Most marketing PhD programs require 3 letters of recommendation from people who can speak to your abilities and potential to succeed in a PhD program.
The last phrase of that sentence is key. By the time you begin seriously planning out your applications, you likely have multiple people who would gladly write a letter of recommendation for you–professors, bosses, coworkers, religous leaders, the mayor perhaps? The unwritten rule of recommendation letters is that they should all come from academics, ideally research-active professors with good publishing records and reputations. Anything other than an academic recommendation should be considered a gamble.
Who?
As mentioned, the recommender should be able to speak to your ability to succeed at research and in a PhD program. Keep in mind that they offer up their own reputation and credibility with each recommendation they write, so a recommender has no incentive to embellish a mediocre recommendation to appear more favorable for you.
The most common (and least impressive) academic recommendation is the “stamp of approval” from a professor who only knows you as a student in a class he/she taught. Even if you got a good grade, the professor can’t positively differentiate you from other students who also got good grades. Remember that marketing PhD programs generally accept fewer than 10% of applicants, so everything about your profile should be “top 10%” evidence. The professor who recommends you should have you in his/her “top 10%” mental group. You don’t get there by just getting a good grade and offering insightful comments in class. You get there by developing a real professional relationship with the person.
Some of the more common inroads to a great letter of recommendation include:
- Being a research assistant for the professor (if you have any spare time at all, I recommend volunteering to assist a professor pro bono; this is quite common)
- Being a teaching assistant for the professor (you may need to proactively approach the professor about this kind of opportunity)
- Being a guest lecturer in the professor’s class (which isn’t unrealistic in emerging topics or if you’ve become a niche expert in an area)
- Bringing the professor into relevant personal projects you’re working on (without being a “time suck”)
- Being uncharacteristically useful to the professor (your expertise fills a gap in the professor’s knowledge, you connect your professor with relevant people or resources that help with his/her research or teaching)
- Being uncharacteristically memorable (“good” memorable) as a student in the professor’s class (this could be tied to a particular project that you rocked)
How to Approach the Recommender?
If you’re on good terms with a professor, approaching him/her for a letter of recommendation may be very easy. You need to be sure that the recommendation letters you get will be good enough without pressuring or causing awkwardness on the part of the professor. I’ve always been a fan of this particular phrasing: “Would you be able to give me a strong recommendation?” The use of “strong,” shows the kind of letter you’re looking for, and lets the person off the hook if they can only provide something below that level, be it mediocre or worse. Don’t leave fate to chance by hoping that the person you asked writes a strong letter. Many students have been unpleasantly surprised by taking this route.
You should understand the commitment involved when someone agrees to be a recommendation writer, because it’s not as simple as handing you back a sealed envelope with your letter inside it. The recommender typically must write the letter and submit it electronically to every school you apply to before the respective deadlines, often dealing with different submission systems and directions (and some schools may still require hand mailed letters). Some application systems may even require the recommender to complete an additional form in addition to the recommendation letter where they may be asked to rank you as a percentile on different metrics. It’s not a simple process and it can be quite time-consuming. So you should exhibit a large degree of humility and empathy when you approach a recommender for help.
You can be of most help to a recommender by being organized and prepared. Recommenders should really have at least a month of advance notice before any deadlines and should be supplied with a list including each school and its deadline. You don’t want to take any chances, since submission systems can fail, e-mails can get lost, and life can be in turmoil for your recommender. The big key is to communicate, even if it means overcommunication, to make sure they have all of the information they need and you get everything you need.
You can also help a recommender by giving him/her any relevant information that will help them when writing the letter. This may include talking to them about your research interests, giving them your transcript and resume, providing a summary of the positive interactions you’ve had with them. You should also remind them that the point of the recommendation is to send a clear signal that you are ready and prepared to be a successful marketing PhD student and lifelong researcher. Note that you are not telling them what to write, but you are providing instructional aids. All recommendation letters are submitted in such a way that you’ll never see them anyway.
When a recommender has completed his commitment, I recommend sending an unsolicited note and a small thank you gift of appreciation soon thereafter. Chalk it up as an application expense.
Additional Thoughts on Letters of Recommendation
Consider your constraints. You may not have 3 great letters of recommendation. Depending on how much time you have, 6 months to a year is often enough time to take a relationship from zero to fantastic, especially if you volunteer as a research assistant. Express your interest in a marketing PhD early. It may open unique doors of opportunity.
Pick in order of excitability. It is better to have a no-name recommendation that sings your praises than a lukewarm letter of approval from “famous marketing professor X.” This may even mean picking an adjunct or a professor from an unrelated field. Some admissions committees may look down upon this, but if you’re content to apply with anything less than marketing professor recommendation letters, it’s a risk you’ll have to assume. I speak from personal experience that this isn’t a dealbreaker for most schools (although I would aim to have at least 2 professors from marketing or related departments like management, economics, or psychology).
*I stressed about recommendation letters. I only had one solid recommendation lined up when I finished my undergrad degree (the professor I had worked with as a research assistant). I wasn’t even thinking about professor relationships when I was getting my Bachelor’s. Through a series of fortunate events, I ended up becoming friends with a professor I had taken a class from after he started teaching the Internet marketing classes because my expertise was valuable to him. I came inches away from getting the third recommendation letter from a higher-profile marketing professor who knew me only as an A student, but decided at the last minute to approach an adjunct professor in the Mythology department who I had once been a TA and student for and who thought highly of me. (1) This is not ideal. Get tenure-track professors to recommend you whenever possible. (2) Having one recommender way outside of the norm is obviously not a deal-breaker, especially if they write well and you can coach them on what the letter should focus on. (3) Always pick whoever likes you best.