Nancy Tong

INSEAD

“Work Hard, Play Hard, Go Far.”

Hometown: Beijing, China

Fun Fact About Yourself: It took me 5 times to pass the driving test….

Undergraduate School and Major: London School of Economics, BSc Economics

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Project Manager at a stealth start-up

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the school’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? INSEAD describes itself as “the Business School for the World” and the programme design is very international. I want to take my MBA as an opportunity to explore the region I never worked or lived in (Southeast Asia, Middle East) and INSEAD is a perfect fit for this.

What club or activity excites you most at this school? PE & VC club and entrepreneurship club

What makes you most excited about getting your MBA at INSEAD? What makes you most nervous about starting business school? I am most excited about meeting and learning from my classmates. I am not nervous about anything as I am too excited to be nervous about anything.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I was awarded as 1 of 40 Rising Stars in fixed income trading by the TRADE magazine while I was at my previous job at Goldman Sachs.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I spent most of my career in fixed income trading and portfolio management before transiting into start-up and venture capital. I want to enhance my skillset before further go down the start-up/venture capital path.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT Sloan

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? In the video interview stage, I was asked to describe a complicated situation I had to deal with in 60 seconds….

How did you determine your fit at various schools? The factors I value the most when selecting schools: international exposure, programme offering in entrepreneurship/venture capital, and the feedback from alumni.

What was your defining moment and how did it prepare you for business school? I met a student similar to my age during a volunteer teaching experience in Qinghai, China. I decided to sponsor him for his university tuition when I learned that his family was unable to afford the cost. Over the years, we grew alongside each other. He has now completed his doctoral degree and is an academic researcher in agriculture. This experience really echoed to the quote, “Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it”. Business school usually looks for candidates that are “all-rounders.” I have a very quantitative/analytical background on paper and my experiences outside work (including this one) shows a different side of me.

What is your favorite company and what could business students learn from them? One of my favourite companies is BlaBlaCar, founded by INSEAD alumni. Ride-sharing wasn’t as big as it is now and BlaBlaCar gave a great lesson in building product, branding and business development. INSEAD has a course on this prior to the MBA programme starts!

DON’T MISS: Meet INSEAD’s MBA Class of 2021

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