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Letter of Reference, or Letter of Recommendation

Definition, Explanation

In an application for a job, today, it is advisable to add a letter of recommendation, or letter of reference, instead or besides the certificates of former employments. Some companies explicitly ask for such. However, especially self-employed and working-starters do not have any letters of reference by any former employers. Freelancers who have been working as programmers, advisers, architects, or event managers, can get letters of reference written by their clients or by project team members. University graduates can get letters of reference from professors who have been supervising their final theses, or who they have been assisting, or done a workshop with while performing extraordinarily.

A letter of reference can prove a certain former activity. It is not formally restricted in any way and thus quite individually designable.

"Freiberufliche" and self-employed should also try within their marketing to get reference documents. Such work splendidly when exposed on the company website, showing new customers how others have rated or experienced the service. Along with such reference quotes, of course, one has to specify the names of the authors.

Reference documents, besides, are even requested from applicants for (further) educational training by some institutes, e.g. for the study programme of MBA.

Contents of a letter of reference:

• Author of the reference
• Kind and duration of working relationship
• Competences and experiences
• Results
• Personal appreciation
• Expression of recommendation

Tips, Checklist

• Make sure a certain reputation of your reference author. The letter by a manager or company owner is evaluated greater, usually, than one by a colleague in a project work
• There is nothing like a right to be given a letter of reference, unlike for working certificates. This is the reason why only persons who are positively tuned towards you will come into question for it. Therefore, no coded evaluations are used here, either. Readers of reference letters know this and normally tend to take the information literally more than they do for the contents of working certificates
• Ask the author of your letter of reference if potential queries by employers are possible. Today, employers like checking back on references in order to get a deeper sight into what the applicant has been doing in the respective business
• Get the detailed contact information of your reference author
• Inform your reference author that possibly the employer XY will contact them back, and ask them for support
• Be sure to collect convincing letters of recommendation, over time. Especially when someone is giving positive feedback or expressing their gratitude to you, you should ask them to write that down. Just a few lines will do
• Ensure the quality of your references
• Get references by feedback questionnaires. Teachers regularly use this method, but also salesmen can ask for some evaluation of the trading process and get a reference. After all, even evaluations on eBay, Amazon and similar selling platforms are references for the seller respective purchaser
• Do not by shy to write a letter of reference yourself, and present them potential reference authors, for inspiration. Some would gladly make you a recommendation letter but avoids the effort of writing it

Articles

• Get the Best Job References You Can; Forbes, June 2, 2009

Information Sources

• Reference (English)
• Allgemeines Referenzschreiben (deutsch/englisch)
• Referenzschreiben für Mitarbeiter
• Muster für Referenzschreiben - Kunde an einen Auftragnehmer
• Muster für Empfehlungsschreiben - Freiberuflerin

• more...

Last update: 12/13/2009