pbodine wrote:
Blayze,
Sounds like you are in the lucky position to get two meaty reco letters from supervisors in your current office. I would get letters from *both* of them, but I would guide them to avoid discussing the same stories. If your schools will let you submit three letters then make your third letter your direct supervisor in your previous job or someone who can speak about your leadership/impact in your current extracurricular commitment (if relevant). Obviously, an enthusiastic letter from a CEO is a good thing if he knows you well and if the examples he gives demonstrate that you've had impact on the firm.
Good luck,
Thanks for the feedback. The reason I posed the original question is because I have two other references I want to use. One is a direct supervisor from the private equity firm I worked at prior to my current role. I spent my first two years post-undergrad there, so I feel it may be an important piece of professional career to exclude. The other is the managing director of a non-profit that I have been heavily involved with for 6 years. I feel he's a mandatory reference because he would be my only non-work related reference and he's my only "leadership" reference. So in my mind, it boils down to:
1) CEO + Direct Supervisor at current firm (Senior VP of Strategy and Corp Dev.) + Managing Director at non-profit
or
2) CEO + Managing Director at non-profit + Direct Supervisor at Private Equity Firm
or
3) Direct Supervisor at current firm + Managing Director at non-profit + Direct Supervisor at Private Equity Firm
or
4) CEO + Direct Supervisor at current firm + Direct Supervisor at Private Equity Firm
It's a tough decision... I was originally leaning towards choice 2) mainly for the breadth of different perspectives as well as the "star power", but the other options sound good as well. I had never actually considered getting two references at my current corporation... but now that you bring it up, I think it merits consideration.
Given these options, which would you recommend? Note that if I went with Option 2), then it would still be my direct supervisor writing 90% of the letter with the CEO's final edits and signature. Thanks for your thoughts Paul!