The happiest day of my life was when my wife (back then just a beautiful girl I knew) accepted my invitation to go out for coffee together. The second happiest day of my life was when we got married. Several ranks down the 'happy days' charts in terms of ranking there is a new entry: the day my belief that if you are passionate and driven about something and put in the hours because you believe in its purpose and you are surrounded by a supportive group, well then, as clichéd as it may sound you make it happen.

You remember the 2:30 am cover letters from my previous post? The investment banking applications? They worked. They worked so well that I set a new record in terms of bank invitations. Landslide numbers.

After these invitations came the first round of interviews. Close to 20 individual interviews later, came the results: 100 per cent track record. All the banks that invited me for the first round invited me for the final round. Nine banks. I had nine final rounds with the most select financial companies that dominate the league tables year after year.

I was already living the dream, but I knew I was still only half way towards my goal. And then, an additional 20 interviews later, it was there, right in front of me, among other offers from equally prestigious institutions: the offer from the bank I've always seen myself going to. The thing that made it even more special was that given the harsh climate, banks have dramatically reduced the number of offers this year: an extra challenge.

How did I get here? It would be very wrong for me to say I did it alone. You can never do it alone. And this is where Insead comes into play.

Without the school's understanding of the recruitment process and its requirements, the whole experience would have been even more stressful and far less successful. Professors and colleagues encouraged me along the way, always having a good word and a sympathetic ear. Great individuals and a fantastic community that provided an outstanding and reliable support. A special thank you to all the guys whose quiet and solitary cubicles I've raided to print my latest application or CV. You know who you are. Eternal gratitude.

Without Insead's strong curriculum, excellent career services and generations of solid quality graduates and furthermore without its fantastic alumni network and ambassadors at all these banks, we would have never had the chance as a community to go through this experience.

Building on that, let me highlight a special group of people. My work group.

At Insead you are assigned to a group of five individuals, who for almost half your year at the school are pretty much your family in terms of academic experience. You do everything together: case studies, assignments, group work, everything.

My group consists of the following individuals: a French Harvard graduate with a weakness for clean-tech, a Korean with a PhD from MIT, who comes from one of most esteemed electronic firms around, an American from UCLA who worked for a top company in the insurance industry and last but not least a Canadian who worked for a bulge bracket in New York before moving to a private equity role in Dubai. A strong group you might say.

That's what I would've said as well before going through my recruiting experience. After that, I have an even better description: amazing group.

To give you an idea how recruiting works in business school, the banks come on campus and if you're lucky to get an invitation (out of hundreds of applications of similar superstar colleagues) you schedule yourself to one of the slots available in their interview day. Things get a bit more complicated when you have many many multiple invitations (like this person I know) to the extent that you start having full days in which you are basically going from interview to interview, barely making it to class.

Now imagine yourself doing these interviews day in day out and at the same time working on a complex case study for the macro economics class (insert real course here, do not tell professor). Well, I'm going to leave you imagining this because it certainly did not happen in reality.

And so that's where my group came into play, supporting me each time and at every turn for the last two weeks: the French environmentalist: a solid team player and great project manager, the Korean scientist: best ideas provider and a visionary group facilitator, the American: most positive, dedicated and can-do person I've met, the Canadian: math and finance genius, always having fun, always backing up the group and motivating people. Amazing group.

And so to wrap up, it was with the support from Insead's alumni, ambassadors, previous generations, professors, colleagues and last but not least my super group that I made it here. You can never ever do it alone.

"But wait! Surely you're not going to leave us without telling us the name of the bank". Well, of course that's easy, it's…