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06 Feb 2021, 14:32
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Hello all,
I am applying for B-schools.
My application advisor is STRONGLY against me reaching out to my manager and team leader on being me LOR writers. They reason that it will jeopardize my promotion and my managers will not be very comfortable since I am leaving anyway.
However, I am from Biotech, in which most junior employees pursue education after years of tenure, and I would describe my managers as very supportive to my B-school application. We openly discuss a lot of things happening in the company. What's more, some of my colleagues went to top phD or law school and they all asked for LOR from our managers. So I really don't think there is any issue here.
I need some thoughts here. Why does my advisor have such a strong opinion? Should I believe my managers? What should I do?
Thanks!!!
I am applying for B-schools.
My application advisor is STRONGLY against me reaching out to my manager and team leader on being me LOR writers. They reason that it will jeopardize my promotion and my managers will not be very comfortable since I am leaving anyway.
However, I am from Biotech, in which most junior employees pursue education after years of tenure, and I would describe my managers as very supportive to my B-school application. We openly discuss a lot of things happening in the company. What's more, some of my colleagues went to top phD or law school and they all asked for LOR from our managers. So I really don't think there is any issue here.
I need some thoughts here. Why does my advisor have such a strong opinion? Should I believe my managers? What should I do?
Thanks!!!
06 Feb 2021, 16:02
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jesliwoo:
Hello again!
I am not sure your advisor is in a position to make that call for you. You know your industry, company and supervisors better than he or she does. He or she is casting judgment on a situation in which they clearly are uninformed or misinformed.
As unfair as it may be, there are many examples in which other applicants could lose a promotion or even a job for even broaching the subject of leaving much less asking for a recommendation letter for an external opportunity. It appears that does situation does not apply to you.
So, if you are truly confident that you have the trust and loyalty to ask your supervisor to endorse you as you advance your career, ignore your advisor's suggestion and ask for them to write your letters of recommendation. The school's really do prefer the letters come from a supervisor/boss/manager, but recognize when that is not in the cards.
Good luck,
Admissionado
Hello again!
I am not sure your advisor is in a position to make that call for you. You know your industry, company and supervisors better than he or she does. He or she is casting judgment on a situation in which they clearly are uninformed or misinformed.
As unfair as it may be, there are many examples in which other applicants could lose a promotion or even a job for even broaching the subject of leaving much less asking for a recommendation letter for an external opportunity. It appears that does situation does not apply to you.
So, if you are truly confident that you have the trust and loyalty to ask your supervisor to endorse you as you advance your career, ignore your advisor's suggestion and ask for them to write your letters of recommendation. The school's really do prefer the letters come from a supervisor/boss/manager, but recognize when that is not in the cards.
Good luck,
Admissionado
07 Feb 2021, 23:19
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Hi jesliwoo:
I don't know enough about your application advisor (i.e. admissions consultant), so I will speak from the perspective of having evaluated many other admissions consultants' work over the last 15 years of working with applicants -- usually this occurs after the applicant has been rejected from business school and is looking for me to provide them with an objective "ding" analysis for their reapplication.
Again, keep in mind I do not know what may be occurring with your consultant. All I know is the brief amount of background information you have told me. So after you read what I have to say, proceed with caution. A friendly piece of advice as well, if you're bringing this up to me or any other admissions consultant in this public forum, please make sure you have a heart-to-heart with your consultant as well. it's only fair.
That being said ... read on.
In the past, I've seen similar situations occur when a consultant it's following a set script -- a blueprint or a playbook that they know works in most cases. In other words, I've seen admissions consultants who lack the depth of experience across different clients and industries to deviate from that established game plan. So instead of adapting to new circumstances that may make complete sense for the client/applicant, they dig their heels in. Some times it works out fine. For example, not letting one's manager know they are leaving is very common in the finance industry. So in cases like investment banking, it might make all the sense in the world to "hide" one's business school plans by not asking for a recommendation from a current supervisor. That applicant is virtually guaranteed to their annual bonus goodbye.
I've also seen situations where an admissions consultant won't listen to their clients (nor take the necessary time to understand the nuances unique to that client's background) because the consultant simply does not have time to deal with it. For whatever reason, the admissions consultant may be exceeding their bandwidth. (keep in mind, this can also occur if a client is extremely difficult to work with!) So again, the application advisor simply defaults back to what they know.
What would I personally do if I was in your situation?
I would have my biotech managers write my recommendations. I mean, think about it ... you already have your answer. What do I mean? You already described your current manager (i.e. biotech boss) as being very supportive of your B-school application. So this means ... DRUMROLL ... your boss already know about your plans to apply for business school. Right?
Jesliwoo, it seems to me the LOR cat is out of the bag already. So even if your current consultant is telling you not to have your current biotech manager write it, your current biotech manager already knows about it. So at this point you might as well have them write it. Because your current direct manager is in the best position to provide the admissions committee with the most up-to-date information as to who you are professionally, as well as personally.
If you look at it another way -- at this point, what good is it to have someone else write the recommendation in question? Won't it look weird (to your current biotech boss) that you are not having him or her write your letter of recommendation after you disclosed it to them that you were applying to business school and they wear supportive of it? Don't leave him or her at the LOR alter. Do you see what I'm saying? The good ship LOR has already sailed.
But perhaps it's something else. Is it possible that your current biotech boss would pretend they want to help you and then stick a knife in your back by writing a horrible recommendation? Sure it's "possible", but it's really not probable.
Most bosses in this situation would just tell the applicant that they don't have time to write their LOR and leave it at that. A boss would really have to hate the applicant to deliberately sabotage their recommendation. It's unbecoming to the point of being completely unprofessional and untrue.
Now is your boss at type of person? You know them better than anyone else in this conversation. If you have truly worked with them for any meaningful amount of time, you should know the answer to this question. from my perspective, a recommender has just as much to lose by doing something as nefarious as this is you do. What happens if you suspect that he or she undermined you like that? Your boss can bet that you would be looking for a new job after you didn't get into business school. in other words, they have a significant amount to lose as well. So if they think they can keep you working for them by sabotaging you, they have another thing coming. it would only be a matter of time.
So what's the bottom line here, jesliwoo? At a high-level, use your best judgment. It's quite possible you're facing an executive decision and may have pull rank on your consultant. It happens. If it does, it's nothing personal. At least with me it wouldn't be anyway. My 15 years of experience has taught me things like this can and will happen in any working relationship. Just be upfront and respectful about it with your consultant, and then move on to other aspects of the application.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti
I don't know enough about your application advisor (i.e. admissions consultant), so I will speak from the perspective of having evaluated many other admissions consultants' work over the last 15 years of working with applicants -- usually this occurs after the applicant has been rejected from business school and is looking for me to provide them with an objective "ding" analysis for their reapplication.
Again, keep in mind I do not know what may be occurring with your consultant. All I know is the brief amount of background information you have told me. So after you read what I have to say, proceed with caution. A friendly piece of advice as well, if you're bringing this up to me or any other admissions consultant in this public forum, please make sure you have a heart-to-heart with your consultant as well. it's only fair.
That being said ... read on.
In the past, I've seen similar situations occur when a consultant it's following a set script -- a blueprint or a playbook that they know works in most cases. In other words, I've seen admissions consultants who lack the depth of experience across different clients and industries to deviate from that established game plan. So instead of adapting to new circumstances that may make complete sense for the client/applicant, they dig their heels in. Some times it works out fine. For example, not letting one's manager know they are leaving is very common in the finance industry. So in cases like investment banking, it might make all the sense in the world to "hide" one's business school plans by not asking for a recommendation from a current supervisor. That applicant is virtually guaranteed to their annual bonus goodbye.
I've also seen situations where an admissions consultant won't listen to their clients (nor take the necessary time to understand the nuances unique to that client's background) because the consultant simply does not have time to deal with it. For whatever reason, the admissions consultant may be exceeding their bandwidth. (keep in mind, this can also occur if a client is extremely difficult to work with!) So again, the application advisor simply defaults back to what they know.
What would I personally do if I was in your situation?
I would have my biotech managers write my recommendations. I mean, think about it ... you already have your answer. What do I mean? You already described your current manager (i.e. biotech boss) as being very supportive of your B-school application. So this means ... DRUMROLL ... your boss already know about your plans to apply for business school. Right?
Jesliwoo, it seems to me the LOR cat is out of the bag already. So even if your current consultant is telling you not to have your current biotech manager write it, your current biotech manager already knows about it. So at this point you might as well have them write it. Because your current direct manager is in the best position to provide the admissions committee with the most up-to-date information as to who you are professionally, as well as personally.
If you look at it another way -- at this point, what good is it to have someone else write the recommendation in question? Won't it look weird (to your current biotech boss) that you are not having him or her write your letter of recommendation after you disclosed it to them that you were applying to business school and they wear supportive of it? Don't leave him or her at the LOR alter. Do you see what I'm saying? The good ship LOR has already sailed.
But perhaps it's something else. Is it possible that your current biotech boss would pretend they want to help you and then stick a knife in your back by writing a horrible recommendation? Sure it's "possible", but it's really not probable.
Most bosses in this situation would just tell the applicant that they don't have time to write their LOR and leave it at that. A boss would really have to hate the applicant to deliberately sabotage their recommendation. It's unbecoming to the point of being completely unprofessional and untrue.
Now is your boss at type of person? You know them better than anyone else in this conversation. If you have truly worked with them for any meaningful amount of time, you should know the answer to this question. from my perspective, a recommender has just as much to lose by doing something as nefarious as this is you do. What happens if you suspect that he or she undermined you like that? Your boss can bet that you would be looking for a new job after you didn't get into business school. in other words, they have a significant amount to lose as well. So if they think they can keep you working for them by sabotaging you, they have another thing coming. it would only be a matter of time.
So what's the bottom line here, jesliwoo? At a high-level, use your best judgment. It's quite possible you're facing an executive decision and may have pull rank on your consultant. It happens. If it does, it's nothing personal. At least with me it wouldn't be anyway. My 15 years of experience has taught me things like this can and will happen in any working relationship. Just be upfront and respectful about it with your consultant, and then move on to other aspects of the application.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti
jesliwoo
