Monday, February 2, 2009

Is INSEAD that good?

Ranked 5th on FT. Higher than Stanford. Is the school that good or are these rankings busted?

Here's my take

Stanford is a better school than INSEAD. I have friends studying there and the kind of doors it opens are way way superior than INSEAD. Now, with the exception of Stanford, I think I agree with the FT Rankings. However, there's another element to interpreting rankings viz. who you are. So, we'll take a few parameters and assign some points

1. Your age
2. Your current experience
3. Your target industry
4. Your desired geographic location

Age:
If you're under 26, Assign 0
If you're between 26 - 29, Assign 50
If you're over 29, Assign 100

Experience
If you've got 0-2 years experience, Assign 0
If you've got 3-5 years experience, Assign 50
If you've got more than 5 years experience, Assign 100

Target Industry
If your target industry is completely different from your current, Assign 0
If your target industry is similar or closely related to your current, Assign 100

Geographic Location
If your target location is Europe, Assign 100
If your target location is USA, Assign 0
If your target location is Asia, Assign 50

Add up your scores. The closer you're to 400, the better INSEAD is for you and the more sense the rankings make. If you're young, have very less experience and are trying to make a career change, then INSEAD's the wrong school for you. If on the other hand, you're trying to nail a top notch job in Europe or Asia and are trying to make a transition from a promising manager to an executive, INSEAD gives you a lot of propeller fuel..

4 comments:

Unknown said...

superb!

short and sweet

bro.I am am following up your blog since long..you are simply amazing..I am Zurich based NRI, 5+, 29 and would apply for J10 Insead, will you review my essays or give some insider info to me to show fit in the essays.

Jai Hind
prashantb03@yahoo.com

Creative said...

Hi Sheetal,
I honestly don't have the time to do a good enough job reviewing essays. I suggest running it by family and friends. A few tips I can give you is that remember what INSEAD really likes

1. International exposure
2. Big brands and strong networks (so that you could be a future contributor to INSEAD)
3. You will provide value to your classmates @ INSEAD

Good luck
IA

Unknown said...

Hi,

Now that you have been at INSEAD for a while, can you envision few career paths for IT professional..If you can give inputs, it will be just wow!

Creative said...

These are my opinions only

1. Transition to finance is very hard. I would say impossible unless you're superman
2. Transition to say business development in technology is the bare minimum expectation, I would think. And is definitely a good option
3. Consulting is very legitimate (most popular option). Management consulting is generic enough that anyone can fit.
4. Commercial position -sales, marketing etc is challenging but doable if you're really focussed.

That's what I'm thinking now, still have the recruiting season ahead of me.

IA