Revitalizing Your Reference Letters

Your Reference Letters are ready to go, and you think they are fairly decent letters. Right? Well, if your reference letters sound anything like the following example, you might want to revitalize your reference letters. Here's what most reference letters say:

"Ms. Tina Allen worked for Baker Industries from 1998 to 2005. During that time, she was punctual, hardworking, courteous to everyone, and was loyal to the company. Everyone loved working with Tina.  I would highly recommend her as an employee to any company. She will work hard for you."

Does that sound familiar? Have you seen letters like these?

The problem with these letters is they add absolutely no value to the job seeker. People who have worked side-by-side the job seeker have no clue how to sell someone else. These type of letters never impress anyone.

When you ask someone to write a reference letter for you, give them specific instructions, ideas, guidelines. Let them know what you are trying to accomplish in your job search, what you are trying to sell. They can never write a powerful and impressive letter if you don't provide guidelines, help them understand what type of qualifications you are trying to sell to your audience. Here's a powerful letter:

"Dear Mr. Allen:

I understand you recently interviewed Tina Allen for a Director of New Business Development position with your company.  As CEO of Baker Industries, I worked very closely with Tina for six years on new business development initiatives that included organic growth and Merger & Acquisitions. She brought over 25 target acquisitions to my attention and we aggressively pursued ten of them, and closed four deals. These deals generated over $245 million - money we would not have realized without Tina.

Tina understands business, pure and simple. She knows how to pursue business opportunities that add value and dollars to a company. She has a huge industry network that she leverages daily to understand what is going on in the business world and in the industry, and capitalizes on the opportunities. She is the best business development leader I've ever worked with.

Unfortunately for us, Tina's husband has accepted an international assignment and will be relocating to Asia...."

This letter IS guaranteed to make people take strong interest in hiring Tina. With this endorsement, why would they NOT want to hire her?

This is a great example of a reference letter that speaks to Tina's talents. Before the  CEO wrote this letter, Tina explained to him what she was trying to sell to a particular employer.

If your reference letters don't sound as powerful as this example, it might be time to ask your colleagues to rewrite your reference letters. Even if you aren't in a job search, now would be a good time to collect several reference letters. People are very busy, and it might be better to have them in your portfolio now, instead of "crunch time" when people are too busy to help you.

JoAnn Nix, CPRW, CEIP, JCTC, CCMC, CPBS, [email protected]

Comments

[strong_com]

Те, що нас формує, до цього не можна доторкнутися, воно за межами розуміння.
Ми віддаємося любові тому, що вона дарує нам хоч якесь відчуття того, що неможливо осягнути, і здається, що ніщо не має значення, але тільки не в кінці.

Що таке любов - велике щастя або велика трагедія? Чи можна її пояснити?
Чому одні проносять її через все життя, а інші взагалі не знаходять чи втрачають дуже швидко?
Чи можливо взагалі любити все життя або краще не випробовувати цього почуття?

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Спілкування тільки українською.Багато тем для розгляду.
Цікаві співрозмовники.

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[interview preparation]

I learn from your insights,Thanks a lot.This will be noted and serve as a good example in case we will have to do a reference letter to our recent employee.