Vanderbilt Owen Letter of Recommendation Questions
- Please provide a brief description of your interaction with the applicant and, if applicable, the applicant’s role in your organization. (Maximum word count: 50 words)
How does the performance of the applicant compare to that of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? (E.g. what are the applicant’s principal strengths?) (500 words)
Describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant’s response. (500 words)
Is there anything else we should know?(Optional)
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Vanderbilt Owen Letter of Recommendation Example – 1
1.Please provide a brief description of your interaction with the applicant and, if applicable, the applicant’s role in your organization. (Maximum word count: 50 words)
I was Shreyti’s immediate supervisor in her first role as an internal recruitment and redeployment analyst at Accenture. Though we have moved to different roles, we still continue to exchange ideas around different HR initiatives.
2. How does the performance of the applicant compare to that of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? (E.g. what are the applicant’s principal strengths?) (500 words)
Shreyti has been one of the most proactive individuals I’ve worked with so far. Since she was hired directly from campus, there was a lot to learn and she came up the curve very soon. Not only was she eager to understand the processes in-depth, she also sought out more responsibility to add value outside of her portfolio. She was an SME in managing the entire employee transfer process on her own and completing close to 250+ transfer cases while coordinating with different stakeholders from compliance, onboarding and downstream teams. Just after 3 months of being in the role, she even stepped-in to back-up a senior employee in her absence and seamlessly carried out her responsibilities.
One of her biggest strengths, though, is her willingness to take initiative. For instance, after understanding how different teams interact in carrying out a single transfer, she worked tirelessly to come up with solutions – like, auto-tagging internal applicants on the tool for easy flow of traffic, reducing bureaucratic dependency and redundant processes – to make the process easier and less transactional for everyone involved. She took ownership to get the leadership buy-in for implementing those solutions and to create a strong roll-out strategy and the revised process helped us in bringing down the overall lead time by 50% and we were able to take on more initiatives internally because of the extra bandwidth.
3. Describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant’s response. (500 words)
In the initial months of her tenure with our team, like other fresh hires, she was also trying to prove her mettle. However, this often meant that she would try to manage and solve things on her own instead of seeking help. This sometimes led to delays and situations becoming critical. For instance, in one of her initial cross-entity transfer cases, she came across a hurdle when the individual failed to meet our eligibility criteria. Instead of seeking help from her superiors, she tried to solve the issues on her own without highlighting the risk. The case ended up escalating.
When I gave her this feedback, she put her side across calmly and sought to understand ways in which certain steps could have been managed differently.
Post that not only did she ensure that she kept her stakeholders informed in a timely manner about the progress of her deliverables, she even took ownership of scheduling bi-monthly governance calls with different stakeholder groups to ensure that risks were managed proactively and effectively. She did not just come with problems, she ensured that she also suggested probable solutions and then adjusted her approach after taking in other’s perspectives into account.
4.Is there anything else we should know?(Optional)
She received a lot of recognition for her contribution in the team, especially as a Talent Mobilizer. This recognition is given directly by the employees through a centralized survey. Shreyti’s ability to relate to people at a deeper makes her a valued member of any team.
Vanderbilt Owen Letter of Recommendation Example – 2
1.Please provide a brief description of your interaction with the applicant and, if applicable, the applicant’s role in your organization. (Maximum word count: 50 words)
Siddartha joined Accenture 2.5 years ago. As a Senior Software Engineer, I have visibility of his work and know him as a professional. He got trained in SAP ABAP technology and started his career working as an Application Development Associate under Microsoft project. I also oversaw his promotion to the Application Development Analyst. He is highly motivated and driven by a fantastic passion for success
2. How does the performance of the applicant compare to that of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? (E.g. what are the applicant’s principal strengths?) (500 words)
Siddhartha has been a core team member for over 2.5 years, being the only one with exposure to different SAP areas within the business unit. He is a highly valuable asset to the team because of his high visibility and exposure to different functions in the delivery process. While he is very structured and has a logical mind that enables him to think of creative ideas, I believe his crucial differentiator is learning and adapting quickly and taking complete ownership of his workstreams. If I give a workstream to Siddartha, I can be assured of the stream being delivered professionally.
One of the most significant and longest-running projects my team has worked on is MDM (Master Data Management) for client Microsoft. Siddartha was involved in this project for the past year, and he was given a small project portfolio to lead. He showed great maturity in taking ownership of the full end-of-sector delivery. He developed an in-depth understanding of the client’s business model and collected data points that helped him provide specific information on how to improve the technical performance of the client’s system. He also suggested steps for improvement they could take. Based on this small field, I received a very positive response to his work from the client.
Additionally, Siddartha is occupied with high severity incidents. While it took some time for him to understand the delivery objectives in the first few weeks of his career, he was proactive in seeking support from seniors to address customer issues and queries on time, allowing him to understand the business flow and get a broad idea on key pain points in the project.
When users faced problems related to case management strategies, which Siddartha was totally unaware of, he learnt those strategies within time constraints and communicated his solutions in an accurate and precise manner. Once he understands and grasps a new concept, he ensures he shares his learnings with the team , which also promotes an open learning environment in his teams. Clients & leads appreciated him for resolving users’ issues and also exploring different modules in his area of work, he was awarded the “Rising Star” at the Pinnacle Awards 21 in the 2020-21 financial year.
I believe an MBA will give him a strong business foundation, and I definitely see him leading a Business Unit a few years from today. He already has the work ethic, a positive mindset, and the soft skills of a future business leader, and I would strongly recommend an MBA from Vanderbilt Owen to Siddhartha. He would be an excellent addition to the class.
3. Describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant’s response. (500 words)
In general, Siddartha is a great performer, but everyone has their learning curve. We have a continuous feedback loop going into all teams; with Siddartha, the communication is always open and two-way on what is good and what needs improving..
In one instance about two years back, in a few of his initial engagements with clients, Siddartha had difficulty handling deliverables such as monthly trackers, managing the project scenarios, etc. On discussing further with him, we found that most of the issues were due to incorrect understanding of the requirement and communication gap with the customers.
I knew Siddartha is great at taking ownership of the task and running with it until the desired result is achieved. But, he also lacked some project management skills & awareness about quality control measures we have dealt with before on particular incidents; we included these as development areas in his performance appraisal as stepping stones to the next role. I gave him constructive feedback and told him to seek the guidance of other senior team members to improve the quality of his deliverable solutions, as this is not about learning technical tools anymore.
He immediately took cognizance of the situation and sat down with me to make an improvement plan.
In the following weeks he would persist on getting my timeshare, frequently bringing past project problems asking the approach we took in solving them at the time. I remember seeing him doing the same with other senior team members. Within no time he was able to action on the feedback provided to deliver highly structured project plans and follow them up with follow ups and stringent quality checks.He created issue trackers where short and long-term mitigation plans for each issue were designed and adhered to and started having cadence calls with the customers to understand their requirements better and update them on the project progress. His efforts have increased the accuracy of his team’s deliverables as well. From that time onward, he has made sure to ask for help from other people, including myself, in case of some issues, and he has managed to lead projects more effectively and get things done before deadlines. He has continued with the principles ever since, and the practice has become a tool in his armour.
With the MBA at hand, I am sure he will outperform his peers and set examples, like he has been until now.
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