INSEAD: First two days
After a very pleasant Christmas in Seattle and New Year in Salamanca, I arrived to Fontainebleau ("fon-ton-blow") at 11 pm the day before orientation. Didn't exactly leave buffer time, but that seems to be my style. Luckily my new French host "mom" picked me up from the train station unannounced. I had been planning on walking 40 minutes with my suitcases at night as there were no taxis, so a ride was much appreciated.
The next day orientation began and 532 caffeine fueled MBA students from all over the world began exuberantly networking their hearts out. It was truly a sight to see and I was doing the same. Everyone is keen to be accepted to the group and show that they should be here. At this point, I have probably introduced myself to about 100 people and had very similar conversations kind of like when you first check into a hostel. What's your name? Where are you from? It's extremely exhausting to be firing at 100% for an entire day of orientation and at the end of the day I find myself wanting to go home and have some "me time."
Overall, I am already extremely impressed with the organization and professionalism of the program. At SAIS, I was thrown into class and there were no concerted efforts to promote class unity or have students begin thinking about their careers in any meaningful way. Already at INSEAD on Day 2 we spent the whole day on Careers. INSEAD has 180 employers come to campus to recruit students. SAIS had like 5. There is a flowchart by month that shows all the things you need to be doing to have a job when you graduate with deadlines and links to resources. It is an incredibly useful document and SAIS has nothing like that. Of the INSEAD students, about 50% will find jobs from employers that come to them on campus. At SAIS, many of the job postings on our career services website were just copied generic links to apply on other websites.
I am also impressed by the students. There are students from 75 nationalities, see below:
The top nationalities are marked in red: Brazil, Canada, China, India, Lebanon, USA. Surprisingly there is only 1 Mexican. I find myself gravitating mostly to the European, North American and Latino students. I guess this is normal to interact with people you are used to, but one of my goals is to interact with people from countries where I am less familiar with the culture. During one of our career sessions, the dean wanted to make a point so he said "Who here has an idea about what kind of job they want and where they want it?" One student raised his hand and said that he wanted to work for either McKinsey, Bain, or Boston Consulting Group (top-tier consulting firms) in Sydney, Australia. The professor then asked, "OK, who here works for one of those firms in that location?" A hand way in the back pops up and once the microphone is handed back, the student says "I work for McKinsey in Sydney, Australia." The crowd erupted. The point was that with 532 students from across the world, students should be able to find someone in the sector and location that they are interested in to get more information and possibly and introduction.
The next day orientation began and 532 caffeine fueled MBA students from all over the world began exuberantly networking their hearts out. It was truly a sight to see and I was doing the same. Everyone is keen to be accepted to the group and show that they should be here. At this point, I have probably introduced myself to about 100 people and had very similar conversations kind of like when you first check into a hostel. What's your name? Where are you from? It's extremely exhausting to be firing at 100% for an entire day of orientation and at the end of the day I find myself wanting to go home and have some "me time."
Overall, I am already extremely impressed with the organization and professionalism of the program. At SAIS, I was thrown into class and there were no concerted efforts to promote class unity or have students begin thinking about their careers in any meaningful way. Already at INSEAD on Day 2 we spent the whole day on Careers. INSEAD has 180 employers come to campus to recruit students. SAIS had like 5. There is a flowchart by month that shows all the things you need to be doing to have a job when you graduate with deadlines and links to resources. It is an incredibly useful document and SAIS has nothing like that. Of the INSEAD students, about 50% will find jobs from employers that come to them on campus. At SAIS, many of the job postings on our career services website were just copied generic links to apply on other websites.
I am also impressed by the students. There are students from 75 nationalities, see below:
The top nationalities are marked in red: Brazil, Canada, China, India, Lebanon, USA. Surprisingly there is only 1 Mexican. I find myself gravitating mostly to the European, North American and Latino students. I guess this is normal to interact with people you are used to, but one of my goals is to interact with people from countries where I am less familiar with the culture. During one of our career sessions, the dean wanted to make a point so he said "Who here has an idea about what kind of job they want and where they want it?" One student raised his hand and said that he wanted to work for either McKinsey, Bain, or Boston Consulting Group (top-tier consulting firms) in Sydney, Australia. The professor then asked, "OK, who here works for one of those firms in that location?" A hand way in the back pops up and once the microphone is handed back, the student says "I work for McKinsey in Sydney, Australia." The crowd erupted. The point was that with 532 students from across the world, students should be able to find someone in the sector and location that they are interested in to get more information and possibly and introduction.
Already the work and emails are piling up as the amount of career resources and orientation related logistics is overwhelming. Apparently this is to be expected over the year as INSEAD attempts to cram 80% of a two-year MBA curriculum into 10 months.
Outside of academics and career, INSEAD also seems great. There is a free gym with classes and apparently I can sign-up for three free personal trainer sessions per month. I am also attempting to organize a pick-up soccer session on Sunday on the fields behind the school. The town itself is very French and quaint with about 10,000 residents. It is pretty much a stereotype of a French town with lots of little boutiques along a pedestrian road and a castle. My house is also great. It is in-between downtown and INSEAD (about 8 minutes each direction) with a supermarket on the same block. I have a private room and bathroom and the home is shared with a French family with a 15 year old son and a daughter who is out of town in university. I am in her room so my bed has dolphins on it. We started off speaking French, but it quickly became apparent that our conversations were limited so we switched to English. However, I think I am going to ask them to switch back to French so that I can practice, however painful that may be. Also, Amazon has made it to France, which is going to make shopping much easier. Yesterday I tried to buy running shoes, but the sports store that said it was open until 7 pm, was closed at 6:30 pm. So, I ordered them on Amazon. Désolé.
One more week and Sandra comes to visit, which I am very excited about. There are are many people here with international couples. So far I've met a Bolivian with a Romanian, a Uruguayan with an Israeli, and an American with a Colombian.
Anyway, off to more orientation even though it's Saturday. Go Seahawks!
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