In A Very Particular Dilemma

[cy213]

Hi everyone,

 

I am trying to receive a letter of recommendation from my boss at my current job, and he is willing to write me one. The problem is, I don't talk very positively about my current job (because I personally believe it is a shady business) on my Statement of Purpose and Personal History. He wrote me a very general letter, but I want to ask him if he can be more specific, such as addressing my motivations of pursuing graduate studies and this type of career path (I want to obtain a Masters in Public Policy). My motivation is that after working at my job and seeing how the underprivileged get manipulated by sales representatives to make poor financial decisions, I want to concentrate on Social Policy, particularly income inequality and socioeconomic policy. I want him to be a little more specific in his letter, but I am hesitant to send him my SOP and PHS. I don't want him to think I think completely negative about the business because I don't, and I don't want to get fired at my job because of what I truly think of my company. 

 

Do you guys think I should send him my SOP and PHS anyway and be frank about it? What should I do? I need advice please.

 

Oh and my first deadline is on December 5th (coming up in 6 days, so very very soon!)

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited November 30, 2013 by cy213

[danieleWrites]

He should only write about things he knows for certain. Intentions and motivations aren't things he can claim real knowledge about. He can state that you seem interested in the underlying problems of Some Thing because you always do extra research about the problems when you deal with Some Thing, but he can't say what motivates you, aside from what you tell him, and if he did say that you were motivated to pursue this path because you're interested in social policies involving inequity, how would he know that, other than your SOP and PHS?

 

The dilemma is that you want his recommendation to "sell" you to the committee, but he's not being specific. Instead of sending your SOP and PHS, give him an annotated list of things you have done while working for him that he can use as specific examples to support his general statements. You order the list by the things that would be more important to the programs you're interested in, rather than by what would be more exciting to your boss, and let human nature take it from there. Why this? What does the committee want to know about you, from your letters of recommendation? What you're interested in and what motivates you? They'll get that from your other materials. How well you work? Your scholarship? Your aptitude? The letters are someone else's judgment of your work in the field. So provide your boss with examples of your work in the field so that he has something meaningful to comment on.

[cy213]

So you don't think it's even worth sending my SOP/PHS over to him right? Whew I am relieved. The problem is... I don't work directly with my boss. I directly work with my supervisor, and my supervisor's boss is the guy who is writing me a letter of rec. You might wonder why I didn't ask my supervisor instead for a letter, since he would have more concrete examples to write in a rec letter. But I have personal reasons why I didn't ask my supervisor. Anyway, thank you for your feedback. I will definitely take it into consideration as I am trying to advise him in what I would like in the letter (in addition to what he has already written about me).

[sunpenguin]

I totally agree with daniele. Also, I think you can simply tell him, "I'm interested in working toward social policies that address socioeconomic inequality," and I bet it won't even occur to him to connect that statement with any disillusionment about your current job.