The general rule to go by is to select people who know you really really well and people who genuinely like you both in a professional and non-professional context. MBA recommendation letters that are written in excruciating detail and are filled with anecdotes to demonstrate your personal qualities are usually the most credible and impactful. The only way you can get this effect is to have people who are your biggest supporters write your MBA recommendation. A very thoughtfully written MBA recommendation letter does more than tie your overall story together, validate your claims, and help you say things about yourself that you couldn’t say directly. If an MBA recommendation is carefully done and well thought out, it tells the admissions committees that you really made a strong impression on your recommender, and it tells them that you likely have a powerful and dynamic personality (a great sign of business potential). Choosing people who know you well and who like you also increases the chances that they’d be willing to spin everything in a positive way and back you up in your exaggerations. Recommendation writers from consulting, investment banking and private equity firms tend to know how to play to the business school admissions game better than recommenders from other industries (because they’re such MBA-driven cultures), and as a result are generally very willing to consciously help you support your positioning because they are committed to getting you in.
Between the two (or three) MBA recommendation letters that you have, there are three main areas that your recommenders should address (in addition to helping you tie your whole story together): business potential (ability to listen, ability to motivate others, self-confidence, leadership qualities, sales ability, etc.), your intellect (analytical skills, written and oral communication skills, creativity, etc.), and character (morality, care for others, source of motivation, etc.). As I mentioned in a previous post, the MBA recommendation letter can be one of the most complex and challenging portions of the business school application because it has so many things to accomplish.
Other important criteria to consider in choosing who writes your MBA recommendation letter include:
- Choosing someone who can help address any weak spots or potential inconsistencies in your application
- Choosing people who are more dramatic and gung ho about life because they tend to exaggerate on the positive side of things (i.e. make you sound great even if you haven’t really excelled)
- Choosing someone who writes well. Good writing goes a long way, and bad writing even with the best intentions can ruin an application (especially if you know your recommender is unlikely to suggest that you write the MBA recommendation yourself).
- Choosing someone more senior than you. The more senior the better and the more famous the better, as long as you aren’t trading off how well they know you against seniority or fame too much (knowing someone well should trump titles). You don’t need a big wig or a famous CEO as your recommender to get you into HBS or Stanford. But, if you happen to have worked closely with Bill Gates for whatever reason, then of course use that to your advantage. If you can avoid it, don’t have a peer write your recommendation (some schools do explicitly ask for a peer recommendation). When a peer writes your MBA recommendation, it smells of “this person couldn’t find anyone to back them up, so he/she is just resorting to a friend, and this friend probably just let him/her write the recommendation himself/herself. “
- Choosing someone who can submit a recommendation on time. Too often do I hear about last minute emergencies where applicants end up submitting incomplete applications because their MBA recommendations don’t get done on time. Start early and don’t risk it!
- Finding recommenders that are alums of your target schools if possible. While this isn’t required, it does help with overall credibility.