Is the INSEAD MBA worth it?

Is an INSEAD MBA worth it? An alumnus shares his journey from renewable energy to consulting, highlighting the program's international focus, entrepreneurial boost, and invaluable global network.

INSEAD is one of the world's most famous business schools, and its flagship MBA program is one of the most competitive. But is the INSEAD MBA worth it? To find out, we spoke to Meet Shah, a graduate of the program. The New Zealander by birth is a strategy and implementation consultant, successfully completed the MBA Class in December 2020, and is currently working in Germany.

In some ways, Meet Shah's story is a familiar one. With a non-business background, his main motivation for pursuing an MBA was to add business acumen to his academic knowledge. In Meet's case, however, his academic background covered a very different terrain than an MBA.

"I did my master's in renewable energy and energy systems," Meet says from his home in Germany. "Then I decided to go into engineering consulting to learn the technical side of things."

I really enjoyed that kind of work. Then I slowly got into project management. That's when I realized that customer problems were more about the business side than the technical side."

At that point, Meet began to consider an MBA program, even if he wasn't aware of it at the time. He founded a social enterprise as an experiment to see if he could gain the business acumen he needed to advance his career.

Frustrated by his lack of progress, he turned to his mentor for advice

"I had a mentor who suggested I do an MBA, because I could have just done something part-time or read a few books," he recounts. "They had done something like that before, and I think that's where the journey started for me."