In this recommendation letter tip, I will share a common mistake that applicants make while coordinating recommendation letters from supervisors.
During the recommendation letter coordination process, applicants share the summary of all their projects. Some even share the outline of the essay, and many, against all recommendations, share the actual essay.
At least sharing a 1–2-line summary of what you did, your IMPACT on the team, and the challenges you faced is an important note for supervisors to contextualize each achievement.
Extreme Coordination vs. Summary of Your Achievements
The problem I see is the extreme coordination in wording and even the letter's tone. Certainly, recommenders should present the applicant with a lot of optimism, but unnecessary coordination or applicants writing their own letter could lead to a scenario where the recommendation letter sounds like an Essay.
You will rarely see a person in an executive or managerial position writing elaborate recommendation letters.
The tone of the Letter: The first thing that applicants should avoid is the tone of the letter. It should not sound like an essay.
Length of the Letter: The second thing that applicants should be careful about is the length of the letter. Organic recommendation letters are short, with 10-15% words to spare. The transitions are weak, and often, there is a sense of urgency by which the supervisor is presenting the applicant.
The Common Letter of Recommendation has two questions. One about your strengths and another about the feedback the supervisor gave and how you received it.
The most important part of a recommendation letter is the Bird's eye view of your contribution.
When the essays are all about your IMPACT on the team and the product/service, a recommender can offer an additional context around client satisfaction score, the IMPACT of the applicant's contribution on subsequent negotiations for pricing, and the applicant's skill in building teams, communicating cross-functionally, initiative and potential for the roles they are targeting post-MBA.
So a recommender can offer data points, examples, and perspectives that are unlikely to be captured in an essay. Examples demonstrating strong ownership, conflict resolution, initiative to escalate critical problems, and an overall understanding of the company's strategic objective always help the applicant stand out.