|
 |
Recommendation Overview
by
ResumeEdge.com
- The Net's Premier
Resume Writing and
Editing Service
I. Letter of
Recommendation for
Job-Searching
Letters of
recommendation are
convenient substitutes
for work references:
they neatly sum up a
previous or current
employer's perspective
and allow prospective
employers to avoid the
sometimes awkward and
vague conversations that
result from
interrogating references
over the phone about
your strengths and
weaknesses. In addition,
such letters help
prospective employers to
skirt the difficulties
of reaching a reference.
Finally, they are also a
great advantage for the
job-seeker, because they
offer concrete,
credible, and readily
available evidence of
past accomplishments and
abilities.
If you have been laid
off but left the company
on good terms, a letter
of recommendation will
provide prospective
employers with a
credible, thorough
account of why you had
to leave the company --
for instance, if the
layoff was part of a
general downsizing
II. Letters of
Recommendation for
Applications
Most
undergraduate and
graduate school
applications require two
or three letters of
recommendation.
Depending on whether you
are applying to an
academic program or
professional degree--
for instance, business
or law school -- these
letters should come from
former or current
professors, employers,
or supervisors who are
familiar with your work
and performance.
For academic
applications, letters
from teachers or
professors are generally
preferable to letters
from employers.
Admissions officers are
looking to supplement
their knowledge of your
academic performance and
aptitude -- gleaned from
your transcript and
standardized scores --
with concrete evidence
that you are a dedicated
and enthusiastic
learner. Remember: most
schools nowadays
recognize the value of a
dynamic, diverse student
body and are thus eager
to fill their spots with
candidates who have been
actively engaged in both
academic and
extracurricular
activities. These
letters should reflect
not only your
participation and
performance in the
classroom, but also your
initiative (for
instance, through
research projects
undertaken with the
professor, through
leadership in group
activities, and through
active contribution to
classroom discussions).
If you are applying to a
PhD program, make sure
that at least two out of
the three
recommendations come
from people within your
field (or from a field
that is closely related
to the one you are about
to enter. for instance,
you might have a letter
from a political
scientist for an
application to a PhD in
Sociology, but you
better have a real good
reason to include a
letter from your
Medieval Poetry
professor if you are
hoping to enroll in a
doctoral degree in
Biochemistry). |