A Talk with INSEAD's Associate Admissions Director, Johanna Hellborg
An excerpt from the Q&A:

Q: Are all applicants required to go through two rounds of interview?
A: Most of our applicants get two interviews with two different alumni. In countries where we don't have a lot of alumni, it will only be one interview. It's an opportunity for applicants to ask [alumni] more about the school.

Prior to the meeting, the candidate will be asked to provide the interviewer with their six-page profile from their online application -- there's nothing really creative in this. We're looking for what types of jobs they've had, what they've studied, etc. The alumni interviewers look for the same things in each of the interviews.

For the full version of this Q&A

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Comments from Student 1:
Scheduling the Interview: The admission office provided the contact information of two alumni. One of them is a VP of a management consulting firm and the other is a CEO of a start-up. Both interviews were delayed several times as they were busy (overseas business trips).

Location of Inteview: A down-town pub (for the VP) and his office meeting room (for the CEO).

Preparedness of Interviewer: I did not find them to be well prepared.

Interviewer University affiliation: Both INSEAD Alumni working locally.

Atmosphere: The first alumni has over twenty years of experience in Management Consulting and is very sharp in questionings his interview canidates. The CEO was very friendly and interesting. He was kind of tired (after a long day of work) though.

Questions asked: Basically a fit interview.
- Why INSEAD?
- Your strengths and weaknesses.
- Why an MBA?
- Talk about your overseas work experiences.
- Describe an incident where you failed. What were your thoughts and what did you do?


The questions are straight forward and not difficult.

Length of Interview: Both approximately one hour.

Additional Comments: Both were impressive professionally.

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Comments from Student 2:
In my experience the process of interview at ISEAD was a bit lengthy and complicated.

I was contacted by the school about two months after sending my application. INSEAD runs a staged admission process and I applied by the end of September 2003 - the first stage for the Sept 2004 class.

I was informed by email that I would have interviews with two alumni. The school made efforts to select interviewers close to my working location at the time – Paris.

The first name I was given was that of a senior executive at a major French insurance company. We fixed an appointment at his office toward the beginning of December.

The interview was held partly in English and partly in French. It lasted about one hour and the questions revolved around my background and future plans.

The interviewer was well acquainted with my essays, which I had sent him prior to the interview. The atmosphere was pleasant and friendly. The interviewers also offered to answer my questions and shared with me his much appreciated suggestions. At the end of the interview he was very kind and told me that his feedback on my application would be positive. So the first interview was a smooth and pleasant experience.

Scheduling the second interview was a bit more challenging. I was provided with a couple of contacts who never answered my emails. It was only after I called INSEAD directly that I was finally able to schedule the second interview.

It was held in Sophia Antipolis, where my home office is based, by a young executive of a major IT company. The interview took place at the premises of his company and was similar in nature a length to the first one. This time the languages employed were Italian and English – it looks like INSEAD tries to gauge whether the linguistical skills reported in the application are truthful. Also in this case the interviewer, of exquisite kindness, provided me immediately with a positive feedback.

The feedback from INSEAD was quite fast. I received an email and a telephone call about a month after my second interview. This is remarkably fast given that Christmas and New Year's eve fell in between my second interview and the admission from the school.

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Comments from Student 3:
I was notified via an email about my interviewers for the INSEAD MBA program. Both alumni lived and worked in London (where I currently reside). While it is sometimes difficult to schedule timely interviews with busy alumni, I was fortunate to receive a quick response from my interviewers and was able to schedule my meetings within two weeks. Both meetings took place at alumni offices and lasted about an hour. The two were very different in their nature, largely driven by interviewers' personalities. The first interview was more structured and felt similar to a job interview, while the second was more relaxed. The questions were largely the ones one would expect, but I would recommend preparing clear examples of your teamwork abilities and examples of your failures (most importantly how you dealt with the situation and what you have learned for it). Just as with any school interview, it is important that you can explain how an MBA fits into your career plans, what you are hoping to gain from it, and what you would do if you were not successful in gaining entry into an MBA program. In addition, it is imperative that you can explain why INSEAD is your top choice and how it fits with or stands out from the rest of the MBA programs you are pursuing. If you are switching your career, be ready to defend your decision, explain the logic behind it and your strategy for penetrating the new field. The most interesting question I was asked during my interview was: "What is your relationship with money?" As with many questions, there is no right or wrong answer to these questions, just demonstrate your logic behind the answer.