Duke Letter of Recommendations help

Question

So MQM requires me to submit 1 professional evaluation and should I choose 1 additional(optional) from someone who can speak about me in an academic setting.

I Just started my first Job in my current company(a bank) and I don't find the culture progressive enough for me to warrant asking for a Recommendation from my immediate supervisor and basically telling that I'm on my way out already. I've been strongly advised by seniors from my college who've been working at the bank to not share my plans with anyone and only tell about graduate school when I'm quitting. Given the situation I'm unsure on who to approach to get my letter of recommendation.

Here are my options:

1)A rotation supervisor: I'm a Leadership trainee so the first 3 months have been spent spent on departmental rotations and one of the supervisor(grade:VP) who I was tagged under for 2 months, is 3 years my senior from college and has helped my learning process a lot. He would be willing to write me one BUT given its merely been the rotational period there hasn't been much in terms of display of my analytical etc ability he can speak too; mostly just about my personality and professional self.

2)Faculty Patron of College Club: I served on the council of the Finance Club at college and its Patron can write me a recommendation based on the work I put into it during my term. This would include redesigning, planning and conducting a National level Finance competition and the initiative I took in it. Strong focus on Teamwork and leadership ability.

3)College Professor of Analytics: My undergraduate major was Finance and so only took 2-3 Analytics courses, 2 from the same professor. But due to large class sizes we barely got to be acquainted and while I can convince him to write me a Recc he barely knows me tbh and I'll have to tell him what to write. But given MQM is an Analytics program his recommendation would count for more given all things? Also, he's quitting the Uni and moving in January.

4)Final Year Project Supervisor: MY FYP was in FinTech and the professor who supervised me through it knows me well among all candidates in this list. But he is a finance professor and Adjunct Faculty at that too since he's pretty old(70+)

Given all the Options, I feel I should put in 2 Recommendations instead of 1 since there is no clear winner here who can take a holistic approach to it to include both professional+analytical etc abilities. 
I'm currently inclined towards going for 1&2.

What do you suggest?

Eternal · Answer

I would suggest you to go with 1 & 2.

Reason

1) Your Rotation supervisor- This will come under a Professional LOR
A Letter of Recommendation from an immediate supervisor will definitely add value to your application in terms of specific content that focuses on the your ability to work within a team, the exposure to the domain as well as your leadership abilities - all necessary to the MBA course applied for.

2)Faculty Patron of College Club- This will come under Academic LOR
A letter of recommendation provided by a faculty member of your previous institute will be able to highlight your accomplishments as a student of the course.

(I would have gone for 1 & 3 but as you say your College Professor of Analytics barely knows you, it would not be meaningful to ask him to write a LOR for you.)

tezos96 · Answer

Hey Eternal!

Thankyou soo much for your response, really appreciate it!

Just an additional query though, (2) would speak more on the lines of leadership and managerial skills as well since he was the Mentor of Our Student Finance Club and supervised our working. Academic accomplishments wouldn't exactly fit in there I suppose since I did not take a course with him. That would still suffice?

Also, given unfamiliarity (3) is likely to ask me to write the LOR myself

Eternal · Answer

Can you find anyone else who can highlight your academic accomplishments? Given the circumstances, I strongly feel that if you are able to get someone write about your academics, it will strengthen your profile.
Also I will advice you against writing a LOR for yourself as it has the possibility of backfiring. At the end of the day your recommender may get additional questionnaire to fill and it will be difficult for him/her to do that if they do not know you personally.

Posted from my mobile device

tezos96 · Answer

Thankyou once again!
Okay so, this is for Duke's MQM:Business Analytics and here's what the requirements stated on the website include:

Unfortunately, the above 4 are my only options.

Also a point to note that is that I have a pure Finance background so Business Analytics is a switch for me in a way so I need to demonstrate adaptability/eagerness to learn.

1 can talk a little on my analytical ability as the first project I undertook under him was an extensive portfolio analysis for all clients and reviewed performance of all Sales officers. 
2 can talk about my ability to take initiative and willingness to learn new things: I learned wordpress and made a website for the society over a weekend even though it was not my responsibility. (I feel this is pertinent in some ways)
3, should he write it(slim chance that he will like 5-10% only), can talk about the analytics project I undertook in his class regarding decision behavior analysis of voters at our college student council elections.(but I'm going to be talking about it in my SOP as well)
4, project was regarding fintech but nothing specifically analytical there.

Thankyou man, really appreciate it!

Eternal · Answer

So 1 is your strongest recommender in this case as a LOR from a supervisor is mandatory, if you have one. As stated in the quote a LOR from a faculty is optional if you are not able to submit one from a direct supervisor. 
Go to 1 for the mandatory LOR and that should be enough since 2 won't be able to add value to your application in terms of your academic accomplishments. Hope it helps

tezos96 · Answer

I see, makes sense.

Thankyou!!

Duke Letter of Recommendations help

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