I joined the INSEAD MBA to expand my knowledge of and opportunities within a variety of business sectors. Coming from advertising, I knew a lot about marketing, had heard of finance, accounting, and strategic consulting, but did not know many other sectors. Additionally, being a more creative and qualitative person, I knew that I did not want a career based in spreadsheets and hard numbers. So, I entered INSEAD with an open mind, determined to understand other areas of business.

• Read more about Discovering Careers in Creativity and Innovation During the INSEAD MBA

Being a lawyer didn’t make the MBA a logical move. I had left the law firm industry quite early in my career, spending the six years before INSEAD in asset management. However, the assets I was working on were still legal by nature: my fund provided the financial means necessary to companies taking part in lawsuits to cover all related expenses in exchange for a share of the proceeds in case of success.

• Read more about Ex-lawyer the First Day, but Full and Unique INSEADer Thereafter

I came into the MBA unsure completely of what I was getting myself into but confident it was the right move in my career. I felt frustrated working in a company where I felt I was creating “strategies” without any real idea of what I was doing and how the “higher-up” decisions in the company hardly mattered compared to the “fires” I was constantly putting out in my day-to-day work. Instead I arrived at INSEAD and was immediately introduced to a world I hadn’t known existed, where everyone talked about the “MBBs” and inside jokes in class involved a guy named Porter.

• Read more about Finding My Way at INSEAD - from Confusion to Confidence

I am not your typical MBA candidate. For nearly seven years, I was a staff writer with TIME Magazine in New York City, where I covered music, culture, and entertainment. (I also worked remotely during the pandemic from a small town in the western U.S., writing about the economy and generational politics.) Journalism kept me busy, but as I watched the media industry crumble around me, I wanted to understand the business context more fully. As the type of person who loves school, I decided it was time to go back.

• Read more about A Former Journalist at Business School - Experiences of a "Non-traditional" MBA Candidate

How does someone reach the age of 50 without being exposed to the concept of the unconscious and its underestimated influence on us? If I couldn't expect this from my loving but not psychologically minded parents, what might I expect from elementary school, middle school, and university? If these are the pillars of our personal and academic development, the institutions through which we acquire knowledge and abilities, how come no one has considered including self-mastery as a major cornerstone in any educational curriculum?

• Read more about The Invisible Fog of Our Unconscious

One of the most talked-about themes when you begin the intense 10-month MBA programme at INSEAD is the strong decision-making capacities it demands of its candidates. There simply isn’t enough time to do everything you’re drawn toward, and effective choices regarding time allocation become increasingly crucial. This challenge and the lessons you learn from it are invaluable; I plan to expand on them in a future blog post. 

• Read more about The Easiest Decision is Paradoxical

ChatGPT is a brilliant piece of technology. To the contrary of what many think, ChatGPT is not the result of a new breakthrough innovation. It is the convergence of many existing machine learning models, beautifully assembled in a powerful and simply to use interface.

• Read more about Where ChatGPT Excels and Where it Fails

Why should we care about these two words: “cognitive load”? Perhaps I should begin this explanation by introducing myself.  I’m Dr. Helen Willis, and I am a cognitive neuroscientist. I have my own online neuroscience consultancy, The Connectome Connection. I am also the partner of a '23J student. We have just completed P1 and P2 in Singapore, and are in the process of moving over to Fontainebleau for P3-5.

• Read more about #cognitiveload Should Be the New Hashtag

Professionally speaking, I am the reasonable type. I have always restrained myself from doing crazy things. So, if five years ago you would have told me that I would be starting my own company in the wine business, I would have thought that *you* were mad.  Let me tell you the story of how I decided to dive into my passion. 

• Read more about Diving Into Passion: My Wine Adventure

Team Quokka: Ian Yamaguchi and Matt Dodd Forming a plan  Matt and Ian have been mates since the start of INSEAD and both share an interest in tech and entrepreneurship. When we heard about SSUP early in the course, we were keen to get involved. While exploring options for our trip, a newly minted programme to head to Western Australia caught our attention.   INSEAD – Western Australia (WA) Partnership

• Read more about Team Quokka in Western Australia