CAREEREALISM: The references you provide to the employer for the job you REALLY WANT are more important than you imagine. A missing in action reference can really kill your chances of a job offer, especially if the choice between you and another candidate is a close one.
14 comments:
I'm confused about the letter of reference the article suggests giving to your references. Is this something you write to suggest good things for them to say about you? I understand sometimes references will write letters of reference about you to give to the company.
The steps provide a thorough course of action to secure a good recommendation. The most useful parts are the small considerate details that you would typically not think about. These include only giving references if asked for them to make sure your references are available, contacting them in phone or in person, giving them the job announcement, thinking about their communication skills and relationship with you, etc. These can all add up to make a huge difference in the long run.
In reference to Michael's question, I think the writer here definitely is suggesting people write a letter of recommendation for themselves to give to their references to base their recommendation off of. While I get what the author is getting at with this tip, I'm not sure I agree with it. By giving your recommenders a letter, you are basically telling them exactly what to say. I think this takes away from the whole point of having someone be a reference or a recommender. Also, if you gave the same letter to each of your references, they would be repetitive in their recommendations. I think the idea of talking to your references ahead of time is great. However, I do not think it necessarily needs to materialize in a letter that basically acts as a script for references. Not only will this end in repetitive and scripted recommendations, but it may also cause the references themselves to feel mistrusted.
I agree with Jess in reference to Michael's question. From job applications to college applications, I've had to ask for a number of reference letters from a myriad of people. Some, those who know you well enough, will gladly accept and write you a letter without further thought, other's, even if they do know you well enough, will ask that you give them something to work with. In this case, it is a letter regarding your letter, which can be of extreme importance, because a recommendation should ideally be tailored towards the job that you are seeking, and a otherwise good recommendation that isn't used for the right situation could harm you.
In reference to Michael's question, I have had a number of experiences with letters of recommendation, where the person I asked to recommend me wanted some guidelines as to what they were being asked to speak to. I don't think you are supposed to tell them what to say, but as the article also addressed, many employers are looking to hear about different aspects of your personality and sets of skills than others. So while your reference should be making the final decisions as to what they want to say, it great to give them an idea of what the employer is looking to hear.
This is crazy, and maybe it's because I've never had to think to critically about using people as a reference, because it seemed so common sense to me. However I think that in our field, at least in the management side, it's a lot more cut and dry. When you're applying to the same job, I feel that giving your references a heads up that you're doing some job applications in bulk, and that they might be hearing from some theaters. I think this article is a lot more interesting and relevant for people who are doing applications for multiple fields of employment. Something I always get lost in is choosing the more notable reference, versus someone who I worked with much closely.
This list is extremely thorough, and I think a bit excessive. While yes, it's important to cover all your bases with your references to make sure that they know that you're applying for a job, I feel like a simple phone conversation should be enough. If you're putting a past employer down as a reference, it's likely that you're doing this because you know that they would have things to say that would help you get the job, which means that a simple conversation should help jog their memory of all the positive experiences they've had with you. If you're using them as a reference, I feel like you would've done a good enough job or built a strong enough professional relationship that preparing a script for them to use shouldn't be necessary. You also wouldn't want your reference sound like what they're saying is forced when they're called by your potential employer.
While internet articles like these can be helpful, it worries me that people sometimes come to these things solely for information on references, interviews and other business subjects. This topic is something that students should be trained in early on. It should be integrated in to high school curriculum If students learn techniques for proper communication I feel as though they have a better chance at being offered references,and from there employment.
Like previous comments, I'm not sure writing a letter of reference for your references to refer to is wise, it feels a little... presumptuous? While self-awareness is good, employers call your references to get a different perspective on your work, and providing your references with a mold creates a sort of echo chamber that, if I were hiring, sounds a little disingenuous. I also disagree that you should call your references and ask vs. email. Email allows them to think about their response, whereas if you got them on the phone, and for whatever reason they didn't want to be your reference, you may surprise them into saying yes, which they'd (and you'd) then regret. It also allows you to make sure all of the information is present and in a form that your reference can refer back to, rather than them trying to make notes on a phone call. Ultimately, it feels like neither telling your reference what to say nor forcing them to put you at the top of their priority list via phone seems like a good way to be a considerate referee.
This was a useful article, and I've actually been thinking about how best to ask my boss from this summer if I can add him to my resume, but I'm not sure how relevant this article is to the world of theatre. As with most of the professionalism articles on the green page, this one wasn't created with theatre in mind, but this article seems to not be all that applicable to theatre either. It has some good point, and I see where it's coming from, but I wouldn't really follow most of the advice that it has if I wasn't applying for a job in the real world. I think it's super important to have references on a resume, because in a business like theatre who you know is crucial. I probably wouldn't have gotten a job this summer if my resume didn't say Dick Block on the bottom of it. As far as the whole sample reference goes, I feel like it would be weird to ask someone for a reference and then give them a list of what you want them to say, which is basically what you're doing. The point of you asking them is because of what they have to say about you, and by giving them that list you're preventing them from thinking about it and from coming up with a truly honest list. That being said, it might not be a bad idea to write a letter of reference for yourself just so you can keep in mind the kind of things that you want to say about yourself at a job interview.
I personally just ask the person for a letter of recommendation or something and where is to send it to directly, I don't think writing a letter for them is necessary or appropriate. I also agree that references are not to be chosen lightly. For example i picked a good friend/boss of mine to write me a letter of recommendation for college. he agreed but he never did. the fact that i waited that long for him but nothing came out of it made me look bad and caused me to have to scramble to find another person. i think choosing the type of person who recommends you also reflects who you are and what a company might expect from you.
Some of the steps listed here are common sense. It is important to take a personal approach to someone writing a reference letter for you or just being a reference to call. Hopefully they are someone that you are close to and knows about you and your skills. You should be respectful to them because they are doing a big favor for you and can potentially help boost your career. You should give your references a heads up on when they will be contacted because they might not be expecting it and not answer the phone or be unavailable.
The list of things to do are debateable. Some are useful and others are not. I wouldn't tell your references what to say, don't write your own letter of recommendation. But, some of the step are useful and I hadn't thought about them before, such as providing the job description and the resume. That is definitely smart, giving your references an idea what this job is looking for. And then somethings, like writing a thank you note, is something obvious that everyone should be doing.
I think it is absolutely important and appropriate to write a letter or send an email or do something personal for someone when asking for a reference or a recommendation. You are asking this person to praise you to someone else for your own benefit- that is a very selfless and important task. I think it is hugely important, as well, to be thanking these people for what they did if it was successful. How many of us were helped by high school teachers with strong recommendations? How might our college decisions have come out without them? Very important, very personal.
The first thing to do when selecting references to is to think long and hard about who you want to have as a reference. One of the questions I always ask myself when I'm at this very important starting step is would I want to be a reference if this person would ask me? By doing this I am evaluating how I really feel about them. More importantly, I am determining if I have had a unique experience that will give them an intriguing story to tell while giving a reference. The next step is to actually go and ask for the reference. This stage of basically biting the bullet can also be very challenging. However, once you do it than all you will have to do is update your resume! So you have nothing to loose!
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