Year of the consultant

Recruitment season at INSEAD starts early. In fact, for a Banking job, you better be prepared for the "grip & grin" schmoozing events and then interviews within the first few weeks of the program. Those who start the INSEAD program in January have a bit more time to prepare, and crucially an internship period to impress a banking employer of choice. But let's face it, if one really wants a career as an I Banker, they should not be going to INSEAD but rather LBS in Europe or Wharton in the US.

No, INSEAD is not a banker's school. Rather, it is a management consultants school and here the recruitment process starts even earlier! The final admissions decisions haven't even been given out, I've not even finished my pre-MBA job, there are months to go before the program begins and already the consulting firms have started their dance. I have now seen invitations for events to take place in the next few months from McKinsey and BCG, the top of the top consulting firms. For those interested in consulting, this must be vindication that INSEAD is indeed an expensive but effective entry ticket to the famous case study interview.

I think 2008 will be a record year for the consultant. I've heard through the grapevine that the top tier firms are selling more engagements than they can keep up with. I've seen this in Europe and Asia, not sure about the US but again, if one wants to work in the US, they shouldn't be coming to INSEAD. For all you wannabe consultants, this means "beach time" is at record lows (the downtime between engagements that is part of the consulting business model for good reason...to delay consultant burnout to at least the 2 year mark).

I'll reserve most of my consulting cynicism for a later time. On the bright side, the career does offer a great opportunity to work with smart & driven people, learn great project management skills, and pay off student loans quickly. For those who do go down this path, best of luck, for me I hope more fulfilling opportunities await graduation.

Anonymous MBA blogger...

Great INSEAD blogger DomoDomo gave me a tip when I started writing this blog; if possible, try to remain anonymous.

I think there are a few major advantages to anonymity:

1) freedom of expression: less fear of personal retribution for all the upcoming controversial opinions, INSEAD dirt, class gossip, etc. etc.

2) separation of self from blogger: I prefer people’s perceptions of me come from real interaction rather than what I choose to write

3) protection of reputation: family, colleagues, future business partners, etc. shouldn’t know all the details of the fun that will be had over the next year

Unfortunately, blogging anonymously from within a community of 400 students is definitely not easy. Domo also warned me of the blogger spotters… There is probably no use in spending too much time worrying about it; anyone who spends enough time deciphering the clues will be able to identify an anonymous blogger at some point. The point for me is to not broadcast who I am, if someone wants to work hard enough to figure it out, maybe I should be honored!

INSEAD language requirement = facile

It’s finally time to break out the champagne!! After (finally) getting accepted and sparing no time in enjoying the newfound respect from friends & colleagues, having my parents brag about it to anyone who actually knew what and where in the world INSEAD was, and informing my employer that I thought it was a scam to steal other peoples’ watches and then tell them the time, I no longer have the fear that it will all come back to bite me in the ass.

With INSEADs entry language requirement, I had this nagging fear that I would fail to prove the required “practical” level in my second language and that I would have to retreat from my planned 2008 MBA like a puppy with it’s tail between it’s legs. Well hard work has paid off…I even passed with flying colors! This was actually a shock to me (and I think my language teacher as well). If anyone out there has similar concerns about passing the requirement and is wondering which test or certification may offer the best odds….let me know. The route I followed was easier than I had hoped!

The goal is, of course, to become much better in languages. While English is certainly the lingua franca in business today (at least for global players), I have seen how some ability in other languages can go a long way. Just putting in the effort wins a lot of points with foreign business partners. So, one of my goals in the coming year is to be able to have decent conversations in 2 languages outside of English. Shouldn’t be a problem, my future housemates combine to speak at least 5 different languages fluently…I have to be sure to take advantage of that!

First party for the class of 2008

INSEAD held their open day in Fontainebleau for the incoming class of 2008 this year. It was a great first taste of what the next year will be like….10% of the time learning, 90% networking. Hopefully I can get that ratio to balance out a bit when the real courses come. Open Day should have been more aptly called Open Weekend. Those who had arrived by Friday evening were invited out to a pretty decent Italian meal with a few current students. The dinner was not part of the official agenda, but nonetheless, it was covered by INSEAD. A very nice gesture I thought…I know, I know, we pay for it through ridiculous tuition. But it is nice to see some of it coming back in unexpected ways.

Several students then found their way to the big party thrown by the existing students to mark the end of British/ Irish week. Seems that DomoDomo caught some the same debauchery the rest of us saw (I love the random photo of some chick's chest!). It was a fantastic time! I am starting to think that I need to revisit my MBA budget to take into account all of these theme parties. Thanks to the organizers who made sure all of us newbies were able to get in and witness the more fun half of the legendary work hard / play hard culture at INSEAD.

The official Open Day was Saturday. It was an exhausting morning & afternoon of information sessions broken up by moments when everyone would try to meet as many of the fellow attendees as possible. The student mix was amazing. One of the speakers said it very perfectly….you know you belong at INSEAD when someone asks you where you are from and you start by saying “well, it’s a bit complicated”. It was also great to see so many partners in attendance…40 of them to be exact. Unfortunately they were treated to an exceptionally poor information session put on by two of the current spouses living in Fonty. I would have hoped the school would have done a better job screening out the spouses who would describe a typical day as “sleeping in as long as possible so there is less time to kill”. I think most partners who planned on joining their other half at INSEAD realized that they would be able to make much more of the experience if they wanted. All in all, everyone I spoke with came away from the weekend more excited than ever to start the year. I certainly am.

After the festivities this weekend, my (non-trailing) partner legitimately asked me if I was going to pay 50k EUR and not take the learning seriously. Well of course I am, but the real challenge is to find the proper balance. I think I really need to spend the next few months defining exactly what it is I want to get out of the 10 month INSEAD program. Without a game plan, I think it will be exceedingly easy to get swept away and end up paying too much for a long vacation from work and a nice name on the CV.

Americans #1 at Insead

Americans are currently leading the nationality count of admitted students for the class of July 2008. This is based on the research of a fellow student blogger, Strawberrytints. I suspect Americans will fall back into the customary 3rd place position (trailing Indians & French) once the class is actually on campus. The reason is that I suspect the % yield of admitted Americans is naturally lower than that of admitted Indians or French. It is, after all, a big decision for an American to pass by all the great schools closer to home and be willing to put up with 10 months of questioning on the merits of US foreign policy by hundreds of competitive intellectuals.
But wait, how "typically" American are these 40 some admitted students. Well, I was curious enough to dig a bit further.

The results are quite surprising; less than 1 in 3 admitted Americans could even qualify for "typical" status. Based on NetVestibule, the great INSEAD community site where admitted students maintain profiles, more than 40% of admitted Americans have dual nationalities (with 33% residing in the US). The leading combo nationality is Taiwanese (oops, I just got my blog officially banned in China) with a count of 5 students. The only other nationality represented is France with 2 students.

I might go as far at this point to say Americans admitted to INSEAD are some of the most international people on campus. OK, I wouldn't actually put money on it at this point, but it is possible. After all, how many of the European students are living outside of their native country or have a dual nationality? Well, I would test it but NetVestibule really isn't set up for efficient data mining. One thing is sure, INSEAD is the most international MBA program in the world and I cannot wait for August to come so I can make the most of this fact.