– letter of recommendation. Let's look at what this document is, where and from whom you can get it, when you should take it and when not, and how recommendations from a previous employer can help you find a job. We will also consider a typical example (sample) of a letter of recommendation.
A letter of recommendation is a written review of an employee, written and certified by a former employer after the employee’s dismissal, which is used as an advantage in subsequent employment with another organization.
This document is a list of positive professional and personal qualities the employee, his achievements during his work, other advantages and strengths. From the point of view of a potential employer, the content of a letter of recommendation psychologically gives a job candidate more advantages than what is written in his letter, even if the information is similar. This is logical, because it is one thing what a person says about himself, and another thing what others say about him. And even the very presence of a letter of recommendation can definitely be considered as an advantage when applying for a job.
By the way, in large companies, when applying for high positions, a letter of recommendation is generally mandatory document to consider the applicant's candidacy.
But in order for a university graduate who does not yet have experience, he can obtain a letter of recommendation from the institute, which would favorably present his personal qualities.
Let's start with the fact that you can get a letter of recommendation upon dismissal only if the dismissal went “smoothly”, without scandals and quarrels with management, and this often happens. There is also no point in asking for a recommendation if you were fired due to serious violations in work, dissatisfaction with your work, non-compliance work discipline and so on.
It is best to ask for a letter of recommendation immediately, immediately at the time of dismissal, while there are still some mutual obligations between you and the organization. As soon as you are fired, no one will owe anything to anyone, and they may refuse to issue you a recommendation, if only simply because they do not want to spend time drawing it up.
However, in such a situation, you can use a trick: suggest to the employer that you yourself will write a letter of recommendation on his behalf, and he will only sign it. I observed such a practice very often, and in some cases employers even offered exactly this option themselves.
In this case, the employee must know how to write a letter of recommendation. There are two options here:
Of course, the first option seems simpler, and most people choose it. At the same time, it has one very significant drawback. Imagine that the previous candidate (or candidates) for the vacancy for which you are applying also downloaded the same sample letter of recommendation as you and substituted their data into it. After all, as a rule, those examples that are downloaded are those that come first in the search. You bring your potential manager a letter of recommendation, and it is written in the same words as previous applicants. He remembers this well, because he constantly has to read various letters of recommendation. How will the manager react? Toto...
Therefore, I personally am inclined to believe that a letter of recommendation should be drawn up either according to the model used in a specific organization (each large company has its own examples letters of recommendation, which they issue to retired employees), or written independently, without copying any existing templates.
Well, in conclusion, let’s look at an example or sample of a letter of recommendation, according to which you can independently compose it for yourself or for your employee.
1. Title. Your document should be called “letter of recommendation” or “recommendation”.
2. Appeal. If the letter of recommendation is addressed to a specific employer, you must contact him. On the right write: “Mr. Ivanov I.I.”, and start the text of the letter with the words: “Dear Ivan Ivanovich!”. If the recommendation is issued for any possible employers, we simply omit this point.
3. Information about the applicant, his position, place and period of work. For example: “Mr. Petrov Petr Petrovich worked at Raduga LLC as chief from January 2010 to June 2015.”.
4. Responsibilities, achievements, successes, personal and professional skills. Here you need to indicate everything that may be important when considering a candidate for the next job. For example: "IN job responsibilities Petrova P.P. included the search for potential wholesale buyers and direct sales of bakery products produced by our company. During the period of work, he concluded 150 supply contracts, including with such large retailers as Rodnik LLC and Khleb LLC. Largely thanks to the results of the work of Petrov P.P., our company was able to increase sales turnover by 7 times and enter the TOP 10 manufacturers in the region. During the period of his work, he proved himself to be an initiative and efficient employee who does not stop in the face of difficulties and works for results.”.
Having a recommendation from a previous place of work will significantly increase the chances of employment for a new position and will help to single out a certain candidate from the general list of applicants. However, it does not even guarantee 100% results. The information written in it will help the future manager evaluate the professionalism of the employee in the early stages.
This article will tell you how to write a letter of recommendation correctly. Sample forms and main points that must be voiced will be described in more detail.
A letter of recommendation is a document that describes a short letter; when composing it, you must adhere to a business style. To write it, you need a letterhead with the logo and contact information of the company. This document is signed directly by the manager, indicating a telephone number by which, if necessary, you can contact him directly to clarify or verbally confirm the data.
As a rule, such a letter is drawn up with the purpose of recommending an employee, telling about his achievements, professionalism, and success in his work.
If there is a recommendation from the place of work (the example is based on the experience of foreign companies), the applicant has more opportunities for employment in a prestigious job with a high wages and career growth.
Modern prestigious companies take the selection of employees very seriously, so upon dismissal, by agreement of the parties, you can ask for a recommendation from the place of work. An example of the correct writing of this document:
Pretesnaya Natalya Sergeevna worked at the company Gramadastroy LLC as a secretary from September 28, 2001 to January 1, 2010 under my direct supervision.
Her job consisted of performing the following duties:
Over the 9 years of working together, Natalya has proven herself to be good. She was always efficient, hardworking, proactive and conscientiously fulfilled her duties. She enjoyed respect and authority among the team. Her main quality is the ability to properly organize and distribute work. This allowed her not only to complete assigned tasks on time, but to do her best work ahead of schedule. Also, its invaluable advantage is the organization of leisure time for staff.
Thus, I can recommend Natalya Sergeevna Pretesnaya for the position of assistant to the head of the technology department, as she has sufficient professionalism, knowledge and qualities that are necessary to perform this job.
LLC "Gramadastroy"
Foreign companies, in particular American ones, have their own requirements for the preparation of recommendation documents. They are designed as a cover letter, which is an addition to the resume.
Automotive concern "General Motors"
Ivan Leonidovich Sokol was hired by our company on December 14, 2002 as a project manager. During his work, he successfully coped with his job responsibilities, in particular, he managed projects, negotiated with partners, selected professional employees, and reported to his superiors on the progress of new developments.
During his work at the entrusted site, income increased by 8%, which can characterize him as an initiative, purposeful and competent specialist.
I have no doubt that Ivan Leonidovich Sokol will do an excellent job in a similar position and will contribute to the development of another enterprise.
As a rule, there is a certain list of positions where references are mandatory. This mainly applies to management.
Alina Stanislavovna Ivantsova worked at the Junior company as head of the advertising department from March 23, 2004 to November 11, 2012. Her personal qualities, such as self-confidence, initiative, communication skills, the ability to properly organize the work process, and determination, contributed to development of our company. It is worth noting that during her leadership the number of circulations increased by 25%. At her suggestion, new system developments were introduced, which increased the publication’s income and allowed it to expand significantly. Over 8 years of working together with Ivantsova A.S. the company found many new partners and significantly expanded the list of its advertisers.
I would like to especially highlight her focus on achieving high results, her ability to quickly and efficiently solve complex tasks and find a way out of any current situation.
In some cases, university graduates are required to bring a letter of recommendation when applying for employment in a large company. This information can be provided directly educational institution, teacher or mentor.
Belaya Elena Anatolyevna entered the Moscow State University of Humanities and Economics (MSHEU) in 2003 to the faculty foreign languages, department Turkish language. During her studies, she proved herself to be a purposeful, responsible, proactive person, ready to learn and striving to achieve great success.
Participated in extracurricular activities, educational projects and often took on the task of translating texts.
While writing my diploma, I completed an internship at a prestigious foreign company, directly related to my profession. Characterized as an executive and responsible worker.
Mentor
When leaving an enterprise, it is better to immediately ask for a letter of recommendation, since its presence can become an additional trump card when applying for a new job.
First of all, let’s decide why we need to write a letter of recommendation? As a rule, it is required by a candidate for a vacancy during an interview with a future manager, with the personnel officer who conducts the interview. Tests and other entrance examinations are undoubtedly important components of the selection process for a future employee, but recommendations make a special impression.
A recommendation can present its hero in a positive and friendly manner, as well as in a neutral or even negative one. The first ones are the most common. They resort to the second when there is absolutely nothing to say about the employee or there is nothing good, but the person also does not want to create difficulties. Well, others are usually provided only upon requests from various government services.
A detailed analysis of a service letter with many examples of its composition is available in the article “We draw up a service letter"
The structure of this document is not much different from the structure of a regular business letter. Let us comment on the details that you should pay special attention to.
Name of company And background information about her must be present on the form.
Destination The letter is unknown, so this detail is not issued. In this case, it is not necessary, as in the certificate, to write here “For presentation at the place of requirement.”
Instead of header to the text, which is usually formulated in such a way as to answer the questions “about whom?”, “about what?”, in this letter it is appropriate to write a type of document “LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION” - this is business practice. It is better to type it in capital letters.
Applications to a letter of recommendation are rarely created. These could be copies letters of thanks, orders for the payment of bonuses for any merits or certificates of honor. In such cases, the “Note on the presence of attachments” detail is formatted in the same way as in a regular business letter.
We discussed in detail the rules for registering the presence of applications in the article “Covering letter for documents"
Sign The letter of recommendation should (ideally) be from the general director of the company, but everything will depend on the connections developed within the company. The letter can be signed by both the head of your department and a top manager in your area.
It is advisable to register a signed letter by assigning it number and designating date. These details also give it weight, giving it legal force.
The recipient of a letter of recommendation should be impressed not only by the details and content of the document, but also by the way you “handle” it. You need to make your recommendation as effectively as possible. It must certainly be printed on the employer’s letterhead; it’s great if it has a signature on it general director, and it is best to enclose the letter in an elegant folder or in a clean, unsealed envelope made of thick paper.
Introductory part of the text usually contains:
As a rule, all this fits into one sentence (see Examples 1-3).
Example 1
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I recommend to you Svetlana Gennadievna Petrova, who held the position of chief specialist in the management documentation department in our company and proved herself to be a hardworking, accurate and conscientious worker.
Example 2
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Example 3
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Main part of the text should disclose the overall assessment, having already covered in detail the professional and personal qualities of the recommended person. To make it easier for you to write this part, collect information about the hero of your letter. from his management and experienced colleagues. Find out in particular:
Then write here ten qualities that are important specifically for the position that the recommended person occupies. After all, we present the employee in the best possible light? This means that he possesses all these qualities.
Example 4
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The qualities that will adorn any office worker look like this:
When working on the main part of the text, try to look at the employee through the eyes of a potential employer. What is valuable to him? What kind of person would he hire? You can also ask the current supervisor of the employee for whom the recommendation is being made about this. You can be guided by your preferences only if you have worked in the field in which the person you are describing works (the main thing is not to write nonsense, so ask knowledgeable people to check the text you have prepared before signing the letter).
Another effective source of information, especially when you are writing a letter of recommendation for yourself, is the resume bank of your colleagues, those who:
See what professional successes those applying for positions similar to yours boast about. After all, out of modesty, you may underestimate something about yourself or simply forget to mention it. And after reading the successful wording in someone else’s resume, you will understand that what is described applies to you, and you will notice the most successful wording. It is these found elements that can be borrowed.
And the description of the tasks performed at the current place can be borrowed from job description . Of course, there is no need to rewrite all of them - choose the most interesting ones.
The collected information is your almost finished letter of recommendation. All that remains is to link the obtained information into the text.
Example 5
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Petrova Ulyana Sergeevna worked as a senior clerk at LLC " New World"over the past three years and during this time it has shown itself only on the good side. Having joined the company as a graduate of the Faculty of Office Management of the Chelyabinsk State Historical University, she began her career as a secretary and after two years was transferred to the office. Mrs. Petrova is distinguished by her constant desire to develop in her profession; she actively attends specialized trainings and seminars, the positive results of which were obvious!
During last year Ulyana Sergeevna was the head of the working group for the implementation of an electronic document management system at Novy Svet LLC. Thanks to her, the company was able to reach new level work with documents and significantly strengthen performance discipline in the company. Mrs. Petrova was able to organize the process of training our employees in new principles of working with documents and personally developed a number of teaching aids that are used daily in all departments of our company.
Among the personal and business qualities of Ulyana Sergeevna Petrova, I would like to highlight responsibility and initiative, the ability to be not only a careful and scrupulous performer, but also to manage the assigned project.
Finally, as expected, we summarize everything that has been said and draw a conclusion, the main idea of which is this: the author of the letter regrets that he parted with such a brilliant specialist and is sincerely happy for his new employer.
Example 6
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As a leader, I regret that Irina Vasilievna Strogina left our team due to a change of residence. And I am confident that at her new place of work she will quickly join the team, revealing her best human and professional quality.
Letter #1:
It is hereby confirmed that Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich With 12.04.2010 by 11.07.2013 worked in LLC "Delopis.ru" as head of [full position title].
His competence included full support of the international aspects of the company’s activities. We consider it necessary to note the professionalism and proper level of responsibility of the named specialist, demonstrated during the implementation of projects carried out with his participation.
Petr Petrov
Letter #2:
During 15.04.2013 by 11.07.2013 Mr. me and Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich We co-managed the [name] project for the company "Delopis.ru". The project was complex - a large rotation of personnel at that time in the company, ambitious goals set by the company's management. Ivanov Ivan showed maximum flexibility in working with people, concentration on the goal, and professionalism in order to complete the assigned tasks. I would like to highlight personal and professional qualities Ivan Ivanovich: responsibility, dedication, systems thinking, ability to structure information, organize processes, high qualifications in the field information technologies And subject area project.
Petr Petrov
Letter #3:
During 18.01.2013 by 04.06.2013 d. I supervised the [name] project for the company "Delopis.ru". Anastasia Volochkova was the project manager from the contractor's side.
Anastasia Volochkova has an excellent business reputation, responsibility and reliability in business relationships, very high level professionalism and high qualifications in the field of information technology and the subject area of the project.
Petr Petrov
Letter #4:
Ivanov Ivan With 12.04.2010 by 11.07.2013 in LLC "Delopis.ru" was the executive director of the company. In job responsibilities Ivanova Ivana included: resolving issues related to opening and maintaining projects in cities of the Russian Federation, searching for construction sites, concluding contracts with contractors, developing and maintaining control over the functional operation of objects.
While working Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich there were no complaints about him. He proved himself to be a knowledgeable and proactive leader, capable of taking on complex and responsible decisions. Successfully resolved conflict situations that arose during the company’s work with clients. Good psychologist, sociable. Can successfully manage a large department.
Competence, independence, creative potential Ivanova Ivana allow us to unconditionally recommend this employee for the position of manager of middle and senior management in any company.
Petr Petrov
Letter #5:
During 12.06.2010 by 11.04.2013 G. Volochkova Anastasia Yurievna worked in a company "Delopis.ru". Anastasia Volochkova has an impeccable business reputation, reliability in business relationships, excellent personal qualities that are focused on working together in a team, on projects, interest in the business, and finding the best ways to implement it.
