Back to School 14 Day Get Hired Challenge – Day 4

Our Back to School 14 Day Get Hired Challenge will get you in career shape this January. Your next challenge is…

Day 4: Ask for a letter of recommendation from 3 people today

Now that you’ve completed the first three days of the BTS Get Hired Challenge and have allowed your work to speak for itself, it’s time for other people to validate your professional skills. Employers will like you – but they want to see that other people like you, too. Having someone else vouch for you helps to create a consistent picture of your candidacy and your ability to perform well in the workplace. That’s where asking for a letter of recommendation comes in: you need to be ready with a few in your arsenal so that this doesn’t slow up the hiring process. Your challenge today? Ask for not one, but three letters of recommendation. Here are a few tips for how you can go about doing this:

• Choose someone who knows you really well and who is your biggest fan. This should be someone who has complimented your work multiple times in the past and can attest to your work ethic, like a professor or a former boss. Your mom, your friends, and your significant other cannot be the ones writing your letter of recommendation (as awesome as that would be).
• When you send the email requesting a recommendation letter, jog the person’s memory by attaching a few of your top papers or projects to help them to remember the great things about you. This also gives you some control over making sure that your top work is mentioned in the letter.
• Ask well in advance (today’s a good day, for example! :D). People are busy and a good recommendation letter takes time. Make sure to also let them know if it’s a time-sensitive request and politely ask if they can complete it by the date you need the letter.

For more tips on requesting a great letter of recommendation, check out this article. See you back here for Day 5!