necessary to have recommendation from current supervisor?

Question

hi guys just wondering if anyone can help me out. im just wondering how important is it to have one of your recommendations from a current supervisor. 

RIght now my plan is that I will have just barely finished 2 years of full time work experience by january, and i plan on applying to only two schools for next year: MIT and Carnegie Mellon. i may not get into either of these two because my GPA was not all that great. But I wanted to apply to these two anyways since they are quantitative schools and I have a quantitative background (did a triple major in economics, applied statistics and computer science). I basically want to keep my options open because after next April, I will have finished my waiting period and will be able to apply to other internal positions within the bank that i work for. 

and then if I end up not getting into either of these two schools, i figure i will apply next year (for sep 09) to other schools. 

I was thinking that for MIT and Carnegie Mellon this time around I would not ask my current supervisor for a recommendation and instead get my recommendation from my internship supervisor plus one from either my tutoring boss or a coworker at my current job. just because i dont want to tell my current supervisor that i am applyign to mba schools and she may not end up giving me a good recommendation. especially knowing that i would leave this job then. i figured i could ask her for my sept 09 applications if i was to apply then, because at that time, i probably wouldnt be working for her. 

so just wondernig basically what you guys think o fmy strategies so far, and how important you think a recommendation from a current supervisor is. none of these two schools have a section where they ask if you did not get a recommendation from your current supervisor, please explain why. thanks so much guys, any advice will be great.

dabots · Answer

you dont need to have a rec from your current supervisor, but i think the replacements you mentioned are not great. schools want managers that have worked closely with you in a full-time position, so a manager from an internship will pale in comparison to the recs of other applicants. recs from tutoring or a co-worker may be ok as an optional 3rd rec, but i dont think they are good for the standard 2 required.

usually those who do not get their current supervisor to write a rec approach a client or former full-time supervisor to write it. do you have projects managed by somebody other than the supervisor you mentioned?

riverripper · Answer

Did you read the sticky, I think we covered this several times before. Schools want a supervisor, they prefer current but a past is acceptable. They DO NOT want to cost you a promotion, raise, bonus, and esp. your job. You need to address why you didn't use your supervisor in the optional essay though.

https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/t51341

gmatclb · Answer

Actually we didn't cover that in the thread. I asked in the 7th post on the second page, but no answer...

Regardless, I don't think it's a big deal. I just said that I didn't want my supervisor knowing my plans. I provided another person who should be a good substitute for my supervisor.

I think they use it to see if everything makes sense. Most people apply because they hate their job and/or their jobs are going nowhere. (no promotion or raise) And if the supervisor sends in a glowing recommendation that makes the candidate look like a superstar, but the candidate hasn't received any promotions or raises, then it raises a red flag.

riverripper · Answer

wow how has this not been covered before. At every event schools talk about this. I think they are very understanding but it might be a big benefit to get your boss to do it for a few reasons. It shows your committed to the process and it shows at this moment in time your superiors believe you are ready. 

I know after it came out that I was going to be applying another engineer thought it was a good idea and asked one of the same people who is doing my rec and he got a "why don't you wait a year." Basically our manager did not think he was ready and thus wasn't willing to give him a rec. He didn't sink the kid though, he told him that he hasn't really had any leadership chances and that he will be able to give him a much strong rec next year after he proves himself. 

By getting my supervisor and senior manager to give me recs I have pretty much gone all in on the process. Both are very supportive of my goals but at the sametime I know a few other managers around our department that think mine is crazy for helping me to basically leave. Its all a function of how well you know them and how you think they will react. I knew both would do it, I didnt realize my manager would basically talk to me about it every few days, saying how great of a plan it was and I would do great things...going on to joke that I should hire him in a few years. That really did boost my confidence in the whole process.

gmatclb · Answer

I have another thing. My supervisor basically asked my to write the letter. This was last year. So this year I asked somebody else.

Would this be a valid reason? It could show that I'm ethical.

But on the flipside, it could show a lack of persussion on my part or him not showing me much respect.

gmatclb · Answer

I'm not in your position, so I can't really sense the underlying motives, but 1 thing is for sure. BS is everywhere in business in terms of promotions, raises, bonuses, and especially these rec letters.

It could be that this person is not ready, but it could also be that they don't want to lose another person so soon after you left. My hunch is that they don't want people to think these rec letters will be spit out for everyone. Not necessarily because they think this guy is not ready.

aurobindo · Answer

My thoughts!

riverripper · Answer

Honestly, I think since I had given them a huge package for the rec letters...what schools want and what not. And the recs with the check list they didnt think he had enough experience. He only has a couple years and most of that was waiting for security clearance and in class getting qualified for stuff.

What he does is really slow so they wouldnt miss him too much because there are like 8 people doing the work 3 or 4 could. I was afraid they wouldnt do mine since the other experts in my systems just left but they were cool about it still.

helg · Answer

How exactly are you going to achieve this goal? Do you plan to write an optional essay like "last year my recommender asked me to draft my own reco, I saw this as not ethical, and I refused and as a result I got a cr@ppy reco, so this year I will not go to the same recommender thus I am ethical"?

aurobindo · Answer

river, we were just mentioning it as a possibility. Sorry if my comment touched a wrong nerve. I guess my day to day experiences made me a bit cynical.

gmatclb · Answer

Yes, just a possibility. But we don't work with you, so we don't know the x factors.

 



Either way, it makes me look bad. They'll think I don't have persuasion skills and my supervisor doesn't like me/have enough faith in me to spend time to write a letter....

But really it's none of that. Some people are just lazy.

riverripper · Answer

I wouldn't say that they wanted you to write it since that could come across as they dont think enough about you to bother writing one for you. Yes you may come across as a person with integrity but then again they may think your boss doesn't think that highly of you.

MBAbot · Answer

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necessary to have recommendation from current supervisor?

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