Letters of recommendation are an important part of your overall application package—they provide the only outside information the admissions committee receives about you. One of the most stressful parts of the application process can be picking your recommender. The first question you should ask is who can write a valuable letter?
Like many candidates, you may believe that your recommenders must have remarkable credentials and titles to impress the admissions committee. However, what is far more important is selecting individuals who can write a personal and knowledgeable letter that discusses your talents, accomplishments, personality and potential. If senior managers at your company can describe your work only in vague and general terms, they will not help your cause. By contrast, lower-level managers who directly supervise your work can often offer powerful examples of the impact you have on your company, and their letters can therefore be far more effective at getting you accepted into an MBA program.
Nonetheless, not all people who know you and your capabilities well will necessarily make good recommenders. For starters, of course, you should be confident that your potential recommender likes you and will write a positive letter on your behalf! One step you can take is doing some background work on your recommenders to make sure your choices are indeed “safe.” After all, if you are playing by the strictest interpretation of the rules of recommendations, you will not know what your recommenders ultimately write about you. So, by doing a little intelligence work in advance, you can better understand whether you are making the right choice, before you commit to a certain individual.
By doing some “intelligence,” we mean—if possible—contacting past colleagues in a discreet and diplomatic way to find out what their experiences were like with the person you are considering choosing as your recommender. For example, was this individual a generous advocate or was he/she a disinterested third party with a tendency to be harshly critical? Clearly, learning more about your target recommender’s approach in advance can help you understand whether you should approach him/her with this important responsibility. Past colleagues can also guide you in how best to manage your recommenders, which can be just as important as choosing them. Knowing up front that your recommender is a procrastinator or performed better after being given a list of accomplishments from which to work can help ensure the best letter possible and prevent you from inadvertently antagonizing your recommender or delaying the process.
After you have chosen your recommender(s), you might wonder, “What if they don’t get their letters done by the deadline?” In our opinion, the easiest way to ensure that your recommenders complete their letters on time is to present them with your own deadline—one that is a bit earlier than the school’s—when you first ask for the recommendation.
By setting your recommenders’ deadlines, you can alleviate unnecessary stress and perhaps even “enjoy” the application process a little bit more.
This article is contributed by mbaMission