AmalK1 wrote:
Hi guys,
New to this board! Was really hoping someone on here could give me some advice:
I'm 24 years old, was previously working for JP Morgan and Citi in Private Banking and Investment Banking respectively in Hong Kong. I got laid off last year and have been looking for a job, and unable to find one. As such, I think I want to go back to B-School (ideally Columbia January intake based on my GMAT score which I plan to give at the end of August).
My dilemma is this: I've gotten hard-copy recommendations from my supervisor at JPM and at Citi respectively - they wrote nice things about me on the company letter head and signed it, so its legit. However, while looking thru the apps and speaking to some counselors, they've all told me that recommendations have to be submitted online - that you have to go into the system, and it'll send an email to your supervisors (or whoever) and they'll have to type up the recommendation online for every school I apply to. Now, my first boss has disappeared in the wild blue yonder - I don't know where he is, nor do the people I still know at the company. My second supervisor is an MD at an I-Bank, hes a busy guy, and I haven't spoken tohim in like a year - it'll be a really tough sell for me to go back to him now and say "you know that rec you gave me? well yeah I need you to go log-in to like 5 different systems and write recs for all of them after a year of not keeping in touch."
I'm really not sure what to do at this point, as I believe the recommendation letters are a very big part of the application and would sincerely appreciate any insight or advice here. I feel like a lot of people should be facing similar problems, just given the mass layoffs that have occurred over the last few years?
Thank you all in advance!
Well, recommendations are a BIG part of the process, and exactly one of the things they are checking for, is your ability to pull those fantastic recommendations. That's why a hard copy from several years ago is not really that fantastic and that they all ask specific questions and each school their own. So, they will be expecting NEW recs, even if you left five years ago, and if one person is not an option because they have disappeared, and a second wouldn't be so excited, then maybe you can find alternatives for recommenders who WOULD be excited and who WOULD take the effort.
One last note... I see you work in Banking, so really if the folks liked you, I don't think you should have too much of a problem. You managers likely all know how the MBA application systems work, and they have probably done this already, so although you DO have to choose the right people, I don't think this will be tooooooo much of a big deal for them, if you left on good terms and they liked you personally.
Let me know your thoughts,