The Unofficial Transcript: INSEAD July 2009

Signing out

2009-04-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a pleasure dumping all my thoughts/concerns/learnings over the last 9 months or so. Hopefully, this has been of some use to some of you. I will not continue blogging any more to devote time and attention to my personal blog.

So, good luck folks!

Top 10 Site Visits

2009-04-08T17:01:00.000-07:00

Top 10 Google Searches that resulted in successful visits to this site

Loans for International Students at INSEAD

2009-04-08T03:51:00.000-07:00

Wharton nailed it: http://blog.clearadmit.com/2009/04/wharton-finalizes-new-loan-program-for-international-students/

They are back with a bang as far as loans for International Students goes. They've shown us that they are indeed the premier school for Finance. I mean if you're a good school for Finance, you better be able to atleast finance a loan program for your students.

As far as INSEAD goes, still no progress on this front. INSEAD has teamed up with Prodigy Finance to offer some loans. And I guess, INSEAD does hand out scholarships to 20% of the students. Still, if INSEAD's a top 10 school, I have greater expectations.

I got my loan from Sallie Mae, but I had to scamper around like crazy. And no to mention the ordeal which several other people went through.

The 6 month plan

2009-03-28T20:03:00.000-07:00

The INSEAD Career services team has been super supportive through the career search process. They organize a large number of events, do some good business development etc to get a lot of companies in the pipeline. Still, these are exceptional times & there's only that much Career Services can do. And the few companies (you would've never heard of them) that are hiring are so lame, that I'd rather be unemployed and wait for something good.

So, realistically, I'm seeing a 6 month window of lag to find something concrete. What are the things I can do? If you have any ideas do let me know..

This is what I'm thinking

1. Entrepreneurial pursuit
2. Some sort of certification
3. a) Paid Internship (but that's been pretty screwed too)
b) Unpaid Internship (work for food..)
c) Social/Non Profit
4. Take up lame ass job (if I get one)
5. Fart around at home with the parents
6. Join another education program (would need a scholarship to make this happen and its such a waste of time)

Many lame options :-)

Career Search at INSEAD

2009-03-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

All the plans I had coming into INSEAD are down the drain. I had come in to make some sort of career upgrade. With the economy in tatters, I thought I would do what everyone else decided on, put all my eggs in the consulting basket. And for that I got screwed. I got dinged by 5 out of 6 (Mckinsey, BCG, Booz, AtKearnet, Roland Berger) consulting companies in the first round itself. I'm still awaiting Bain but there is not reason to expect anything.

The good news is that quite a few people got shortlisted by these companies. Usually, Mckinsey shortlists about 40% of the intake. This year it seems to be at 25%. But what's interesting is that the Consulting companies are no different from any other company. They're just as screwed and just as simplistic in their hiring process.

The PR machine states that they pick up only the best (as measured by their intellectual credentials) and don't go for anything shallow such as (location, experience etc). Personally, I find it rational that a consulting company chooses people for their experience and location skills (comfort,language etc). But the PR machine denies that..

I might be a bit bitter here, but from what I perceive from the shortlists, the following criteria are what gets shortlists in this economy

1. Intelligence: I have to say that all the people who have been shortlisted are super bright (just like 60% of the intake at INSEAD)
2. Location: This has been a big one. This is a matter of supply and demand. If you're from a country with sparse population your chances of scoring a shortlist are pretty healthy
a) Popular locations: Canada (for some strange reason) and Western Europe. And non-english speaking locations (Jakarta, Bangkok, Prague etc). As you can imagine, the demand has a fair chance of meeting or exceeding supply here.
b) Bad locations: US (seems like economy is indeed screwed, plus visa issues), India (excess cheap supply), Mainland China, Singapore.
3. Experience: Finance & Commercial (purchasing, supply chain, logistics) are entertained. Weak areas have been high tech, HR..

Ofcourse there are exceptions to all this, but this is just my pereception as an INSEAD student.

So what's next for me? Well, the good news is that the lack of consulting interviews has freed up some serious time to do something that I've never had the balls to do. I've been risk averse all my life and for once I'm being forced to take some risks. I'm thinking of doing something entrepreneurial. I've got a few ideas and have gathered a few friends around it. Time to rock and roll and make the most of it.

Networking @ INSEAD

2009-03-14T05:46:00.000-07:00

I am no good @ Networking. Thanks to my career in software development, my social skills are really weak. Small talk is lame, and coming up with some BS questions to ask is way out of character. I met a friend who works for Temasek in Singapore who completely changed my perspective. I'm not going to reveal all the tactics, but will share a few simple learnings with 2 frameworks

Small Talk Framework (STF)
HIM
1. "So, what's your reading of these difficult economic times"
Good: Vague question, makes the other guy talk
HIS JOB
2. "Tell me more about what folks do as Structured Financing expert"
3. "What do you think are the transferrable skills in a career in Private Equity?"

WHAT CAN I WRITE IN MY COVER LETTER
4. What's nice about working at BCG?
5. What's the hardest problem you've solved during your career at Mckinsey?
6. What makes INSEAD an attractive school to your company?

SOCIAL (so that you don't sound like a bloodsucker)
7. Do you'll have an ultimate frisbee league at Microsoft?
8. I heard you Bainies frequently meet over weekends?

Fishing for nothing (FFN)
FFN's main philosophy is take a worm, put it on a hook, dip it in the water but pull it out before a fish bites. The idea here is pretty simple. Everyone hates the guy who has an ulterior motive and talks to you only if they need something. Don't be that guy. So what can you talk about

1. Hey, I'm interested in this Web2.0 thing. What's the coolest thing happening in the industry?
2. I heard you're a serial entrepreneur. What's the next big area you're planning on funding?

Now these questions get you some information about what the person is doing. You can absorb this information, lay low and then pounce back when the timing is right.

I'm sure there's more to do. If you guys have any suggestions or frameworks for networking that is not taught in the real world, please comment..

INSEAD 2010

2009-03-14T05:42:00.000-07:00

A few 2010 students messaged me to describe the relevance of INSEAD post financial crisis. I think the best batch to get in right now is Dec 2010 (i.e. starting Jan 2010). When this batch graduates, they are going to ride the glorious wave of economic recovery. A number of economists are predicting a mid to late 2010 recovery..

For folks interested in a finance career, I have good news - INSEAD's got an extremely strong finance faculty - Pierre Hillon, Massa, Vermallen just plain rock. Very high quality faculty that really make you sweat, but it's a lot of fun!

Ze alumni

2009-03-14T05:38:00.000-07:00

The coolest thing about INSEAD is...

.. not the courses
.. not the professors
.. not the parties
.. not the proximity to Paris
.. not the dual campus

it's ze alumni. Unlike HBS, Chicago etc, our alum is totally down to earth, high achieving and most important of all - eager to make it happen for you.

The school does an excellent job of developing the alumni and integrating them with the campus. We get access to a database of all the alumni and we can reach out to them for a conversation about their company or experience.

If I were INSEAD, I'd do a few things to improve the Alumni experience

1. Make career service support to be life-time. It's a great PR strategy and let's face it not too expensive. The alumni is not really going to put huge demands on the service
2. Make the INSEAD gym available to alumni. This will encourage more alumni visits to the campus and thereby increasing networking opportunities
3. Open up the library to alumni as well. Same reasoning at #2.

If I were to do it again...

2009-03-12T05:21:00.000-07:00

1. I would apply to LBS as well..
2. I would start in the January intake. September lacks an internship and that's really not so convenient.
3. I would start P1, P2 in Singapore. P3 wherever internship is. P4,P5 in Fonty.
4. I would spend more effort on Finance
5. I would have started networking earlier if I had known how... But I should've started a bit earlier
6. I would have not encouraged free ridership in some of my groups
7. I would have considered a private equity career strongly (although nothing major wouldve come out of it)

P4: In Singapore

2009-03-12T05:17:00.000-07:00

I just did the campus exchange for P4,P5 in Singapore. The rationale was two fold

1. To get out of Europe as employment is fantasy around here.
2. Align myself with the PR process so that I can hook up with jobs in Singapore.

The experiment so far has had mixed results. I like Singapore as a city but I'm not sure of what's left in the city. Layoffs have been taking place fairly regularly and severely. Companies are coming on to campus but most of them are recruiting for China (which implies mandarin speaking).

For folks thinking of an exit language, please do consider Mandarin. It's useful and might be a good strategic move given that China is set to dominate the world at some point.

Pretty frustrating so far. A few readers have asked me to elaborate on "if i were to do it again, I would..." type of post. So that's coming up soon..

P3: IPA

2009-02-21T05:53:00.000-08:00

One of the best courses I've taken at INSEAD is called International Political Analysis. The content was just okay, but the professor who taught it - Vinnie Aggarwal - a visiting professor from Haas just rocked the show.

The entire class felt like a story of countries, their manipulations and struggles. Just plain amazing..

INSEAD vs IMD

2009-02-21T05:43:00.000-08:00

I recently met a friend of mine in a Parisian Cafe. He's getting his MBA at IMD. I have to admit that I felt a little jealous about their program. While the overall prestige and reputation of INSEAD is greater than IMD, there are a few very cool things about IMD

1. Very small class size. Total class < 100, compared to 450+ for INSEAD
2. Average age is 31+, which means you have a more powerful network (powerful is debatable ofcourse)
3. Intense focus on group work - Everything gets done in a group. INSEAD does a lot of group work too, but we keep rotating groups quite a bit.

If I were to do it again, I'd do INSEAD all over for it's own strengths. But depending on your background, choosing IMD can be a good option..

Moving to Singapore

2009-02-21T05:36:00.000-08:00

I'm out of Fonty and on to Singapore for P4,P5.

Why am I doing this?

I want to look for jobs in Singapore, HongKong & India. And despite what everyone states P4 must be spent where you're looking for a job.

Reading the FT or WSJ, you hear that Singapore is pretty much F#c@ed. Well, that goes with the rest of the world. For now, I'm hoping that a more urban environment atleast simplifies networking.

Finally, the insider view is that Singapore is the 'more fun' place to be at. The environment is supposedly more relaxed, people more friendlier etc etc. I honestly don't get how that could be, but I guess I'll just learn.

P3 exams are about to start in a few days now. The nice thing about P3 and forward is that there are very few exams and instead the focus is on in class participation and group work. It's more work in class but the learning experience is much better...

Essay Writing

2009-02-07T04:48:00.000-08:00

I got a few requests for tips on INSEAD essays. I had written about this when I started apping. Here's an easy link: http://inseadapp.blogspot.com/2008/02/insead-essays.html

The bottom line is to think of INSEAD like a business. Imagine, you're running a school. Think about how the school makes money and how you play a role in it (Hint: Your tuition is just a small part of the whole story). Feel free to brainstorm on the comments and I can share my insight.

Is INSEAD that good?

2009-02-02T06:58:00.000-08:00

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..

The Economy & Other stuff

2009-01-28T05:48:00.000-08:00

I had the financial crisis explained to me real nice in my P3 Macro-economics course. The only reaction I had to it was, WTF! I understand that things look real simple in retrospect, but the sheer volume of greed that realtors and bankers engaged in just shocked me. I seriously began to question some of the principles of the capitalistic system we live in. I started reading some Marx just to get some hope that there may be alternate ideologies that are rooted in something more substantial.

Am I saying that an MBA is a waste? I am not sure. However, I feel that there are definitely some lessons towards learning how to make tradeoffs between pure financial gain and long term sustenance.

Rental Refund (a.k.a. CAF)

2009-01-17T14:20:00.000-08:00

If you're renting in Fonty and are not a EU resident, then you're entitled to get a refund of the property tax paid by your landlord if your income is really low. If you're Indian, Chinese or one of the others from developing countries, then you're qualify for this. Here's how you get the refund

1. Visit: https://www.caf.fr/. It's all in French, so you'll need #2 onwards..
2. Select on the left pane, "Etudiants'
3. Then on the same pane, Select "Aide Au Logement" Faire une demande
4. Scroll down all the way. Click Pursuivre
5. Fill up the form. Use bablefish or translator to make sense of the form. It's not too complicated. One note is to keep your salary equivalents less than 20,000 Euros
6. Print the resultant form, sign it yourself and ask your landlord to fill out a fields.. Landlord if french, should know what to fill out.

If you're in a fancy place paying 1000 - 1200, then you can get refunds up to 300 euros. The only catch is that you can only apply after you get Carte De Sejour. but nothing stops you from starting the paperwork upfront.

Reversal of Fortune

2009-01-17T13:17:00.000-08:00

P2 results came out. Serendipitously, I squeezed into the Dean's List. What was more exciting was that, 4 out of 6 people in my study group made it as well. And the other 2 just barely missed. As I had mentioned in my previous post, I was not expecting this and feel somewhat excited.

Now back to reading...

P2: Survival Tips

2009-01-10T07:59:00.001-08:00

P2 is probably the most intense term at INSEAD. Just way too much going on, somehow. This is probably because of the number of group assignment. It just felt like I was with my group all the friggin time.. Once again from an engineer's perspective

Key Survival Lessons

Don't skip Corporate Finance reading until the very end. You get screwed.
Participate in club activity. For example, the consulting club organized the AT Kearney Strategy competition and participating in it was a lot of fun. Great learning! Pick one club and one event to participate in.
Take the results in good spirit. There are clever people at INSEAD and many will do better than you.

P1: Survival Tips

2009-01-10T07:48:00.000-08:00

I was just talking to a new P1 who was just asking me what the P1 landscape looked like. For me (a computer scientist with 5 years work experience), here were the main P1 revelations

Keys to Success

Building a good working and personal relationship with the group. This saves a lot of time over P1 and P2. The way I see it, it's okay to burn some time initially working on building a good friendly relationship and tap the benefits of that at later stages. Successful groups had three main attributes - trust (that one of your team mates is capable of doing an assignment as good as you), patience (its okay if we bomb that one assignment, just move on) and a little unstructured (Let the free-rider in your team free-ride, he/she is sacrificing his/her own reputation and that's all).
Focus on accounting, everything else is a piece of cake. Learning curve is steep. A little pre-reading would've been nice.
Don't ignore LPG. Take detailed notes during the term. It can really boost your overall grade later.
Decide if you want to be on the Dean's List or not. Sooner the better. Get it out of your system as soon as you can.
Attend atleast 1 party a week (Depends on #4)

Dean's List

2009-01-10T07:43:00.001-08:00

P1-P2 done. I will not be making it to the Dean's List (Top 10% of the class) despite an above average performance. I feel pretty relieved as I can now start seriously focusing on finding a job. A brief note on the importance of being on Dean's List

Pros

If you don't have a CV that stands out, this helps.
Auto-shortlisting by consulting companies
Some bragging rights
Really push the depth of your learning

Cons

You need to be clever or hardworking or both
Might distract you from the pragmatic needs of job hunting..

I would've liked to be on the list as I don't do too good on interviews, but that's that..

INSEAD to Paris

2009-01-10T07:28:00.000-08:00

P3 just started and I still can't seem to figure out how to get from INSEAD to Paris without spending countless minutes waiting in bus stops and trains. So today, I finally got organized. I don't have a fancy phone, so I had to go with a low-tech organization strategy. The goal was to make sure that I got from INSEAD to Paris in the most economic way without having to wait much time

Step 0: Buy a mobilis pass in advance. A mobilis pass costs 16.40 Euros and it allows you unlimited travel by bus, train in the Ile-de-France region (includes Paris, Fonty but not the airports). So if you buy a pass in advance, you can ride the bus free while heading to Avon Gare (a whopping 1.60 Euro saving)

Step 1: Get a bus schedule from the Fontainebleau tourism office right next to the chateau:
http://www.fontainebleau-tourisme.com/infos-fontainebleau/acces-fontainebleau.asp. Print this out and post it on your door at home. The really cool thing about this schedule is it lines up the bus timings along with the train.

Step 2: Ride the bus. Get off at Avon Gare. Buy a mobilis for another day. Very important step that enables step 0. Pick up the small map of the Paris Metro area. You can do a lot of graph theory magic, figuring out how best to get back to Gare De Lyon. I personally, like to take exactly 3 trains from whereever I am...Just for Fun.

Step 3: Take the train. Make it to Paris happily.

That's pretty much it. Now that I write it all down, I wonder why the hell I was so lazy.

Fontainebleau living spots

2008-11-11T08:50:00.000-08:00

Good locations in Fontainebleau city to live in:

1. Rue Royale Apartments on Rue Royale. This is probably the closest place to campus and also happens to be very comfortable living.
2. Rue St Merry, Rue St Honore, Rue de France, Rue Grande: These are streets that are within 10-15 mins walking distance from school. The quality of apartments varies widely, so you really want to see pics and take your time to choose. Lots of people pressurize you into believing that there is a supply problem. IMO, this is pure BS. There's sufficient housing until say 1 month before school starts. After that things do start getting tight. Also, the Round 1 and Round 2 folks get the cheapest housing off the table so if you are Round 3 or Round 4, just chill and take a short term lease upfront. Once you get here you can find better places.
3. Avon: This is a little further away but very doable by bycycle. It might get kind of nasty with the winter, but still doable.

Then there are more villages in and around Fontainebleau (Samoreau, Veneux Les Sablons, Barbizon, Samois etc etc). Those are options for the automobile-ready

The good, the bad, the ugly

2008-10-02T15:44:00.000-07:00

The good:

Consulting recruiting is hardcore. Mckinsey, Bain, BCG, Booz, AT Kearney etc etc have a very strong persence on campus.
Students are hardcore
Social scene seems to be good, however, there are cliques galore..

The bad:

10 months is short especially if you're not the quantitative types. Highly recommend January intake over September, especially now.

The ugly:

It's easy to get sucked in by academics. Time management and prioritization is crucial. If one cannot master this art, then you can be left out of several loops.

I'd have to say that the September intake is ideal for folks with 5+ years experience.

Accidental choices

2008-09-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

1. Staying close to campus if you're poor is a very smart thing to do.
2. Having your CV ready before you come to campus would be brilliant.
3. Actually doing the pre-reading is worthwhile. Accounting at the very least.
4. Getting done with the language requirement is priceless.

I did 2 out of 4 and found some mileage out of it.

The first few days

2008-09-10T14:49:00.000-07:00

Made it here and trying to survive on a budget (introduced by several constraints). After a few weeks, I believe that it's quite reasonable to survive here on about 800 euros a month. Ofcourse, you won't live in a chateau, you won't drive to school nor will you get to head to Paris every weekend to watch Coldplay, but you can get by.

The specific break down for me has been

Rent = 510
Electricity = 30
Food = 200
Social = 60
Total = 800.

I've been a little low on social expenses this week mostly because I've been at school all the time reading up. Hopefully, can change that a little bit.

Week 1: Went fine

2008-08-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

Lots of stuff going on, but consensus exists: Lots of parties, lots of networking and some very intelligent folks on this campus.

I also got introduced to my classmates
1. An american lady who almost qualified for the US Olympic swimming team
2. A French guy who worked in China and knows everything there is to production.
3. A chinese girl who worked in HR
4. A Chilean brand manager with Proctor and Gamble
5. A Peruvian investment banker.

Pretty insane, but good.

Fontainebleau Survival: Tip #2

2008-08-03T06:20:00.000-07:00

Bring them bags. Grocery stores in France charge for plastic bags (which is great, increase the price, I say). This just means that it would be good to carry with you either some plastic bags or some regular bags with which you can do groceries. It makes a lot of sense to get plenty of them.

Fontainebleau Survival: Tip #1

2008-08-03T06:17:00.001-07:00

Since I'm getting ready to pack up and get started @ INSEAD, I thought I'll start posting survival tips as soon as I get them. The first one is thanks to a peer of mine (Vivek Peshkar) and is about eletric plugs. Basically, France supports type E plugs.

http://www.kropla.com/!e.htm
http://www.kropla.com/electric2.htm

The most important learning for me atleast: Standardization is friggin hard.

1 in 5 ding

2008-07-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

I think I need to get to used to getting dinged for 80% of the things I apply to. Resetting expectations reduces so much stress.

Scholarships Update

2008-07-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

I got dinged in 4 out of 5. I've been shortlisted for the L'Oreal Scholarship (http://www.insead.edu/mba/schlmgmt/index.cfm?fuseaction=dsp_list_schl). There are 3 other finalists besides myself. The final round will be conducted during the orientation week.

The objective is to share with a committee of INSEAD & L'Oreal representatives your professional objectives and be prepared to answer their questions for 10-15 minutes.

While I'm excited about getting a step closer to some scholarship, I'm properly educated on how INSEAD designs everything to be so competitive. All the finalists duke it out right there and then. And the results are announced at the end of that session.

And in stake, 'Partial Tuition'! Now, I just need to demonstrate to the committee that I'm creative and have a clear vision of my professional goals.

Exciting times.

Scholarship decisions

2008-05-22T12:09:00.000-07:00

I got dinged for 1 scholarship - Sasakawa something. Basically, I was asked to describe a situation where I demonstrated leadership in a culturally conflicting situation. I got dinged - thought I put in a valiant situation. The challenge is there's always that someone to upstage you no matter what you put in.

4 more to go.

Lehman Brothers pre-MBA internship

2008-05-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

INSEAD July 2009 students can take advantage of a pre-MBA internship. It's a really unique concept that Lehman Brothers is piloting @ INSEAD.

For future students enrolling into INSEAD, it might be useful to view http://www.insead.edu/mba/careers/FinanceTraining.cfm, to get more information on INSEAD's finance stream.

Although I applied for this internship, I am not even 20% sure if Finance is the right stream for me. I aspire to become an entrepreneur and it's useful for me to understand how money is raised. I therefore value this internship.

One nice thing about this offer is the quick turnaround - within a few days the interviews would start.

INSEAD & Student Loans

2008-05-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

Really getting squeezed dry for financial aid. Here's my list of candidates
1. Prodigy Finance - credit crunch has squeezed them dry.
2. Sallie Mae - needs US cosigner. Interest rates are pegged of the LIBOR..
3. Wachovia Bank - loans suspended until May 19th (new notice after that)
4. IEFC - suspended indefinitely
5. HSBC, Bank of America - on hold
6. BNP Paribas/BRED - 2 to 3% but they require a French Citizen to cosign. I don't know any French citizen's
7. PARAS - they charge $500 in the form of fees which are positioned with all random terms (processing fees, communication fees etc.)

Student Loans

2008-04-21T17:19:00.000-07:00

I'm Male, Indian, Engineer and living in the US. The three options I'm looking at are

1. IEFC - needs a US citizen or permanent resident as cosigner.
2. BNP Paribas - 3% loan, attractive terms, but require a French citizen or international bank to guarantee the loan.
3. BRED - 2.35% loan, attractive terms, but have some constraints at #2.

Why would any bank in it's sane state of mind guarantee a bank loan. Why take all the risk for absolutely no gain? I guess a bank could guarantee a loan at some rate, but then the interest rates become less attractive.

I remain concerned about my ability to fund an INSEAD education. I'm praying for a scholarship :-(

Scholarship deadline

2008-04-17T08:43:00.000-07:00

This is scholarship deadline week for quite a few folks. April 18th. The strategies should be the same - target scholarships that not too many people can qualify for. As a Male, Indian, Engineer with no major life altering tragedies, I could only apply to the common scholarships

1. Eli Lilly - Innovation - Everyone things that they've changed the world.
2. Need Based - Yep, I need it, but I'm sure there are people who need it much more than me.
3. Syngenta - I don't know squat about sustained agriculture
4. Sasakawa - I do have plans to change my home country, but so do million others
5. There was one more I applied to, but I forget..

I've never really 'won' anything major in my life. I've been on scholarships and fellowships throughout my life, but non relied on essays - It's always been quantitative. I've written compelling essays, so I'm hopeful of nailing atlteast one.

I cool thing I learnt from Zanat0S' blog is that the scholarship committee is the same for all essays so it might make sense to write something unique for each essay and not blindly cut paste stuff.

Another 2 days to go for the deadline, so I'll proof-read my essays and make sure everything's lined up correctly.

INSEAD, Fontainebleau

2008-04-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

To do

1. Plan resignation from work - June 31st is the tentative date. I'm so going to miss the paycheck :-(
2. Figure out leasing situation for current apartment. Lease expires on May 15th... What am I going to do from May to June 31st
3. How to pay for INSEAD? Loans? Scholarships? Grrr..
4. French Visa... More paperwork...Sigh
5. Housing in Fontainbleau.. I hear its a pain in the ass..

I'm getting a mild headache :-(

INSEAD deposit

2008-03-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

Put down the deposit for INSEAD. Thanks to a surging Euro and a plunging dollar, my deposit felt very expensive.

I'd like to recover the ISB deposit, but I don't see any good reason that I can offer the ISB AdCom. I actually feel quite lousy about doing this but if there's someone on the ISB WaitList who benefits from this, then that's great.

I think I'll gracefully withdraw from ISB and forfeit my deposit! Sucks!

Application Veil

2008-03-14T12:14:00.000-07:00

I'm beginning to think that the entire application process comes down to the following question:

"How well can INSEAD market you to the companies that hire from them?"

The reason this question is important is that INSEAD is a business whose customers are companies (pay for research, collaborate with professors on projects, pay for recruiting) and students (pay tuitition). Now, how can you have a marketable application/profile/resume

Big Brands on resume - Worked at IBM, Intel, Mckinsey, Microsoft, Google, Nike, Disney etc. If you've worked for them before then you've got something going on.
Big Brands in education - Degree from Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, IIT, etc. etc.
Big numbers - 4.0 GPA, Summa cum laude, distinctions, 760+ GMAT (I have 720 and I think that's a commodity score)
Personality & Communication - That's what the interviews are for. Can the school put you in front of these companies and get you hired by them?

And the essay's and such are fine - you need to show them you're connected and influential. I think someone who is strong in the above criteria has to work much less harder to get an admit anywhere..

Ofcourse, I could be completely wrong since all this is pure speculation...

Extracurriculars & INSEAD

2008-03-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

I've always felt a little intimidated by the extracurricular activities of others. How the hell do folks pack so much stuff in 25 years of their lives?

President of fraternity
Runs a large open source project
Olympic athlete
Raised $500, 000 for some charity
etc. etc.

I don't have anything great like this going on but I still got an admit from INSEAD. The truth is that my only real passions outside of work are travelling and heading to the gym. I have only one great achievement in my activities - I lost a crap load of weight since I started taking a keen interest in working out. And that's what I wrote....

Essay Tips for INSEAD Jan 2009 intake

2008-03-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

I just finished proof reading an essay for a friend of mine who is applying to January 2009 intake. I found his essay really good but lacked a few simple aspects that I felt helped my app get accepted

1. As the Stanford Dean says, "Doing simple things incredibly well" is what's important. You don't have to overcome abject poverty or come up with that life altering idea. If you've done something simple such as, "Organized a small function for your apartment community", "organized your brother's wedding", "tutored your cousin's on a regular basis", then these are all quotable stories. The nice thing about them is that the reader can relate to it and more importantly its believable.

2. You don't have the marketing skills (and this is for my fellow engineers), but you must make reading fun and exciting. It's like that GEICO commercial where the professional actor does the voice-over for regular folk such as us. Some tips for making your essays catchy

Stay away from flashy/domain specific jargon.
Show that you're a team-player/socialite/well networked person. B-schools love that kinda stuff. Ofcourse don't lie if you don't know anyone..
Write well. This is obvious but sound professional. It might be wortwhile getting someone to review your essay if you lack the skillz.

3. Consistency. Make sure your story is consistent across Essays, Reccos & Interviews. I cannot emphasize this more. You must have a conversation with your Recommenders and tell them what characteristics you expect of a recommendation. Be explicit about it.. For realz!

And finally, If you attend a information session, try to network with the professor (if they have one doing a sample class) and ask him/her if he/she would be willing to review your essays. You'll be surprised at how cool & willing INSEAD professors are.

Fonty or SGP?

2008-03-10T15:22:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about which campus to start at. It was a really hard decision, but I've decided to stick with starting at Fonty. I had some personal constraints that required me to be in Asia as much as possible, but having done some research, I think I'll start with Fonty and evaluate the situation as it unfolds. My reasons

1. I have enough Asia experience. Really don't need it.
2. Fonty is more expensive, but I can live in a dump, cut my expenses, whatever's needed
3. Seems like the French Village + Chateau Parties + Crappy Weather defines the INSEAD experience... so why miss that?
4. P4 must be spent in Fonty. Recruiting is much stronger on the Fonty campus (I have a friend who does recruiting from a big consulting company and mentioned this as key differentiator).
5. Being of Asian origin, I can expand my network and career choices into Europe. I should be secure with Asian recruiting (so I think atleast).
6. If I'm wrong I can always switch to the SGP campus. Switching to SGP in P3 is supposedly hard. Taking a chance here - hopefully it will pay off.
7. If one wants to be in the European job-market than Fonty experience is must. I want to work in Asia but unlike others I don't really need the SGP stint to establish my Asia prescense.

I'm sure anyone who reads this needs to evaluate their own priorities against ground reality. The cons of Fonty are
1. More expensive than SGP. (living costs atleast)
2. Public commute supposely sucks
3. Crappy weather in P3/mid-P4.
4. Not enough exotic vacationing (e.g. Thailand, Malaysia and all those other warm places).

Would love to hear other readers analysis.

Doing the math

2008-02-27T18:59:00.000-08:00

So what's INSEAD going to cost me?

50,000 Euros tuition, 20,000 Euros Living Expenses, 5,000 Miscellaneous buffer expenses. Thanks to the spiking Euro (I wonder if someone's tweaking this stuff solely to get more money from Microsoft - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/technology/28soft.html?ref=business).

Now that translates to 75,000 Euros which is roughly 111487.5 USD. That's quite steep and with significant amount of money locked into the US Stock market, I'm quite stressed out on how to plan for this much money.

Thinking of loans, scholarships and possibly someone to sponsor my MBA. Need to get creative here before I can officially accept the INSEAD offer.

No news from Stanford yet - It would be really awesome if they acted on this fast, so that I could put down a deposit. Grrrr.....

INSEAD Admit

2008-02-25T08:26:00.000-08:00

I got an admit to the July 2009 INSEAD class starting at Fonty. I got notified via email unlike the 'typical' phone call. I didn't particularly enjoy INSEAD's phased admission notification process as the anxiety wore me and my wife out. I have to say, I nagged the living hell out of her.

So, I feel great. But daunted about having to make a payment/decision by March 21st. I have an ISB admit and am waiting for news from Stanford. I need to think through the pros & cons of ISB & INSEAD. That & funding options (I'm researching this topic pretty heavily) would be the topic of my next post.

No news is bad news?

2008-02-22T08:26:00.000-08:00

The forum's are abuzz with admits and Waiting List notifications. Still nothing from my side. I don't understand why universities stage their notification process. Why not just send out all results on 2/29? I could think of a few reasons

1. Outstanding candidate who needs to be reached first before any other school.
2. Personalization - the ability to call up all students and personally notify them of their admit
3. Adhoc - we have the result, why not do it.

In any case, I'm still optimistic.

The wait conundrum

2008-02-21T18:26:00.000-08:00

Although INSEAD announces it's outcome only on Feb 29th, I'm already quite confident of securing an admit. I strongly desire the Singapore campus and I believe there's lesser demand for that, so I might be all set in a week. So the next thing that I need to research is finance. I've got a couple of constraints

1. I got an admit with the ISB (Indian School of Business) and put down 5,000 big ones. I feel stupid about having applied to ISB R1. But then, it took a while for me to realize that I wanted to apply to my other 2 schools viz. INSEAD and Stanford. I am wondering whether I could recoup my 5 G's in any way. Will send an email to ISB adcom once I get my INSEAD admit.
2. I am yet to hear from Stanford. Interviews have started going out, but I haven't heard anything yet.
3. Finally, regardless of which school I pick, I will need to grab a loan. I have some savings that are locked up in stocks thanks to the dramatic downturn of the US Stock market. Serves me right for my blind faith in the US economy. ISB loan's are pretty easy - in fact people are desperate to hand me money. On the other hand, INSEAD funding seems a mess. I need to research some options. That will be the topic of my next post.

I really like what Stanford's doing about their tuition: Read Here. The middle class really needs a break. It feels like we're being pushed repeatedly out of affordability.

Waiting

2008-02-19T06:44:00.000-08:00

Waiting on INSEAD. Several candidates are reporting admit's on the business week forum. So it sounds like the process has started rolling along. Excellent.

On to 2/29 now.

Interview #2

2008-02-19T06:32:00.000-08:00

I had my second interview with the CFO of a Venture Cap firm in Seattle. The interview was a little bit more formal, but essentially boiled down to the same questions

1. Walk me through your resume
2. Why do you want to become an entrepreneur?
3. What do you think is the hardest part about being an entrepreneur?
4. When did you first learn about INSEAD?
5. What do you do outside of work?

I got a lot of great tips from the alum on career options after INSEAD, the life on campus and the benefits of the INSEAD alum. I was impressed with how thoroughly he had read my resume and my essays - He had taken down detailed notes. He said he would positively recommend me.

Now on to Feb 29th for the actual results.

INSEAD Interview #1

2008-02-08T09:51:00.000-08:00

Just got done with my first interview. It lined up very much with what others had to say about their experiences. The interview was casual and conversation-like. Here were the questions asked:

1. Tell me about yourself. Walk me through your resume.
2. Give me a few examples that demonstrate your strengths & weaknesses.
3. Why INSEAD? Why not American schools (I'm in the US)? Why not Indian Schools (I had mentioned that I want to pursue an entrepreneurial career)?
4. Why MBA? I was surprised this came after #3, but perhaps I botched #3.
5. What do you want to do right after your MBA?
6. Which campus - Singapore or Fonte? And why? I said both :-)
7. Any questions?

The interviewer indicated that he would positively recommend me. Throughout the interview, I was focussed on the storyline of my essay's and did not back away from it. My second interview is scheduled for today.

INSEAD Essay's

2008-02-08T09:41:00.000-08:00

I believe that the overall purpose of the Essay is to provide a qualitative view to your resume. You were the president of your student's association (resume), great, but what did you do to become president, what did you do after you became president (essay's). I feel the essays are a great opportunity to give 'stories' & 'anecdotes' supporting your overall theme & resume.

I was watching this program on TV called, "On the Lot". It's a reality show where amateur directors create small movies based on theme's. One of the director's mentioned that this success stemmed from his ability to lay down real simple story lines and then weave complex 'episodes' around them. I think an MBA app is very similar. Here are some example 'elevator pitches' for storylines (very relevant to an Entrepreneurial track)

"Highly accomplished individual seeking to build an enterprise on his own"
"Global exposure at an early age, seeking professional freedom"

Now, the next step is to take this mantra and write down all 'stages' of your life and see how they align. Here's what I did

Stages:
Childhood (birth -> Grade X)
Grade X - Grade XII
Undergrad
Internships
Grad School
Internships
Professional experience
ExtraCurrics across the board.

Now, write down accomplishments in each of the above stages. It can be very rough

Accomplishments:
1. Played Soccer for school team
2. Was member of TIE

Once you've got a huge laundry list, walk down through each item and decide which one's support your theme and which one's don't. This remaining list can serve as the foundation for all your remaining essays.

I found this approach very useful. Perhaps it helps others.

Current Status

2008-02-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

I've applied in R2 for INSEAD September 2008 intake. I got preselected for the interview and got scheduled with 2 Alumni in the Seattle area. I'm done with 1 interview, waiting for another to get completed.

My Profile

2008-02-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

Before I start posting about essay, interview tips and such, I thought I'd provide some specifics about my profile to put this entire blog in better perspective

Male, 29 (and aging :-), Indian
5 years work experience with 2 years in graduate school (Master's in Computer Science)
Software Development with a big-ass software company in Seattle, WA
GMAT 720, 6.0 AWA
Good academics & good extra-curricular activities.

September Versus January intake

2008-02-07T17:24:00.000-08:00

The main difference between September and January intake is the lack of internship-time in the former. Based on the profiles posted on several forums, the September intake represents a student population with much higher work experience.

For me, the September batch is a great fit as I have about 5 years experience and want a quick intense crash course in business skills. However, I do realize that I'm closing my doors on potential career changes.

Introduction

2008-02-07T17:20:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of applying to the INSEAD September 2008 intake and want to use this blog as a way to payback the blogosphere for all the rich advice I had gotten. Overall, I found the amount of information about INSEAD and it's application process to be fairly light from a student perspective.

I hope someone finds my learnings useful.