Write Amazing MBA Recommendations: How Does This Applicant Compare To Other Qualified Individuals?

The question is effectively about how this applicant compares to other people that you've seen throughout your career. To do this really well, you need to include three things.

1. First of all, you need to include your basis for comparison. So how many people of this tenure have you managed in your career? How many different professionals have you observed under similar circumstances? What is the basis by which you are comparing this candidate to others?
2. The second thing you need is to compare that candidate extremely favorably to those other people you've observed. The reason this person asked you to write their recommendation letter is because they want to be successful in getting into this MBA program and all MBA programs are looking for people who are exceptional. Now, here's the good news. They don't have to be exceptional across the board. They don't have to be the very best at everything. But in that recommendation, you want to focus on the ways in which they do excel, vis a vis the competitive set you've observed. So, if you don't believe that this candidate is truly excellent, then I recommend you break that bad news to them now and don't write the recommendation, because a bad recommendation or one that isn't fully laudatory of the candidate is actually going to do more harm than good. And hopefully you have a good relationship with this person and you don't want to damage their candidacy. So, if you don't feel like you can really speak very highly about this person, then I recommend you don't write the recommendation. Once you've decided to write it, you want to look for the gold. You want to find the few ways in which you believe this person truly, truly excels vis a vis other people you've worked with. And you can look at their performance, their potential, their background or their personal qualities. And I recommend that you really make this personal. You highlight the things that have been most valuable and meaningful to you. And in the process of describing this person, actually talk about your relationship, talk about the specific kinds of tasks and activities that you rely on this person for. The values that this person has brought that have added the most value to your professional life and that have made your job as their mentor, their manager, their collaborator, their colleague easier. So look for the gold and make sure that you're really highlighting how this person is truly awesome.
3. And then the third thing that this question needs is specific examples. The question even says that please provide specific examples. So that means that you need to illustrate the qualities that you find most valuable through concrete anecdotes, by explaining when that person demonstrated those skills, those values, those qualities, and describe it in a way that anyone can understand, even someone who's outside of your industry or your function. If you're in a very, very technical role, this can be quite challenging because the admissions committee doesn't know anything about the software or the engineering protocol or the processes that you use to reach results in your company. And that's OK. What you need to describe is what was at stake, what were the results that were produced and how did this person get to that outcome in an efficient, uplifting, powerful, inspiring and meaningful way that added value to you, the client, the project, the company, the team.