Although recommendation letter comes fourth in the list of the most important MBA Application elements, guiding a first-time recommender can be tricky if the person is not 100% sold on the idea of completing this important task.
As we had mentioned in Selecting your recommenders, you can’t expect the time commitment from a first-time recommender if the person is not a well-wisher. The recommender should have worked on at least two projects and should be accessible through email or personal meeting.
Here are five tips while working with First Time Recommenders
1) Necessary Documents
In a professional relationship, the recommender might be aware of your contribution to each project, but they might have little information about your undergraduate degree and achievements. Share your resume, and personal details (family and childhood experience) with each recommender.
2) Share your Essay
Write your “Why MBA” essay, “Weakness and Strengths", and “Failure Essay” first and share it with the recommender. The recommender will get an idea about the tone, and the information shared in the essay. You can guide the recommender from repeating unnecessary milestones. Instead, she can validate the achievements or supplement your strengths by adding other examples not mentioned in the essay.
Related: MBA Application Recommendation Letter Editing
3) Match Rating with Examples
An important part of recommendation process is the rating of the applicant based on various qualities – leadership, communication, and teamwork. Recommenders must maintain consistency of the rating with the examples. When the recommender highlights leadership, but slightly criticizes the applicant's collaboration skills, the rating difference should be reflected. The applicant should explain what each star means.
4) Quantify Results
AdCom expects the recommender to quantify results, at least to an approximation if the results are confidential. If the applicant’s contribution added $1-$2 million revenue in Q3, mentioning that information will be valuable instead of vaguely quoting “the contribution from the applicant helped us improve our revenue by 5%.” The recommender should also piece together the applicant’s contribution towards the project and company goals.
5) Criticism
A recommendation letter that is devoid of criticism will look unauthentic. Recommenders should cite weaknesses in the applicant, consistent with what the applicant has written in the essay. In addition to that, the supervisor should demonstrate that he had done some research about the course structure and activities. Specify which set of electives or activities would help the applicant overcome the weaknesses, instead of generalizing with statements like, "MBA will be a tool that would help the applicant overcome her weaknesses." General comments like that have been written to death.