but given the current situation, they have relatively fewer projects at the moment projects, and more than usual applicants for those fewer roles, which may make the process more competitive.

thedevilinme · Answer

That's exactly what I thought. What I was told was to understand "graduates who responded" since a lot of folks don't respond apparently. Again, all of this might be incorrect information but that's the reason why I'm quite confused now. Let's hope the situation becomes more clear soon.

ZahidGani · Answer

Could the 2019 employment report be based on data that wasn’t affected by COVID-19 (maybe 18D and earlier)? Then the data could be correct (92% employed within 3 months of graduation), but the employment market has changed drastically over the last few months.

Also seems to be in line with what students are saying, implying that coming for 22D would result in a much better labour market.

I share your concerns though, €89K on an MBA to struggle in a tight job market is far from the INSEAD dream I was hoping for.

Posted from my mobile device

donesd · Answer

You are right. I just checked the report. It says, "participants in the two classes completed the INSEAD MBA programme in December 2018 and July 2019 ". So it should be 18D and 19J. But 19D shouldn't really be affected by the COVID situation, which really erupted in Feb 2020 (recruitment typically is in P4, which is around Sep/Oct 2019). Before that it was contained in China and the impact for the rest of the world wasn't apparent).

thedevilinme · Answer

I'd be very interested to see the 19D report but more than that, I'd want to hear from current candidates. Spending close to $130K in tuition and living expenses for an MBA which might have online classes and limited job prospects seems very daunting.

pabpinor · Answer

Those numbers seem quite concerning, and do not look aligned with the employment report, do you know if there are similar issues with other schools?¿?

Regards,
Pablo

ZahidGani · Answer

I would imagine that the job market it pretty tough out there across the board. I would be surprised if this isn't reflected in all schools. Having said that this isn't a MBA/specific school problem, this is a systematic risk, in times of recession the job market is more difficult.

PRDGeneral · Answer

Would echo that, I also assume that the situation is pretty bleak at all schools. Just some additional points, as mentioned before, the 2019 Job Report only covers until 19J, so these numbers are reliable. The 19Ds are highly likely affected by COVID as well, because the D-batch typically does not start working on 1st Jan. Most grads will put in some months for travelling or other projects and onboard in March/April, some even later. So probably a few offers got rescinded or made impossible by lockdowns and closed borders. Definitely not a nice situation for the 19D and 20J, but hardly surprising given the current economy. Would also count that as systemic risk, as bad as it is.

So go for the 21D class? If you believe that the job market looks better in 1-1.5 years, yes. Consulting in general is a bit more resilient, so that should help (sidenote - hiring for Consulting in SG for non-Singaporeans/PR is already tough for a couple of years, that's not new)

So go for the 21D class? If you believe that the job market looks better in 1-1.5 years, yes. Consulting in general is a bit more resilient, so that should help (sidenote - hiring for Consulting in SG for non-Singaporeans/PR is already tough for a couple of years, that's not new)

thedevilinme · Answer

Does anyone have any idea when the school will publish 19D employment report?

FeelingLucky · Answer

Would be really great to get some more personal insight from class of 19D and 20J. I am an R2 applicant for 21D, have done both interviews. Want to transition into asset management. Anyone got any thoughts?

ZahidGani · Answer

When you say asset management do you mean mutual funds and investment analysis? 
Perhaps looking into the CFA program would be really beneficial for you to start, I would also say that for something like that you need to network harder outside of the MBA program to make the connections. INSEAD has a strong consulting and IB stream, but on things like asset management that are more country/region specific, there may be more legwork to do on your end.

FeelingLucky · Answer

Thanks Zahid. So yeah fundamental analysis on the buy-side. I did CFA L1 forever ago and didn’t end up attempting L2 in the end as I was doing my ACA training contract instead. Think I might pick it back up now that I’m done with ACA. Annoying you can’t do L2s in December!

I have heard recruiting for asset management tends to be more ad-hoc and candidate driven. I’m keen to find out about the strength of the alumni network in the industry.

Posted from my mobile device

ZahidGani · Answer

I would definitely agree that is ad-hoc and needs driven. It also always seems to be a smaller community in each city with people who know each other. 
Perhaps you could try filtering INSEAD alumni in your city (on LinkedIn) and see if any are in the industry. Reach out to them for insight (position yourself as a potential applicant, I have found alumni to be willing to help), and then see what they feel about it.

Personally, I haven't seen many MBA's in equity analysis roles, they tend to put a lot more emphasis on experience.

FeelingLucky · Answer

Thanks Zahid.

I agree. Specially in the UK (where I am
from) it is extremely difficult to break into, even if you have a couple of years’ sell-side equity research experience. Not sure if the scene is different in Singapore/HK or other parts of Europe.

Great tip on the LinkedIn search!

Posted from my mobile device

ZahidGani · Answer

Have you considered registering with your local CFA society as a student and attending some of their events? 
That could potentially be more specific to networking in your target industry.

Job Prospects Post MBA from INSEAD

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