ISB Essays 2 Topic 2024 – Contemplate 2 distinct situations- one where you experience success and another where you faced failure. Delve into the personal and interpersonal lessons you learned from these instances 400 words max)
ISB Essays Analysis:
While the requirement for this question is very clear, the key challenge is how to you choose which success or failure to write about. Ideally you should choose a success or failure which even 15 years in the future would seem significant enough for you to talk about. This yard stick would help you eliminate successes and failures that may appear significant today but may be considered frivolous in the larger scheme of things. Start the essay by summarizing the 2 situations in 2 or 3 sentences. Next describe each situation in detail; what was the end goal, what were the challenges you faced, how did you overcome those challenges, what were the results and finally what were your learnings. Finally conclude the essay by stating how your learnings from these situations will help you contribute to the class at ISB.
Analysis:
B-Schools want candidates who are smart enough to understand what success and failures look like and their effect on individual’s personality. Most applicants overthink these aspects and tend to go overboard in their answers.
A typical response to this particular question would be replete with lessons learnt – essentially a memoir of self-realization. It doesn’t matter how personal the anecdote from success / failure is – it could range from scaling Mount Everest to going through a painful divorce. The focus of the response should remain on how the situation was handled irrespective of the outcome. The ability to keep a calm head during a storm is what separates wheat from chaff.
Most of the younger candidates (with less than 5 years of work experience) focus only on professional successes and failures. Specifically, the candidates coming from IT background consider delivering an important responsibility in absence of a superior an achievement. Over the years, this has been one of the most common examples. However, some candidates tend to go overboard and also tag awards to such examples. What most candidates don’t realize is that an achievement may not be a situation that is recognized by the world. An achievement could be as simple as getting satisfaction from training a paraplegic to cross the road on his / her own. A lesson learnt from such an achievement could be as simple as learning to be independent. There is no need to go over the board.
A failure doesn’t necessarily have to be catastrophic in nature to become worthy of mention. A failure could be as simple as inability to comprehend a traffic signal in a foreign country and avoiding a near miss. What the aspirant learnt from the situation is important which could be do not come out driving just because you have an international driving permit, in this case.
An important trait that is appreciated by the evaluators is brevity and sticking to word limit. Candidates in their exuberance tend to go beyond the word limit. What they certainly do not know is that there is negative marking for going beyond the limit and can hamper their chances. All said and done, a good sense of humor is always desired in successful candidates and at General Education we hope that you did not take the negative marking comment seriously.
You can learn how to correctly position your anecdotes and experiences for this question through your interactions and advice with General Education. We look forward to interacting with you in person or otherwise.
ISB Essays 2 Topic 2022 – What are your short term and long term career goals? How will Post Graduate Program at ISB assist you in achieving your goals.
Here are the advises from ISB application consultants on Essay 2:
This has been a repeated theme in most b-school applications – Why ISB, Why PGP and how to get from where the applicant is to where the applicant wants to be and where ISB would figure in the big picture.
Here are a few things that need to be kept in mind while answering this section:
Background: Try and give a background of who you are, personally and professionally. This will help set the context for the answer and help adcoms empathise with the applicant.
Short term goals: Paint a realistic picture of your aspirations in the short term keeping in mind your background and what the school offers. Talk to current students, alumni, recruiters and faculty to understand the situation and craft a convincing answer. It is important to highlight why you picked this path.
Long term goals: Ideally, this section gives a chance to tie it all together. Display clarity of thought while talking about long term goals and it is important to highlight why this is important to the applicant.
Why ISB and Why PGP: Use this section to carefully talk about ISB – peers, faculty, student-run campus model, alum network, brand, career options, infrastructure. Talk about PGP and tailor the answer carefully so that there is a clear and logical connection between the background, short term goals and long term goals. The best way to do this is a gap analysis and how a PGP at ISB plugs them.
Conclusion: Spend a line or two about what you bring to the table and why you are THE candidate that ISB needs to pick.
2022-2023 Essay:
What are your short term and long term career goals? How will Post Graduate Program at ISB assist you in achieving your goals?
Start off by describing your short term career goal, followed by your long term career goal in a couple of sentences each. The description of your career goals should detail your designation, responsibilities involved, geographic span of control and industry. Once you have described you career goals, it is important to highlight your career path to date, the skills you have gained as well as the gaps in your skill set, which are keeping you from immediately achieving your short terms goals.
Explain how ISB will help you bridge the gap in your skill set and how the skills you have acquired to date coupled with the skills you gain at the ISB, will help you achieve your short term goals.
This is your opportunity to let the ISB know how well you have researched the program and highlight the aspects you find particularly useful to achieving your goals.
The answer should be knit very practical and logical with an MBA from ISB serving has a bridge. A great essay is that which easily manages to clear the link with three aspects which include –
- Career goals
- Past professional knowledge
- Why/why now MBA and why ISB
1. Career Goals
Your career goals need to be very realistic and it must be about your goals only. So it would be great that you discuss this with the alumni and carry out some research on the b-school website to align your goals within the positions being offered at ISB. Briefly emphasis on the overall experiences that helped you shape your goal and discuss the appropriateness of your goals.
2. Career Progression
ISB is seeking candidates who have clear paths behind and before them. So you have to be very specific in terms of writing this essay. Also mention, how each one of them added value to your professional knowledge.
3. Why/Why now MBA and why ISB?
You have many reasons to put on in this segment so be realistic and see how this MBA through ISB is gonna change your life. It could be in terms of personal development, professional gain or other factors that you believe are gonna change your life.