Recommenders

[isabella.a.liu]

Hi, I'm having some trouble deciding who to pick for my last recommender (out of 3) and have two questions regarding that. 1) Is it ok to ask someone who works in another part of my company but who is my co-social chair at the office to be my peer recommender? and 2) If I opted for a peer who I work directly with (instead of the co-social chair), would the schools who don't specifically ask for a peer rec prefer a direct peer or someone who I do extracurriculars with (such as the co-social chair) or someone entirely different (like another supervisor/someone more senior)?

I'd prefer to ask the same three people for all of my applications. I currently have my previous direct supervisor (the founder and managing principal of my old pe firm) and my current supervisor writing me recommendations.

The co-social chair would be a junior guy on the consulting side of my firm (I work on the banking side). While we have never worked together outside of coordinating the social events for our company, he sees me interact with my colleagues and team regularly. Appreciate any insight you may have.

[mili]

Hi,

To address your questions:

1. It is probably fine to ask a peer who works in a different part of your company, as long as they have something substantive to say about you.

2. The schools that don't request a third recommendation probably do not want a third recommendation at all - peer or otherwise. If they do ask for a third recommendation, but do not specify whether it should be peer or not, then a peer recommendation from either peer would be fine.

As to which peer you should choose, it's really difficult for me to say without knowing more about the value/light that each one would shed on your candidacy. You want your peer recommendation to show a different side of you -- ideally it would be someone outside your company who you volunteer with at an NGO or someone you co-teach a dance class with, or something like that. It seems like your peer on your team would have a lot more breadth and depth to offer, but it could be somewhat redundant of your manager's recommendation.

Sorry I don't have an actual decision for you - you'll have to decide which peer will add the most value to your application, but hopefully this helps somewhat.

Thanks,
Mili


Mili Mittal
Senior Consultant
http://www.mbamission.com

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