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Hi,

I had a quick question...
When writing about strengths and weakness, is it better to write about the same attributes that my recommendor writes about or should I try to talk about something else and try to add more information to my essay?
for example - If I know that my recommendor is going to talk about my leadership skills and teamwork, is it better if i stress on the same points in my essays or should I talk about other attributes like and reliability, motivation, determination etc?
With such limited space, I feel like I am wasting space talking about the same things again but I also feel like it might be necessary to underline the same features...

Also, does it look bad if both my recommendor mention the same thing as my weakness?? I plan on adressing this in my essays as well...

I am quite confused....

thanks for the help!!

Hello,

Both. And it depends.

This may seem like an inconclusive answer, but that’s because there is no one answer. First, the traits of leadership and teamwork are so important that they should be discussed by both you and the recommender. However, they’re very general. What kind of leader are you? What is your particular strength as a team member/player? There can be a lot of variety within those qualities, and whatever you and your recommender(s) write in that regard should be presented (to the extent possible) via actual, concrete examples.

It’s nice when the recommender sheds some new light on you (I suggest that you and your recommenders review the online article “10 Tips for Recommenders”). That could be done by discussing different qualities – so if you are going to emphasize, say, vision or initiative taking, your recommender could focus on your creative problem-solving. It also could be done by using different examples. If you both were to discuss initiative-taking, you could use different examples. So if you use an earlier story and your current manager uses a recent story, then that conveys consistent initiative, which also is advantageous.

It’s okay for the recommenders to discuss the same weakness, but I suggest they frame it or word it somewhat differently.

As you can see, keeping a holistic view will help you determine how to present your material and guide your recommenders.

Best regards,
Cindy Tokumitsu
Senior Editor, Accepted.com
www.Accepted.com

Thanks for the input!!