Selecting and briefing recommenders is an important piece of your strategy.
Once again, put yourself in the shoes of the committee and ask: What are they looking for? What questions do they really need answered that only the interview can answer? What information can they not get any other way?
What they need from the reference, specifically, is to know that there are serious, ranking people in the business world ready to go on the record and vouch for you. Getting this second and third opinion from the business world spreads the risk and helps safeguard the committee against accepting the wrong candidates.
Just as Adcom relies almost exclusively on the GPA and Gmat to judge you academically, they rely on your referees to judge your professional performance and potential. In fact, they have almost no other way to judge you profession- ally other than via referees. Therefore, while it is nice if your reference is about values and character issues, the essential point of the reference for Adcom is the referee’s judgement of you at work.
Who to pick
Given the clear professional demand on your references, it is obvious that they should come primarily if not exclusively from the workplace. The ideal referee 28 STRATEGY FOR THE ADMISSIONS PROCESS
is someone at your company who has supervised your work and knows you well enough to rate your professional qualities and performance. In other words, the referee should be your current work supervisor (if not, the committee will be asking themselves ‘why not?’) or someone else you report to, or used to report to. Your referee should, obviously, be an enthusiastic supporter of your candidacy.
This is one of the places in the MBA application where if you duck the requirement it will be obvious. If you go to a friend of your parents, or your old swimming coach, or Uncle Bob, it will seriously hurt you. It is not problematic to have all recommenders from the workplace, but it is a grave problem not to have any references from the workplace. (If you are asked for three referees, the third one can be the swimming coach or some other soft-touch character testimony.)
Academic referees
It is very tempting, especially if you are relatively fresh out of college (and nobody at your office particularly notices you or really knows you), to go back to your favourite professor-mentor. Don’t do it. All it says is that you haven’t impressed anyone since college. Also, an MBA does not lead to an academic career, so there is a limit to how effectively an academic referee can judge your potential. You do not need any testimonials to your academic merit beyond your GPA and Gmat score.
Eminent and celebrity referees
Resist the temptation to seek a reference from the most well-known person you know, or the one with the highest sounding title. If you get a reference from the president of Accor, or your father’s friend who is on the board of Citibank, the alarm bells will ring and the committee will ask: How well does this person really know you or your work? But if this referee really does interact with you often enough to competently answer the detailed questions on the form, then there is no problem. Bottom line: the committee wants referees who really, personally, know you at work.
Priming referees
It is accepted practice that you give your referee a copy of your essays, résumé and any other relevant information so that they can write something that harmonizes with the thrust of your application. It is not considered acceptable for you to write the recommendation yourself – although many referees will wave you away and tell you they are too busy, and make you do your own first draft.
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The ethics are up to you, but if you get the chance to create the draft you can certainly use it to define the terrain you want covered and create congruence between what the referee says about you and what you say about yourself in the essays. It is not important that you write glowing praise about yourself, but it is to your advantage if you can define the topics and scope of the statement.
The other advantage of being active in the first draft is it gives you the opportunity to create detailed, concrete observations and stories in your refer- ence (as you will do in your essays). If your referee writes in lazy generalities and banalities, not only will you lose the reader’s interest, but you will appear no different to every other candidate and, worst of all, it may seem that the referee doesn’t really know you well enough to make a detailed case in your favour.
Your reference should:
• be congruent with your profile, positioning and goals, as stated in other parts of your application;
• augment your candidacy and reinforce your positioning by endorsing your claims or by anticipating and commenting favourably on any apparent weakness;
• enthusiastically anticipate your potential and endorse the validity and achievability of your career goals;
• avoid generalities and platitudes, and be as specific and detailed as possible, giving examples;
• comment positively on weaknesses or areas where the committee may have unanswered questions;
• include at least one criticism or cautionary point (the best kind of weakness is one that a good MBA experience will fix).
Referee fatigue
Schools each have their own specific reference forms, with their own specific questions and checkboxes to be filled in. Each one insists that referees use the dedicated form – it focuses the referees’ attention on the specific questions Adcom wants answered and makes comparing candidates easier. This requirement will inevitably get you into an awkward situation with your referees, who obviously prefer to write one letter for you and send it to all concerned. There is no simple way out of this headache. You will have to judge how many times you can ask your referees to go the extra mile before tolerance wears thin. Referee fatigue is probably the single biggest limitation to the number of schools you can apply to.
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Learning from the questions
One way of knowing what a reference should say is to analyse the reference forms that schools issue. The form below, from Columbia, is typical of the forms schools use and telegraphs their main concerns. You can reverse- engineer it to see the kinds of questions – often unstated – that the referee should be addressing for every school.
1. What is your relationship to, and how long have you known the applicant? Is this person still employed by your organization? (Yes/No) If ‘No,’ when did he/she depart?
(e.g., August 1999)
The referee must confirm how well he or she knows you. This tells Adcom how heavily to weigh the opinion that follows.
2. Provide a short list of adjectives which describe the applicant’s strengths.
The referee should underline your strength and value as a candidate. These should be strengths relevant to an MBA and post-MBA career. They should dovetail with what you said about yourself in the essays.
3. How does the applicant’s performance compare with that of his or her peers?
The referee must make a comparative judgement. Not just that you are good, but that you are better than most.
4. How has the applicant grown during his/her employment with you? Please comment on the applicant’s maturity.
The referee must address your professional growth and likely trajectory, and how ready you are for an MBA at this point.
5. Comment on the applicant’s ability to work with others, including superiors, peers and subordinates. If the tables were reversed, would you enjoy working for the applicant?
The referee must address your team and group skills, and likeability.
6. In what ways could the applicant improve professionally? How does he/she accept constructive criticism?
The referee must deal with your weaknesses and career needs. The faults and lacks should broadly be the kind that an MBA will help to fix.
7. How well has the applicant made use of available opportunities? Consider his or her initiative, curiosity and motivation.
The referee must talk about your initiative, drive and ability to be a self-starter.
He or she should also talk about ability to weather obstacles.
8. Comment on your observations of the applicant’s ethical behavior.
The referee must explicitly deal with ethics and values.
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9. What do you think motivates the candidate’s application to the MBA program at Columbia Business School? Do you feel the applicant is realistic in his/her professional ambitions?
The referee must comment on your goals and reasons for doing an MBA. They must judge that it is likely that you will achieve the goal(s), and that an MBA will help this.
10. Are there any other matters which you feel we should know about the applicant?
The referee should use this space to sing any praises that did not fit into a prior question.
Here is another set, from MIT, which shows a similar and overlapping pattern, even though the questions themselves are different.
1. How long and in what capacity have you known the applicant?
As in the case above, the referee must say how well he or she knows you. This tells Adcom how heavily to weigh the opinion that follows.
2. How does the applicant stand out from others in a similar capacity?
Similar to questions 2 and 3, above. The referee should underline your strength and value as a candidate, with a particular emphasis on why you are unique.
These should be strengths and uniqueness relevant to an MBA and post-MBA career and should dovetail with what you said about yourself in the essays.
3. Please provide an example of the applicant’s impact on a person, group or organization.
Adcom is seeking the referee’s corroboration of the fact that you are the kind of person who ‘makes a difference’.
4. Please provide a representative example of how the applicant interacts with other people.
Similar to 5, above. The referee must address your interpersonal, group and team skills, using examples.
5. Which of the applicant’s personal or professional characteristics would you change?
Similar to 6, above. The referee must deal with your weaknesses and career needs. The faults and lacks should broadly be the kind that an MBA will help fix.
6. Please tell us anything else you think we should know about this applicant.
Similar to 10, above.
In other words, taken together, the reference questions posed by various programs reveal Adcom’s agenda for references in general. Even if the reference does not ask a particular question, or does not ask questions at all (allows a free letter format), the referee should still, broadly, follow these signposts.
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