Letters Of Recommendation: Understanding Why Other Job Applicants Are More Knowledgeable With Regards To Getting The Right Recommendation Letters
Competing for jobs and other opportunities has never been harder. Even the very best candidates have to get out there and compete. And because they are doing it so often, people are getting really good at the job search game.
Gone are the days when people worked for the same company for an entire career. Now, most people have developed an average of four completely different careers in their lifetime!
There’s competition everywhere!
To avoid being outrun by others, you know you should fight to get what you want. It’s not enough to be another good also-ran; for candidates to be successful, they must get noticed before they can ever hope to get offers.
That’s where letters of recommendation come in. With resumes, they all tend to look the same after a while, and sometimes it’s difficult to stand out from the rest.
That’s not the case with letters of recommendation. Honest opinions and observations about you by the professionals who have been with you at work are a more effective means of communicating to a potential employer about your strengths and weaknesses and what you can offer… that is, if you can get the right letter.
People are often reluctant to write letters of recommendation - even when you are more than deserving. Doing a letter of recommendation can take some time, so one excuse could be that they’re too busy. Because in reality, an effective letter of recommendation will entail a thorough understanding of the work you’re applying for.
A more common - and more embarrassing - reason managers are reluctant to write reference letters is that they don’t think they can do a good job. In fact, they fear that a letter they write will be so bad that it will make them look unprofessional, and you and the person receiving your letter will lose respect for them and the organizations they represent.
Of course, they won’t tell you that; you just won’t ever get your letter.
So what’s the secret?
Some people, though, are able to secure the kinds of letters that land jobs the rest can only dream of. How are they able to do it? Are they better or smarter than everyone else?
In lots of cases, the answer is pretty simple: They’re not necessarily smarter than you, they’re just in on the secret.
For more information, including tips, samples, and templates, please check out our website: Letters Of Recommendation
This entry was posted on Friday, January 9th, 2009 at 2:44 am and is filed under Recruitment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.