MBA Recommendation Letters
You are usually asked for 2 (sometimes 3) MBA recommendation letters. Don't send any additional recommendations than the number required and in the same way don't send any other material (e.g. thesis papers, books, art, films, etc.) you might have created unless you are invited to do so - it might reflect negatively otherwise. One of the MBA recommendation letters needs to be from a current employer (or supervisor if you’re doing a PhD for example). The other one could be from a former employer or somebody else you had a close relationship with (e.g. in a club, start-up or non-profit). MBA recommendation letters from former professors in college don’t have too much weight (unless you worked directly for the professor).
Obviously, pick recommenders who actually like you and know you well (this will help them provide good examples). Recommenders are usually quite busy, so ask them at least 1 month ahead of the deadline (if you are not sure if the recommender will have the time ask several months in advance to find a suitable replacement if there are doubts). Since they are so busy, stay on top of things. If they haven't submitted their MBA recommendation letter a week before the deadline send them a friendly reminder note.
Can you help your recommenders? Definitely, and it is greatly appreciated. Give your recommenders some bullet points about things you’ve achieved just to refresh their rusty memories a bit. Make sure to include specific examples! It's useless if your recommender just talks about how stellar you are. Admissions officers want to know why, so providing good examples is critical. If possible, you want one recommendation letter to highlight one side of you (e.g. your great leadership potential). The other one could highlight other aspects you’d like the admissions committee to know about yourself (e.g. your superb analytical skills). Your recommender should avoid sending one generic letter to all MBA programs you're considering (most of the time this isn't even possible anymore). Usually, there will be slightly different recommender questions for each MBA program, so make sure your recommender answers each question with specific examples. By the way, the title of your recommender is irrelevant. A detailed recommendation with good examples from your direct supervisor is by far more useful than some generic letter from a CEO or even the Pope. Oh, and don’t forget to send your recommenders a thank you note (or perhaps even send them a gift afterwards like a bottle of wine or flowers) and keep them in the loop on where you end up going.
What do they ask in recommendation forms? Here are some sample MBA recommendation letter questions:
- What was the nature of your working relationship with the applicant?
- How long have you known the applicant for?
- What was the applicant's greatest contribution to your company?
- Describe the applicant's 3 main strengths
- Describe the applicant's 3 main weaknesses
- How does the applicant's performance compare to his peers?
- How would you rate the applicant's [...] skills [e.g. interpersonal communication, leadership, analytical thinking, creativity, team work etc.]
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