Strategies for applicants

Purpose of recommendation letters:

• To recommend and endorse you as a strong candidate for a position, program, and/or opportunity

• To demonstrate the value that you can bring

• To corroborate the excellence that you have included in your application dossier, and to speak to your progress and potential

Choosing a recommender:

• Applications on average are looking for 2-3 recommenders

• Build a roster of great recommenders who know you well and can speak to different aspects of your candidacy; what strengths do you want highlighted? (e.g., research, teaching, service)

• Getting recommenders from multiple institutions is not required but can be an asset when you’re just starting the job market; as you work in new departments, it’s good to have a recommender who can speak about your most recent work there

• Caution about seeking letters from ‘big-name’ scholars who might not have the bandwidth nor close relationship with you to write a detailed, effective letter; the best recommender is the one that makes you shine!

• Strategize with your advisor and/or mentor! They may have a better pulse on who could write for you and can connect you with potential recommenders

Approaching a potential recommender:

• Adopt the mindset of cultivating a long-term professional relationship; one letter will probably lead to multiple throughout your career

• Group consensus: 2 weeks minimum in advance to request recommendation letter

• Communicate why you’ve asked them to write on your behalf; this will help them tailor the letter to address your specific topics

• Offer to provide them with more information; the more they have, the better equipped they will be to write a rich letter

Following up and reminders:

• Set up a mutual agreement on how you update your recommenders, when to touch base with them, and how to remind them on deadlines – this will help alleviate some anxieties about constantly following up!

• Close out the loop; provide updates and share good news when it comes!

• A ‘thank you’ card is always appreciated!

Writing a recommendation letter

Types of recommendation letters:

• Summer programs/internships

• Graduate school

• Professional school (e.g., law, medical, business)

• Fellowships and scholarships

• Academic jobs (job market, tenure & promotion)

• Non-academic jobs (a.k.a. reference letters)

Guide for recommenders:

• A recommendation is never in isolation but is an important part of the ecosystem of an application

• Purpose: to give eyewitness account to excellence

• Before answering, think about how well you can write a letter for the candidate; saying “no” is better than writing half-hearted or intentionally ambiguous recommendation letter

• Strategy: figure out what role your letter fits in the whole ecosystem of their application dossier and how the candidate wants you to talk about them (teaching, service, scholarship, etc.). Some questions to ask:

  • Who are the other recommenders?

  • How does yours fit the application?

  • Who is reading the letter? (R1, SLAC, grant committee, executive)

• Give the letter focus by thinking of three major takeaways from your letter (i.e., the intended impressions and key words you want to highlight) and then expressing them in multiple ways throughout

Recommendation letter mechanics:

• This is a genre of writing, so you can get better at it! Practice and draft depending on your time and bandwidth

• When an applicant requests a letter from you:

  • Respond to the request (yes/no)

  • Request information for a richer letter (see Suzanne’s sample response email)

  • Set expectations and a timeline to mitigate anxiety on both sides

• Length: 2-3 pages for most letters; 1 page (barely 2) for industry job reference letters (shorter paragraphs, to the point)

• Be comfortable keeping a letter short and honest if you can’t be effusive

• Use your institution letterhead and a formal address/signature (if you don’t have a letterhead, identify yourself through your introduction and signature)

Parts of a recommendation letter:

• Date and formal greeting

• Introductory paragraph (2-3 sentences)

  • Name the candidate and the position they’re applying to

  • Outline your relationship to the candidate to build credibility

• Body paragraphs (2-4 paragraphs)

  • Provide background information on how you know the candidate and the nature of your relationship

  • Expand with specific examples that illustrate the applicant’s relevant strengths, organized by category or attribute

  • E.g. for academic letters, you might want to devote a paragraph each to research, teaching, service

• Closing paragraph (a few sentences)

  • Final endorsement of why the candidate is a good fit and an asset for the program/job

  • Reiterate your recommendation of the candidate and your confidence in their capability for the position/opportunity

  • Close with your name and signature

Sending the recommendation letter:

• If you’re writing a joint recommendation, the lead writer will consolidate the letters

• Make sure you convert the document to PDF to avoid formatting issues

• Get a confirmation of receipt from the institution (usually this will be automated, but if not, don’t hesitate to ask)

• If agreed upon or appropriate, email the candidate to let them know that you have sent your letter

• Save the recommendation letter along with the candidate’s materials as a template for future use!

Representing the applicant (based on advice from Deborah Beck)

Deborah Beck, The University of Texas at Austin

• Bring the person to life!

• Convey your sense of excitement, enjoyment, and admiration for the applicant.

• You’re the salesperson! If there’s something you can’t actively sell, leave it out. Avoid the potential of making things worse by trying to explain away flaws. If you omit something, the reader can draw their own conclusions.

• Your voice is part of what helps the hiring committee evaluate the applicant, so ask the applicant what they want you to say about them (i.e., why they’re a good candidate for the position/opportunity).

• Read the job advert! Use the advert’s language in the letter to show how the candidate meets the requirements and desiderata that it states.

• If you are writing a teaching letter, illustrate what the applicant is like in the classroom.

• If you directed the applicant’s dissertation, illustrate what kind of thinker or problem solver they are (as opposed to just the content of their dissertation).

• Paragraphs should be clear enough that the reader knows exactly what they’re about in a glance.

Making your letter impactful (based on advice from Al Duncan)

Al Duncan, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• The first paragraph should pack a punch and make a good first impression!

• Choose your adverbs carefully, because the first sentence can make a difference (e.g., “I am happy to recommend…” vs “I am very happy to recommend…” vs “It is with great pleasure that I recommend…”).

• Proofread and make sure you double check that you wrote the correct institution name!

• A comment on numerical ranking of students: sometimes it can be an advantage, but it can also feel strange to do. (Alternative suggestion: lean hard on superlatives that are specific to the individual… there are different ways to be great!)

• Pay attention to details in your letter so you don’t end up mis-writing.

• In the last paragraph, make yourself available for further comments in case the search committee may want to know more.

  • Pro: it demonstrates that this is only the beginning and that you can enthuse more about the applicant (but have kept things succinct in respect for the committee’s time).

  • Con: the letter is polished and carefully presents the ‘perfect’ picture of the candidate you are endorsing, whereas a further conversation can be more off-the-cuff.

• Know your audience and format (form vs full letter). If you are required to fill a recommendation form, save your box entries. That’s prose you want to keep!

• Avoiding gender bias in reference writing: tips from The University of Arizona’s Commission of the Status of Women (sent by Amy Pistone)

Writing non-academic letters (based on advice from Kirk Ormand)

Kirk Ormand, Oberlin College

Major takeaways from event:

• Don’t go beyond a page; executives won’t read that far!

• Explain/translate academic activities to skills that employers understand; this will help your student succeed. Which ‘soft skill’ do you want to emphasize?

• Translate what you do into the language used by your target field (yes, that means using industry jargon!).

• Check your university career center and NACE (National Association of College and Employers) for further resources.

Writing non-academic letters of recommendation (Law school, Med school, various business jobs, internships, etc.) — Kirk Ormand, Oberlin College

In brief, I suggest that in writing these letters we should engage in the same sort of exercise that we expect our students to, when they apply for these kinds of positions/ professional schools.  Like our students, we must learn to address how the work that they have done in Classics – philological, archaeological, historical – has led them to develop transferable skills which will be valuable in the job that they’re applying to.  Our students learn to talk about this by going to the Career Center, and we can do the same; a brief chat with your Career Center will help you learn how to address the skills and issues that the professional schools and jobs are concerned about. 

There is, in fact, an organization out there called the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).  Every year they survey potential employers about what qualities they are looking for in new employees.  Your Career Center has access to the report that comes out of this survey.  The good news is that the qualities that employers are looking for are pretty much all things that we teach:

• Problem solving skills

• Communication skills (written)

• Strong work ethic

• Communication skills (verbal)

• Analytical/ quantitative skills

• Flexibility/ adaptability

• Detail-oriented  (Hello!!!)

But what many of us need to do is develop some ways of telling potential employers how studying Classics might develop those skills.  One thing I do regularly is discuss how, in translating a Greek sentence, students have to determine what a word or phrase means based on incomplete and ambiguous data (a single word could be one of two or three different forms, and only context will tell you which it is).  Similarly, in studying ancient history, our students are engaged in evaluating multiple, often conflicting sources, and must make qualitative judgments about them. When a new source provides different information, they must be able to go back and re-evaluate their original interpretations.  These are exactly the skills that most businesses are looking for.  

Most of our students won’t use their knowledge of ancient Greek in their first job out of college.  But it is true that the skills they developed in learning to read Greek will help them solve real-world problems, by collecting and analyzing data, considering the full context of that data, and then making reasonable decisions based on probability.  We need to make that case for them to potential employers.