When are you guys breaking the news to recommenders?

Question

When are you guys breaking the news to recommenders for Round 1 applications?

I'm considering mid-end August. Is this reasonable?

jallenmorris · Answer

What do you mean by "breaking the news" ? If you mean requesting LOR, I've already asked the people I want to write my letters. I've also todl them I'm applying to 4 schools and that I'll need variations of the letter for each school. The writers and I are going to sit down and discuss my background, the things they view as my leadership skills and qualifications and I'm going to tell them what each school is looking for from them. Then they will be able to write the letter. I'm not going to tell them what to write, but at least educate them on what the school is looking for.

Everywhere I've looked, the advice is always to make sure you educate your LOR writers to make sure that what they write actually helps the adcoms know more about you from a 3rd party perspective.

Everywhere I've looked, the advice is always to make sure you educate your LOR writers to make sure that what they write actually helps the adcoms know more about you from a 3rd party perspective.

Raabend · Answer

Im with J Allen. My recs have already know for about a month.

bherronp · Answer

When I was working on my app last year I asked my recommenders at the beginning of August. The main thing is to make sure check up every so often and (politely) keep on them to get the recommendations done. There were a lot of people stressed out last year as their LORs were submitted sometimes only hours before the round deadline.

I think that you need to look at when your first recommendations are due and decide accordingly. If you are going to apply to HBS R1 (which is due at the very beginning of October), you probably don't want to wait until late August/early sept. However, if your first app isn't due until late oct or Nov 1, then that is probably fine. Sooner is probably better however.

IHateTheGMAT · Answer

I think when terp says "breaking the news" he's talking about the fact that for many of us asking for reccomendations also means telling your boss you plan on leaving the company. My plan is to do it mid to late July, which basically means in about a week or two.

agold · Answer

Here's what I'm really struggling with. I know that these LORs are not really top priority items for my recommenders. If I were to guess, they will spend perhaps 30-45 minutes per recommendation. I would also guess that they will do them at the last minute (late September, early October). Considering this is the case - does it really make sense to notify them now? I would figure that a polite courtesy would be to notify them mid-end August and that gives them about a month to find a few scattered hours in their schedule to take care of these.

If I tell them now, my guess is that they will put them aside and will not even look at them until early September.

If I tell them now, my guess is that they will put them aside and will not even look at them until early September.

agold · Answer

Yes - This is exactly what I meant. Noone at the company knows yet.

isa · Answer

I knew I was going to get a raise in July so I decided I'd break the news a few weeks after. Got the raise last week, and since I plan to apply for R1 at schools like HBS, I plan to ask my recommenders at the end of this month/first week of August. I've already told one of my recommenders that I'm "strongly considering" applying for b-school this fall - didn't want to make it official b/c I didn't want to lose out on getting a bigger raise :wink:

I know though that as soon as I tell my recommenders, I can expect that my workload will increase (they'll ask for all kinds of misc projects) and that I won't get assigned any fun new clients (since they know I'm leaving). That won't be fun but c'est la vie...

navy01 · Answer

I was actually in a unique position where my recommenders where my boss's boss. So I broke the new to them and they told me not to tell anyone else including my boss. Pretty nice huh?

terp26 · Answer

just broke the news today to my 2nd recommender thanks to this thread

jallenmorris · Answer

I spoke to my recommenders about 3 - 4 weeks ago. One is a boss from my former job. He's great and is willing to help me out in any way possible. I'm not asking for a LOR from my current boss as I've only been in this job a short amount of time and he's an idiot. I have an absolutely crappy job and it's so hard to get motivated for this job, especially since we're doing our job with one arm tied behind our backs and he's the reason it's not changing....PM and I'll provide more details if you're really interested in a case study of a bad manager.

I have a co-worker here that will write one for me and another LOR from a former business partner of mine.

I have a co-worker here that will write one for me and another LOR from a former business partner of mine.

kryzak · Answer

I looked for recommenders in late June of last year. I gave them a package to educate them around late August and gave them 6 weeks to do it. Of course they procrastinated until 1-2 weeks before the due date, but because I gave it to them so early and told them about my expectations, they had no excuses for not working on it the 1-2 weeks before the recs were due. That is the benefit of giving it to them early even though they won't do much until a few weeks beforehand.

Also give yourself 1 week to prepare the "education" package. It actually takes a bit of work depending on what the recommenders ask you to do. Mine wanted me to list all the examples of what I've done to "refresh their memory" so they can write the letters.

sarzan · Answer

I'm in the same predicament as jallenmorris.

I will be asking my manager from my former job for one LOR, and one from my graduate school supervisor.
My immediate boss in my new job is a complete idiot. Her boss, however, is great. But I am not as involved with him, and I am worried that he won't really have much to say about me. Thats why I am thinking of going to my boss from my former job, which I resigned from about 14 months ago.

Now my question: even though schools say they don't mind us asking former bosses to write LORs, would they ever question why I wasn't "gutsy" to ask my present boss? Would I be held at a disadvantage?

fatb · Answer

I am in a similar predicament here in the sense that I am not even 1 year into the current job yet, but am preparing for bschool applications for next fall already.
In this sense, I am not sure if it is a good thing to let my supervisor know... being that I am still quite new for him to write anything constructive about me.....

I am, however, thinking about letting a few of the clients and a former boss to write me the
letter of recommendations, though..... Wondering if that'll be a good idea....

The recommendation part really is the hardest besides the essays, in my opinions....

sarzan · Answer

whom would you guys think would be a better recommender:

1) grad school supervisor: famous in his own realm, chairperson of the department.

2) former client: pretty high up, but was a client of mine from my previous job.

agold · Answer

If it's one of 2 recommendations - #2.

If it's your 3rd recommendation and you already have 2 professional ones - #1.

sarzan · Answer

It would be my second LOR. My first would be from my former boss. I don't want to ask my present boss because a) I'm new here, 2) she's an idiot although her boss is cool, and 3) I'm still friends with my former boss and may even guide him more comfortably.

Well terp06, I'm kind of surprised you would think a client would be better than a famous academic. Would you mind explaining why? Anyone else with similar/different opinion?

Cheers

agold · Answer

The recommendations are meant to convey information about your work habits, leadership, etc in the workplace. Your transcripts and GMAT scores will do the talking when it comes to displaying your academic qualifications and showing that you would be academically successful at B-School.

riverripper · Answer

I talked to my recommenders in August about it. Gave them the packet of materials a little later (a few weeks).

agold · Answer

Just broke the news, and it went really well. My boss supports my plans 110% and said he will do anything he can to help out in the process. Big load off my shoulders

When are you guys breaking the news to recommenders?

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