During a job interview, 95% of your discussion will cover what you have done in the past and as an afterthought, the interviewer might ask you about your career plans for the future. With the INSEAD Executive MBA (EMBA), our concerns are quite the opposite.
When you apply to our programme, we not only consider your background, but more importantly, what your plans for the future are once you have completed the executive master’s degree programme. We will view your background and experience in terms of getting you past a certain threshold — “Yes, this person seems to have the right experience and exposure. Let’s continue the conversation.” Now, we want to understand your career goals and how you plan to leverage your EMBA for advancement opportunities, for example towards C-suite roles.
Positioning yourself as a C-level executive with an EMBA
Our programme supports experienced professionals in senior leadership or managerial positions, equipping them with the skillset to achieve greater career growth. C-level executives hold pivotal roles within a company, serving as leaders who help make impactful decisions that drive business growth.
Obtaining an EMBA is a strategic step towards gaining the expertise and skills required to achieve a C-level executive position.
If you’re a senior executive looking to upgrade your career, here’s an exercise you can try. Write it down on paper:
- Identify where you are now in your career and then put forward three potential answers to the question: “Where do I see my future and what will I do with it?”
- For each answer, draw out a plan to achieve each possible pursuit — you’ll likely gravitate towards one which will become the vehicle for your self-reflection.
- As you go through this, remove all “ifs”, “ands” and “buts”.
- Look at this exercise as a personal documentation of your life story: “I started out as XXX and ended as ZZZ. In order to achieve my goals, I had to take two different positions in-between and spend some time working from headquarters.”
- Once you have done that, think about the people who might currently be holding these “in-between” positions and try finding out more about what they do, what their challenges are and what makes them successful.
- Now, focus on yourself and determine the gaps in your profile that may need to be addressed to take this next step.
- Can an INSEAD EMBA help fulfil those gaps.
An important thing to take note of is this: the exercise is not about documenting your future career path. It’s designed to help you better understand yourself and identify areas for development for senior leadership roles. In removing the elements that are liable to vary or change, you are forced to focus on “you” rather than potential outside influences.
Truly understanding why you want to pursue an EMBA, will allow you to convincingly argue these points in your essays, interviews, and negotiations with your employer.
Whether you join the INSEAD EMBA and actually pursue one of these career paths, or perhaps focus in a completely different area, you will still need to address the same issues for your development.
