summitbid wrote:
i did meddle with my recommendations to the extent of knowing what they put in them. my recommendations were honest about my weaknesses - my manager said i needed to deal better with conflict, need to learn more about business and strategy, and need to be more comfortable with impromptu swagger filled bullshit talk in the business environment. and oh, for what needs to be changed about me, he said i had tremendous drive, but needed to develop more patience.
so far i have been dinged 2/4 without interview calls. while i do attribute some of it to my essays, i cant help but think the recs played their part...
for round 2 i have had my honest conversations, and have asked them to dumb my weaknesses down a few notches...
"more comfortable with impromptu swagger filled bullshit talk in the business environment"
This cracked me up. My boss said the same about me, but in different words.
I don't know why someone would let the recommendation go blind without some coaching. This is a huge risk with lots to lose and what was the benefit again? Obviously there is a gray area but with good judgment you can avoid distasterous results from the stupidest misunderstanding of the process/competition (boss didn't want to sound "over the top" - I've encountered this) while maintaining integrity.
To look the other way and hope for the best seems pretty foolish to me, especially if your recommenders don't fully understand the game.