Thank you Jon. I appreciate it.

When I applied, I had both my manager and my vp sit in a room with me as we talked through how we would approach this. I know that not many people are in the same situation but I found it to be incredibly helpful. We didn't talk about stories that they could write about, but we talked about overall themes that they would cover. I didn't think too much about the examples in my essays and what they would write about because I didn't know the exact questions that they would be asked. In addition, I knew that I would be writing from a different perspective from their perspective so I figured it would be okay if there was some overlap. You have to remember that something that you find to be your most important accomplishment may not be what your boss thinks is your most important one. For instance, I do remember talking about one of my essays and how I worked on an ongoing initiative - which had a positive outcome. My VP said that while that example was important, she thought that this other projected that I initiated had a better impact from her perspective because it was something that impacted her position in dealing with her boss. From an AdComs perspective, I wouldn't expect an applicant to be able to give that additional perspective him/herself, but it's incredibly valuable to see that side of the things. So those are the things that I think people may miss out on if they coach their recommenders TOO much.

Thank you very much Richard.