Ivey Letter of Recommendation Questions: 2024
Based upon you evaluation of the applicant’s skills and traits, what are his/her major Strengths?
What are the applicant’s major weaknesses? What efforts have been made to address these weaknesses?
Please provide your observations concerning the applicant’s collaborative skills and ability to achieve results.
Please comment on the applicant’s personal qualities considering concern for and care of others, confidence, composure, and fairness.
Ivey Letter of Recommendation Example from past clients: 1
1) Based upon your evaluation of the applicant’s skills and traits, what are his/her major strengths?
I run an educational institute, and Joe (name changed) is an important part of our faculty team. Joe’s commitment to his students and his mentorship abilities have significantly impacted the lives of many; one particular instance stands out.
A few years ago, a student named Shafana, a bright and ambitious young woman from a minority community in the southern part of Kerala, enrolled in our free classes, which we offered during our institution’s anniversary. Shafana had successfully finished attending the classes and even cleared the second-level exams of the Chartered Accountancy course, a milestone that filled us all with pride. However, her journey was abruptly interrupted when her family decided to marry her off at the tender age of 19, as is common in their community, putting her education on hold.
Understanding the potential Shafana had and the importance of her completing her education, Joe took it upon himself to intervene. His goal was to persuade Shafana’s family to allow her to continue her studies and achieve her dream of becoming a Chartered Accountant.
Joe personally visited Shafana’s family and had a heartfelt discussion with them. He patiently explained the long-term benefits of her continuing her education, not only for her personal growth but also for the betterment of the family and the community. His compassion, empathy, and unwavering belief in Shafana’s potential convinced her family to support her return to education.
With renewed determination, Shafana resumed her studies under Joe’s mentorship. Today, she is a proud Chartered Accountant working as an assistant manager in a bank—an achievement that once seemed nearly impossible. This transformation is a testament to Joe’s exceptional dedication and mentorship.
Joe consistently demonstrates excellence in teaching, making complex subjects accessible and engaging. His students benefit not only from his clear instruction but also from the confidence and motivation he instills in them. I am confident that Joe will continue to make a significant impact wherever he goes.
2)What are the applicant’s major weaknesses? What efforts have been made to address these weaknesses?
One of Joe’s key weaknesses has been time management. His enthusiasm and drive occasionally led him to take on more than he could handle effectively. For example, he began recording ACCA Performance Management and CFA Level 1 Economics topics simultaneously, which caused delays in both projects. He even had to cancel important travel plans due to these overlapping commitments, affecting the timeline and deliverables.
Recognizing the issue, Joe took deliberate steps to address it. He began compartmentalizing tasks and prioritizing responsibilities based on deadlines and impact. As a result, he now manages his time more efficiently without sacrificing quality, and his delivery timelines have improved significantly.
Another area where Joe initially struggled was providing constructive feedback to his team. While he excelled in his own work, he found it challenging to offer clear, helpful input to others, leading to occasional misunderstandings and execution issues. However, through ongoing self-reflection, feedback from peers, and deliberate practice, Joe adopted a more structured and empathetic approach to communication. His feedback is now more actionable and balanced, creating a more collaborative and productive team environment.
These improvements show Joe’s commitment to personal and professional growth, and his ability to adapt constructively to feedback.
3) Please provide your observations concerning the applicant’s collaborative skills and ability to achieve results.
Joe demonstrated remarkable collaborative skills during an incident in 2021 involving the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India’s Board of Studies. An exam they conducted contained several incorrect questions, leading to significant confusion and frustration among students. While many faculty members expressed their dissatisfaction on social media, no coordinated response was taking shape.
Recognizing the need for collective action, Joe reached out to major faculty members across institutions who taught the same subject and created a coalition of educators, many of whom were also competitors in the teaching industry. His initiative united the fragmented voices into a powerful group effort.
As the group grew, senior figures in the industry joined in. At this point, Joe, who had initiated the movement, respectfully stepped aside to allow the more experienced members to lead. This demonstrated his humility and strong team ethic—putting the cause ahead of personal recognition.
The coalition’s persistent advocacy eventually led the Institute to issue a clarification, resolving the issue and restoring student confidence. Joe’s initiative and willingness to collaborate with and empower others were instrumental in achieving a resolution. His ability to mobilize support, respect others’ leadership, and work selflessly toward a shared goal highlights his exceptional collaborative skills and his ability to deliver meaningful results.
4) Please comment on the applicant’s personal qualities considering concern for and care of others, confidence, composure, and fairness.
Joe is a deeply empathetic and thoughtful teacher. After a particularly difficult exam result season, when many students failed, the general mood was somber. While we celebrated those who succeeded, Joe turned his attention to the students who were struggling.
He proposed and launched a mentoring initiative called “Rise Again,” aimed at supporting students who had not cleared the exams. He began the program by sharing his own academic setbacks and how he overcame them, reinforcing that failure is not the end but a chance to learn and bounce back stronger. His honesty, empathy, and unwavering belief in the students’ potential were deeply inspiring.
Joe organized regular group sessions where students could openly share their concerns and receive both academic and emotional support. His calm demeanor and steady encouragement helped reduce anxiety and built a sense of hope and resilience among the students.
One case that stands out is Aman, a student who had failed twice and was on the verge of giving up. Joe took special interest in him, offering one-on-one guidance and support. With time, Aman regained his confidence and went on to pass his exams.
Joe’s ability to lead with compassion, maintain composure under pressure, and treat each student with fairness and care makes him an invaluable member of our faculty. His actions have not only helped individuals but have shaped a culture of empathy and resilience at our institution.
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Ivey Letter of Recommendation Example from past clients: 2
1) Based upon your evaluation of the applicant’s skills and traits, what are their major strengths?
Steve (name changed) has grown from an analyst supporting client projects to managing engagements independently in a short period of time. As our company has expanded quickly in recent years, Steve has played a significant role in initiating new projects and has demonstrated two major strengths: strong motivation and the ability to take initiative.
For example, in 2021, one of our clients approached us with an innovation project, seeking help in developing a go-to-market strategy. To credibly support this, we partnered with a specialist research firm. However, mid-project, it became clear that the partner firm was not delivering effectively. After a poor review meeting, the client began to lose confidence in us. This occurred just as we entered the second phase of COVID lockdowns, further complicating coordination efforts. At this crucial point, I handed the project over to Steve with full responsibility to redirect and salvage the work.
He immediately developed a revised project plan focused on recovering progress and rebuilding team morale. Steve took the initiative to understand the technology in depth and gamified the tasks to improve clarity and team engagement. The project ended up being completed on time and met all scope requirements, with the client highly satisfied with the strategy delivered. Steve managed to solve a problem that even the specialist firm couldn’t handle, showcasing his problem-solving skills.
Beyond client work, Steve has continuously volunteered for various internal initiatives, such as leading our first IT infrastructure upgrade, digitizing our library, and organizing CSR efforts. However, his most notable internal contribution has been through the Board of Arts and Sports (BoAS). Initially using his background in sports to organize a company tournament, Steve expanded this into a three-person team that now hosts cultural events as well. His energy, speeches before events, and overall leadership have made him a role model among colleagues.
2)What do you consider to be the applicant’s major weaknesses? What efforts have been made to address these weaknesses?
In terms of development areas, we are working with Steve (name changed) to help him make more targeted and impactful recommendations. At times, he lacks the confidence to trust his instincts and propose bold ideas that could create significant value.
One instance was during a project for a Fortune 500 company on building supply chain resilience. As we neared project completion, Steve scheduled a meeting with me to review the final set of recommendations for the client presentation. However, the recommendations were too generic and didn’t adequately reflect market dynamics. With only two days left before the final workshop, we had to pivot quickly.
Steve rose to the occasion. He informed the team of the need to rework, reassigned tasks strategically, and coordinated a revised analysis. After a few intense workdays, he produced a more relevant and insightful set of recommendations, which were well received by the client.
To help him strengthen this skill set, I recommended he read “Competitive Strategies” by Michael Porter. Steve took this seriously and frequently discusses concepts from the book with me, showing a genuine desire to grow.
3) Please provide your observations concerning the applicant’s collaborative skills and ability to achieve results.
I believe Steve (name changed) has demonstrated outstanding collaborative ability, particularly on a recent project involving offshore wind R&D collaborations between the UK and India.
The project required coordination across a wide range of stakeholders—our client, a government ministry in India, and more than 40 Indian supply chain companies. Steve managed these diverse interests through proactive communication and tactful diplomacy, effectively serving as a mediator to align everyone while solving complex problems.
Steve also led a large-scale webinar as part of the project, presenting to 60 participants, including dignitaries like the British Deputy High Commissioner. With no dedicated IT team and little prior experience running such events, Steve managed both the technical and organizational aspects. He coordinated with the client’s IT department to ensure everything ran smoothly.
The project culminated in a well-received report, which was officially launched at a recent Offshore Wind summit hosted by the Indian government. Steve’s coordination and people skills were essential to the project’s success and highlighted his capability to achieve results in highly collaborative environments.
4)Please comment on the applicant’s personal qualities considering concern and care for others, confidence, composure, and fairness.
Since his early days as an analyst, Steve (name changed) has demonstrated a strong sense of fairness and care for his colleagues. He frequently approached me or project managers to discuss concerns or raise issues that could affect team morale or performance, often acting as a voice for those at more junior levels.
When Steve was promoted to consultant, he began participating in management meetings concerning company culture and employee performance. One particular meeting stands out. After a company-wide survey revealed surprising results, HR began informal follow-up conversations with employees and invited managers—including Steve—to review the findings.
At the meeting, Steve quickly pointed out that some feedback might have been shared in confidence and shouldn’t be discussed without informing the team. The HR representative initially pushed back, arguing the feedback was for the team’s benefit. Steve, maintaining his composure, respectfully explained that consent was still essential and that discussing confidential comments could erode trust. He even offered a personal perspective, saying he wouldn’t feel comfortable if the roles were reversed. His thoughtful position persuaded other project managers, and we agreed to re-engage with the team transparently.
This moment exemplified Steve’s integrity, empathy, and composure under pressure. Despite being the most junior person in the room, he calmly stood by what was right, influencing the course of action through reason and fairness.
Ivey Letter of Recommendation Example from past clients: 3
1. How long have you known the applicant and in what capacity?
I’ve known Amey for around 14 months now. Amey represents Development operations & Infrastructure squad (Accenture) for British Telecom’s TV, Content Publishing Tool (CPT). The team has more than 20 people from various teams and organizations. I am the scrum master of the squad and the only representation from the client end on the squad. Amey is my first POC from the Accenture side and I keep a close track on the day to day activities and tasks performed by Amey and his team.
2. Based upon you evaluation of the applicant’s skills and traits, what are his/her major strengths?
I believe one of Amey’s personality traits or strengths that keeps him in good stead with the leadership is the way he takes ownership of his tasks.
From the very start, we have tried to use various tools and processes to reduce the effective time spent in deployments and achieve more productivity. We shared the same concern with Amey the moment he came onboard the squad as he has rich experience in automation tools and development operations.
He initially indulged in broad research over which tools and technologies should be used and how the implementation plan should be. We narrowed down on a list of multiple tools and Amey came up with a comparison matrix that demonstrated exactly how much effort and man-hours can be saved with each of these tools, which finally helped us make the right choice.
Within 6 months, he delivered the automation module for 13 components which has been proved to be a game-changer in how the squad functions. The major deployments which earlier used to take 30-60 min can now be deployed with just pushing a button. He has also got out of his way and helped a lot of non-functional testers to automate their test cases.
3. What do you consider to be the applicant’s major weaknesses? What efforts have been made to address these weaknesses?
During my interaction with Amey, one area where Amey has a lot of learning to do is his Risk assessment skills. On a lot of discussions and meetings we had regarding the system, I felt that Amey does not focus on risks involved while making decisions. As a task owner and a future leader, he should focus on improving his risk assessment and decision making skills.
For instance, on one of the projects, to further enhance our application test executions, Amey suggested that we can use the open-source automation tool called ‘Sahi’, he also mentioned that since its an open source we can save a lot of monetary budget through this. My first question to him was that if it’s open-source, it might possess a lot of security threats and I felt he didn’t keep that aspect in mind.
In a tech project which runs on a lot of technologies and server-level intricacies, even a minute risk can cause a colossal monetary damage to the company. So I decided to have a meeting and explain this to him. I tried to make him understand that Risk assessment & management is as important a phase as planning and implementation.
He took it as positive criticism and started seeking ways to improve it. Initially, I suggested to him that in order to not ignore the risk factors of any strategy, try to evaluate any strategy keeping risks involved as the first merit of it. He slowly and steadily put that into practice.
As the months passed, he became more sharp in this aspect. I remember a few months back he suggested to me that we should migrate our servers from Linux 6 to Linux 7 as Linux 6 possesses great security threats. He suggested this knowing the operating and building cost of the latest servers is more expensive than the previous one and that really impressed me.
4. Please provide your observations concerning the applicant’s collaborative skills and ability to achieve results.
Being a Devops Engineer, Amey’s task is to facilitate seamless testing in various test environments by maintaining those environments and automating the deployments of various components in those environments. Since the squad is a diverse arrangement and the members of the squad represent various different organizations, it sometimes gets a bit difficult to come over organizational boundaries and work.
The challenge double folds in Amey’s tasks as the components automated by Amey are developed by a third party organization. His major chunk of work which is automating component deployments requires an elaborate knowledge of the way a component is built and the way a component is expected to behave post-deployment. This in a nutshell means that it is imperative for him to understand a developer and a tester’s perspective.
Since the time Amey has started working in the squad, he’s made sure that a smooth communication channel is established among all the stakeholders. He also conducts a weekly requirement analysis call once a week. The call mainly has all the stakeholders within the squad wherein the complexities, challenges and prospective solutions are discussed. He also holds a forum post every release to share feedback and observations.
As a result of his eagerness to produce results through collaborative efforts, we from the client side have awarded him with the ‘Being brilliant’ Award
5. Please comment on the applicant’s personal qualities considering concern for and care of others, confidence, composure, and fairness.
In December of last year, most of the testers and developers in the squad had the opportunity to travel to the client location and work. The major concern for me was that due to the time difference from various time zones, it’d get difficult for the testers to work to their maximum efficiency as in a lot of scenarios they’d require assistance from Amey or his team.
I shared this concern with Amey and proposed that if he can work in UK hours work shift, it will help the testers to continue their tasks without much hiccups. Amey without any hesitation agreed to the plan.
As a result of his compassionate nature, even though after more than half the squad had shifted time zones, we did not face a single speedbreaker in test executions in terms of Environment and DevOps perspective.
Ivey Letter of Recommendation Example from past clients – 4
1. How long have you known the applicant and in what capacity?
In 2017, I was the team lead and direct supervisor of Amey at the Volkswagen project. Amey worked under my supervision for more than a year and in my team, he was primarily involved as a Full Stack Developer. He contributed to the active development of the portals developed by Accenture for Volkswagen.
2. Based upon you evaluation of the applicant’s skills and traits, what are his/her major strengths?
Throughout my workings with Amey, apart from his technical skills one quality that has impressed me a lot was his organizational skills. I can recall one of the occasions where we had the clients visiting us offshore. Apart from the monotonous board room meetings, we wanted to plan something that is both fun and teases everyone’s technical instincts and expertise.
Amey came up with a unique idea to organize a game ‘Technical Treasure Hunt’. This was inspired by the conventional treasure hunt but was different in the way that the participants had to find the clues/riddles that were saved virtually on various servers throughout our system.
The implementation of this was as tedious and complicated as exciting and unique it sounds. Amey assembled a team and divided them with tasks like riddle design, server management and volunteers. He also hosted the whole event. The visiting clients not only enjoyed the whole quest but also were impressed with the whole idea and implementation of it. One of the clients shared his feedback and said “The experience was immersive and enlightening”. Our clients took this idea with them and a few months later, conducted a similar quest at their work location.
3. What do you consider to be the applicant’s major weaknesses? What efforts have been made to address these weaknesses?
Amey’s particular thing that I have always advised Amey to improve upon is his task prioritization skills and how to determine which one is the most important. Initially in the team, he used to struggle with multi-tasking and can’t let go off something until it was done. Few times, when the prioritize changed within a day when some urgent report was due i found him struggling to deliver the latest asks.
I took him for a one on one discussion and expressed my concern. I told him that if he can’t compartmentalize and multitask then he needs to really get good at prioritizing his to-do list on a daily basis and cut out other distractions.
Slowly with regular practice and mentoring he understood and started learning. For the start, he made it a thumb rule to create a to-do list everyday. He also told me that he’s taken up to meditation to increase his concentration.
Over a period of a few months, I witnessed tremendous improvement. From a guy who was struggling to juggle multiple tasks, he transformed into a very well organized professional who knew his priorities and took ownership of whatever he did.
4. Please provide your observations concerning the applicant’s collaborative skills and ability to achieve results.
Amey is the kind of person who never hesitates to initiate communication and take initiatives. He has demonstrated this on many occasions where the team was low on bandwidth and needed some resources to create test cases for testing.
Ideally this prep is done by the developer who is developing the application as he best knows the expected results. We usually develop 300 test cases for every change request in order to ensure the whole system has no loopholes and errors.
On one project where our testing team was running behind schedule, Amey offered to help and prepare the test cases, he took the required initiative and worked closely with the developer involved. He even went as far as communicating with the client over client calls to get a better understanding of the use cases.
Owing to his initiative, we achieved the magic number of 300 test cases which was surprising for me as Amey had never done this task before and took complete ownership at a time when the team needed the extra hands on deck.
5. Please comment on the applicant’s personal qualities considering concern for and care of others, confidence, composure, and fairness.
As per my experience, Amey has always been empathetic and perceptive towards his team and members. In the project, We used to develop 3 different portals for Volkswagen Manufacturers, exporters and Retailers. Since these portals were entirely different from each other, we have assigned dedicated people for each portal.
Unfortunately due to some unavoidable circumstances, a member of the team had to leave the company abruptly. Since the portal he was working on was of utmost importance, his counterparts started facing relatively greater workload. So I decided to move Amey to that portal.
It takes almost 2-3 months to understand a new portal and Amey sportingly took the challenge.
In order to understand the portal ASAP, I’d often see him work post his work hours. Amey not only gained the understanding but he did it within a month. He also contributed to delivering the subsequent change request on a fast turnaround time.
