Selecting the right people to recommend you
Posted On at by About usDo they know you well enough
You don't want to go for someone who doesn't remember your name. Which is why it's always prudent to stick with immediate superiors or professors (in an academic setting). More importantly, will the university believe that they know you well enough. If the CEO of the firm where you interned is recommending you, make sure it's clear that your interaction with the recommender is apparent in the write-up. The University could very well question the credibility of a recommendation if it appears to have been manipulated.
How much credibility are they likely to hold with the university.
In academia, professors are likely to carry more weight compared to lab-assistants. In any case, make sure that the professional competence of the person recommending you is apparent.
Are they likely to give you a positive recommendation
And you want to be doubly sure of this. You may want to stay away from the unreliable ones. If necessary, approach the person and ask them upfront. Since they're likely to have written recommendations for applicants before, it's not too much to expect them to understand your anxiety. However, use your discretion in case you aren't too sure of how he/she will react.
Get some variety into your recommendations
For multiple recommendations, look out for whether the recommendations are likely to rehash the same aspects of your personality. As far as possible, get recommendations from people who've interacted with you in different situations. For example, an engineering student would be well advised to get recommendations from a professor, a lab instructor and someone like a project guide. The professor could attest to the student's keen sense of class participation. The instructor could focus on his/her skills in the laboratory and the project-guide on his/her flair for research and getting to the root of problems.
If the somewhere in rest of your application you've focussed on something like a particular project, it would be particularly useful to try and build on that by providing a recommendation from the person who guided you through that project. Likewise, if you've talked about your biggest achievement at work, how about getting your boss at the time to recommend you.
