Its hard to believe its only been 20 odd days since my last post. A lot has happened since – the end of P1, the Singapore Switch (or atleast bidding rounds), a few national weeks, the dreaded exams and the start of P2. Oh and a measly few days they call a ‘break’. My head feels like it has been put through a wringer and squeezed dry and fortunately for me, the experience continues. I think I have started P2 feeling much more prepared for the eight weeks of chaos that lie ahead and I have gathered survival skills that would have made life a lot simpler had I known:
The importance of your first few weeks – critical, crucial even in the social sphere. You are swamped with information and by people and it takes a while for your system to get used to it but don’t let that stop you from spending the time and the effort to make your friends. Its a loose word – ‘friends’, I barely manage to say hello and catch a quick cup of coffee with them sometimes but they are important. Take the time, go out for that extra pint at 11am even if your warm house and thick books beckon, set aside funds for the holidays organised by various people, visit new places. Cliques start forming pretty quickly and breaking in becomes much harder the later you leave it. Couples and families have different priorities but if you are single, be prepared to work much harder!
Choose where you want to live very carefully. Try the shared accomodation/chateau if you can. There is a trade off between the beautiful rustic cottage and the overcrowded house and social schedule – make sure you know what is it.
However much you invest in building your social circle during your first few weeks, for godsake keep your wits about you. Its amazing how you think you can breeze through the course like you did at university until you discover why Insead is known for being one of the best schools – its a packed syllabus. You may be a poet or an engineer but very basic things like listening in class, taking notes, organising your course pack, making a note of open book vs close book exams helps. Scribble down everything you know you are never going to remember and although you may never manage to do it, try and skim through the pre-reading – I have discovered the painful way that it is not optional. Its tempting to spend your coffee breaks staring into space trying to recover from one class and adjusting your brain for the next but productivity is pretty key to the experience.
As much as it is a make-believe world surrounded by a beautiful forest, INSEAD has people from the real world swanning around. Imagine these people as little business cards moving around in your card holder 10 years from now. What they say about networking at INSEAD is incredibly true and creating an impression matters. Don’t forget that there are some incredibly impressive people at school who will share a desk with you and getting to know them and allowing them to get to know you is important, even in the first eight weeks. Less said the better but safe to say my experience of applying for consultancy internships has taught me a lot!
If you are a career changer, don’t make the mistake of believing that your year out, age 30, is a productive alternative to taking a break and travelling around the world. It is not. Its hard work especially for those who don’t quite know what they want to do. INSEAD opens up a lot of doors but you need to know which ones you want to knock on. So when the MBA team send you a prep email asking you to spend some time on introspection – don’t laugh it off. I would have been better off had a narrowed my list of career choices ahead of starting in January. The school allows you the amazing opportunity of trying out what you don’t know and making mistakes in a safe environment, but make sure you spend your time on making the right mistakes
Don’t underestimate the clubs. It took a while for the meetings to begin and for the various presidents to lay out plans for the year ahead, however waiting for the club to get its act together is generally not the best way to tap into what could be a huge resource. The clubs have strong links to the outside world and if you have well defined area of interest, find out more before you catch that flight to Paris.
C’est tout. I’ve tried not to be cynical but my writing clearly does not disguise the fact that it is a lot of hard work, atleast initially!
On a lighter note, given I thought I would scrape through, I managed to pass my P1 exams with a half decent grade!
Nice post.
From the blogs i’ve read regarding INSEAD, i would say that networking is key.
How do you guys cope between networking & studying?
Does getting into the dean’s list really help in landing that elusive job in PE?
Hope you would post more often. I hope to go to INSEAD in 2 years time, just looking around and getting a feel of things. Is there such a thing as over preparation? LOL
Love, love, love the blog!