That’s one reason it’s important to secure superior recommendation letters when applying to graduate business school programs. If you can show MBA admissions committees that you’ve done a great and strategic job networking with impressive people who are willing to go to bat for you and to attach their names to your application, that demonstrates that you are good at developing and managing relationships.

The reverse is also true, of course. If you choose your recommenders poorly, that reflects on your ability to maintain sophisticated networks and connections. These five proven tips for MBA recommendation letters come straight from MBAs and from business school faculty and staff: (Click here to tweet this list.)

1. Be pushy and informative

When Shael Sokolowski applied to business school, he submitted recommendations from two people — the head of a well-regarded advertising agency, where he had worked, and a marketing professor from college from whom he had learned a great deal.

“In both cases, these folks had come to know me well, personally and professionally, mentored me, and witnessed my growth,” says Sokolowski, who earned an MBA from Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business in New York in 2010.

“They knew I was ambitious, and when I connected with them, I talked to them about how much I valued our relationship and noted that their assistance would help catapult me to the next stage of my career, beginning with an MBA,” says Sokolowski, who is now a group account supervisor at the marketing agency IOMEDIA.

He had to push himself to contact an individual at the ad agency who he knew was insanely busy, Sokolowski remembers.

“There’s no harm in trying. The worst scenario is no response or a ‘no’ response,” he says. “You don’t need to think big or go home either. Someone who can articulate who you are, where you’ve come from, and where you’re going — especially what you’re capable of — will do.”

2. Now isn’t the time for autobiographies

However tempting it may be, never write your own letter for your recommender, advises Shari Hubert, associate dean and director of MBA admissions at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business in Washington, D.C.

“If the person asks you to draft something for them to sign, either find another recommender or let them know that you really need for them to write it, but that you’re willing to provide them with some background information to make it easier on them to recall various projects you may have worked on,” Hubert says.

3. Don’t second-guess instructions

If an MBA program asks for only one recommendation, that means the committee only wants one recommendation letter, Hubert advises.

“If they say they would prefer not to have a professor, then do not submit one,” she says. “There are usually reasons why schools have their specific guidelines, so it’s best to always follow them.”

4. No relatives, but yes to former bosses

If you work for your family business, you shouldn’t ask your mom or dad to pen your recommendation letter, even if she or he is the company CEO, according to Hubert. “Find a client if necessary or another supervisor, non-family member,” she says.

If you don’t want your current employer to know that you are leaving the company to go to business school, it’s OK to ask a former manager to write a recommendation letter, she says.

5. Meet with your recommender

Ideally, MBA applicants and their recommenders will meet several times, so that the mentor, coach or sponsor understands where the applicant is coming from and what she or he aspires to do, says Darren  Kowitt, a Columbia University MBA and admissions consultant.

“A plan that’s been percolating and brewing for months has a mellower, more refined texture,” Kowitt says.

The recommendation letter should “strongly resemble the candidate, but in the author’s words,” he says. “Too much coaching leads to interpretations of close coordination and ghost-writing, and anything too obvious there is a blatant affront to a process whose authenticity measures are hard to enforce in anything other than a gentlemen’s agreement fashion.”

Menachem Wecker is co-author, with Brandon Withrow, of “Consider No Evil: Two Faith Traditions and the Problem of Academic Freedom in Religious Higher Education” (forthcoming from Cascade Books).

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That’s why MBA hopefuls will be glad to hear that more than 75 percent of the 211 employers who responded to a Graduate Management Admission Council survey intend to hire at least as many MBA graduates this year as they did last year.

But a promising crystal ball reading — particularly one from an interested, albeit respected, party that administers the GMAT test — doesn’t mean that MBA students will face any less of a crowded field of competitors when they search for post-graduation jobs.

To put yourself in the best possible position for beating out those competitors, here are seven things you can do while earning your MBA that will improve your chances of landing a job afterward:

1. Take an ax to your resume

MBA students and graduates often make the mistake of listing every achievement imaginable on their resume, thinking that will help them avoid being overlooked, warns Roy Cohen, a career coach in New York City and author of The Wall Street Professional’s Survival Guide. But the truth is, including so many achievements can actually make it more difficult for employers to understand why they should hire you — not easier.

“Companies and hiring managers do not want to work to figure out how you will add value and over what time frame,” Cohen says. “Make sure that your [resume] is precise in showing that you have both the experience and skills to outperform in the job and career that you are pursuing. Equally important, edit the resume to focus on removing the nonessential and distracting items.”

2. Vary the style of your resume

Each MBA student should have multiple versions of the same resume, with different styles and formats that go beyond the traditional one-pager, advises Aaron Simkovich, controller at Maranon Capital in Chicago and a Boston University School of Management MBA.

Simkovich recommends giving all of those different resume versions to a recruiting firm (if you work with one). “They should know what type of resumes worked with these companies in the past,” he says.

3. Consider a makeover (and no, we’re not talking about a resume makeover)

“If the last suit you bought has shoulder pads, then it is time to take a trip to the mall to buy a replacement,” says Roberta Chinsky Matuson of Matuson Consulting, who helps Fortune 500 companies recruit talent. “While you are there, be sure to stop by the hairdresser for a fresh new look,” she added in an interview with About.com’s Karen Schweitzer, which is chock-full of other tips for MBA job applicants.

4. Find ways to gain relevant work experience

If you know what career field you want to work in, choose internships that relate to that professional path. “The more pertinent the better, and the more recognizable a company [such as General Electric, Microsoft] the better,” says Mike Kahn, an executive senior partner at the Lucas Group focused on human resources.

“Just having any job over the summer won’t help much, though it is certainly better than no work experience at all,” he says. “When I see a resume of a recent college grad and they have no employment at all, that is a big red flag.”

5. Dive into LinkedIn

MBA job applicants should get involved in networking groups of all sorts, as well as social media sites, Kahn advises. “Be sure your LinkedIn page is robust and includes a high-quality, professional photo,” he says. “While LinkedIn is the gold standard for online networking today, keep all of your online presences a potential employer may come across professional.”

6. Learn to right write correctly

Students often take for communications skills for granted, but they do so at their own peril, because recruiters pay close attention to the written and spoken word, says Lee Igel, an associate professor at New York University’s Tisch Center and a regular Forbes contributor, who has advised senior executives at large companies.

“It seems obvious to students, because we’ve all been composing and talking for years; writing and speaking are, however, specific skills,” Igel says. “Recruiters and other executives who make hiring decisions have been telling me for years that they’re happy to discover candidates who can do one or the other. A candidate with both is like manna from heaven.”

7. Try to have fun

That’s the final piece of advice for MBA students who are job hunting from Roxanne Hori, who wrote a Businessweek article on the topic. Enjoying a job search might sound utopian, but Hori reminds students, “Business school is a unique opportunity to build an amazing network of friends and colleagues you may have for the rest of your life… Take advantage of all these things. They will enrich your business school experience many times over.”

Menachem Wecker is a former education reporter at U.S. News & World Report.

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But what’s good for the dinner table is not necessarily what’s best for developing a professional network.

Many churches, mosques, synagogues and temples of all sorts run professional networks. A search through LinkedIn groups for the terms “church” and “professional,” for example, yields 159 groups (related search here).

“Mormons like to hire other Mormons,” noted the journalist and author Kenneth Woodward in his 2007 New York Times op-ed The Presidency’s Mormon Moment, “and those who lose their jobs can count on the church networks to find them openings elsewhere.”

Woodward may be right, but singling out the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints could be misleading. Often asking neighbors in the pews — whatever the faith group or denomination — for job tips or for informational interviews is a great strategy, and a perk that is probably endemic only to faith communities.

However effective faith-based rolodexes are for landing jobs, religious networking can and should continue after one is hired. I’m not suggesting you missionize your coworkers,  just that you remain open to having a respectful conversation about faith with your colleagues.

Those conversations represent not only tremendous learning opportunities, but have also helped me develop better listening skills and learn more about some of my favorite coworkers. (How could sharing experiences about what we hold most dear do anything but bring us together?)

It goes without saying that it’s vital to be mature and respectful when discussing controversial issues in the work place, but respect and maturity should be best practices even when discussing work-related topics. “Nothing like religious blasphemy in the workplace to bring employees together,” writes Today.com contributor Michael Avila of The Office character Michael Scott.

Michael Scott is a good example of what not to do, but maybe there is a proper time for his approach to the office — a  family rather than a team. Let’s continue to be careful about respecting coworkers, but if we relaxed the politics and religion ban just a little, we have the world to gain.

Menachem Wecker writes on religion for the Houston Chronicle, amongst other publications.

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