How did you go about getting the best letters of rec for your MBA application? I feel like I could get decent letters from these 3 groups of people:
- Former boss (Director at the bank I worked at) who worked closely with me for ~1 year and can speak to my day-to-day work
- A friend in the industry (very similar roles) who I've known since college (~4 years now) but never technically worked with, he is 2 years older than me and has offered me a lot of advice over the years and could speak to my character / drive
- A friend in the industry that is 2 years younger than me, who I've mentored (~2.5 years now) and helped get jobs in equity research and at a hedge fund. He could speak to my ability to mentor, help, and speak about my drive and character
I have also gotten advice that the "prestige" of your recommender doesn't matter and what matters is how highly they speak of you. Is that true? FWIW I've done IB and am in Corp Dev, studying for the GMAT now and probably won't go to B school unless I get into an M7
Any general advice on letters of rec would also be helpful!
Prestige of recommender doesn't usually matter although maybe it plays a slight role if you work with a real big shot / work at a firm that has a direct pipeline into a certain school. I think some places may ask you to include a rec from someone who works for your current employer? I'd just re-read the requirements. If that's the case, hopefully you have someone you work with closely at your current job that can write a rec for you. The mentor / friend is an interesting potential choice. All the IB / PE people I know asked bosses from their current / former jobs (with one person asking a portfolio company executive as well).
For letters of rec, don't write the recs for your recommenders but give them a list of the key qualities / traits you want them to highlight and give them short summaries of the projects you worked on with them / how you specifically stepped up and added value to the situation.
Good luck!
Keep your LOR writers engaged. Prestige doesn't matter, choose people who know you well. Get letters from people you worked with, NOT industry contacts. ApplicantLab is a great place to get recommendations on how to go through the LOR process as well as the rest of the application. No way I would have gotten into one of my top choices without it.
1. Manager - worked under her for about 1-2 years. Didn't directly work under her but I was one of about 50+ people she managed and I was a known standout within the department. Did phenomenal work - was ranked as a top performer in 2021 (top 2-5%). She was directly involved in promoting me twice - part of each interview/was on the decision committee etc. Went to a complete non-target, not a prestigious background but knew me very well. Kept me in the loop while writing it as I answered questions/concerns she had.
2. Person I directly reported - this was a mistake. LOR felt completely rushed and may have given conflicted information to my manager since I never really had any questions/concerns from this writer. This was partially my fault. The writer just told me it was submitted but didn't give me really context on how she wrote it.
I probably drop the friend in the industry. That one feels pretty weak to me. Perhaps if you were childhood friends or had experienced something very meaningful together, but basically that's just getting your buddy to write an essay.Director is a good one and I think a mentee isn't a bad angle to go with as well, especially if it fits into the narrative for your B-School application.
For reference, I did one of the partners at my PE firm and then actually a portco CEO who I'd gotten close to and worked very closely with for ~2 years. Neither had MBAs.
One more piece of advice I'd give, the standard industry advice is always "don't write the essays, just give a list of things to focus on, etc" I actually slightly disagree with that. You definitely don't want to entirely write the essays for your recommenders, but I think you want to give a little more direction than just a list of bullet points of your achievements and what you're focusing on. You want to have them write your letter with your narrative for B-School in mind. Also, people are busy, it's tough to write a really good and thoughtful letter of recommendation if you haven't done them before. I was lucky that my partner took my very seriously and actually had an editor spend a few hours and really tighten it up. Most people won't do that. So what you can do is, send a thoughtful list of bullet points, anecdotes, and write out the story/narrative you're building for your MBA application. On top of that you could even write out small portions of the essay or give very specific thoughts on things you think should be included.
I was curious so I went back and looked at the docs I put together for my recommenders. I created google docs where I not only laid out an overview with the deadlines for each school, but I also included the application essays I had written for each school, so the recommender could get a sense of how I was telling my story. I also included a link to 30 or so generic recommendation letters.
Is all the above potentially overkill? Probably. If you want to maximize your chances though and think you might be a little bit of a borderline case, which, not to be a jerk, but IB to Corp Dev is good not great, then you'll want to do everything you can.
Have enjoyed reading your posts in the past. Didn't know you had an MBA. Given your pedigree, I'm guessing you went to a HSW / M7?
"On top of that you could even write out small portions of the essay or give very specific thoughts on things you think should be included."
^Also recommend this. Completely forgot that I did this for both writers.
What are your thoughts on asking your current boss if you wouldn’t need an mba in your current company, but the application recommends an LOR from a current supervisor?
I’m looking to career switch and it might raise red flags if I ask for a rec.
Why are you unable to get a second recommendation letter from someone who you have directly worked with?
Not unable, but I feel like I need to have a diversified LOR.
A couple of my managers at my new job have harvard MBAs so if I can get enough exposure to them I’ll ask about an LOR from one of them
Would highly recommend using ApplicantLab. Maria highly advises against choosing those with prestigious backgrounds that you don't know that well vs. writers who know you very well and may not even have an MBA. I think you're getting too hung up on the "prestige factor" of your writers.
I absolutely agree with you.
How should I think about asking partners / principals for letters of recommendation when applying to multiple schools? For context, I am planning on applying to 6 of the M7 schools. While the recommendation letter prompts at each school are fairly similar, there are some slight differences. So I can't use the same essays for every school. Meaning I have to ask each reference to write 6 different letters of recommendation. Has anyone taken a certain approach to this / any helpful tips?
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