> home
> About
> Contact Us
> Editorial Info
> IEEE-USA

02.10

By Terrance Malkinson

At some point in your career, you will probably be asked to provide a recommendation for someone seeking a job.  In today’s tightly contested job market, the personal recommendation is important.  Recruiters receive many applications from equally very qualified candidates.  Reference recommendations from a past employer or a personal contact play a critical role in the decision of who is offered the job.

This recommendation may be in the form of a letter requested by the job-seeking candidate to be included with the application or may be requested by the potential employer after the candidate is short-listed. Alternately, a potential employer may simply telephone you for your opinion. 

You should feel honored that you were asked for your opinion on a candidate’s suitability for a position.  This is professional responsibility that has important implications both for yourself and for the candidate. It is critical that you be totally honest and unbiased with what you say about the candidate, and only communicate information that you are confident is accurate.

When asked to provide a recommendation, the first question you should to ask yourself is: are you prepared to put your credibility on the line by recommending the individual? Should you feel that you do not know the individual well enough, or that for other reasons you cannot recommend the person, it is best to simply thank them for considering you but decline without communicating the reason for declining.

You must also know the date by which the reference is to be received by the potential employer.  If you cannot meet this deadline, you should decline.

Never take the short-cut of asking the candidate to write his own recommendation or use a “form letter” which you will then sign.  Recruiters are savvy and can sniff out form letters and can often spot a client's own prose.  An honest and genuine letter of recommendation will go a lot further toward enhancing a candidate's credibility than an autobiographical endorsement.

Should circumstances permit, it is a good idea to obtain information about both the candidate and the position he is pursuing, such as a current resume and a job description.  Determine to whom you should address the letter.  You are writing to a person, not “to whom it may concern.” The recruiter will want to know how long you have known the candidate and your relationship to the individual.

Interviewing the candidate to determine why they are interested in this position, and what strengths and weakness they would bring to the job might also be considered.  Perfection in a candidate is neither required nor expected.  The recommendation will be taken much more seriously if you are candid, rather than providing only glowing superlatives. What is important to the recruiter is to offer the job to the right person.  Specific examples of achievements of the candidate that are relevant to the new job are important. Use action verbs and the active voice when describing accomplishments, skills and strengths.

Three areas of particular interest to recruiters and employers, and questions for potential discussion in an employment recommendation include:

Social Competence
How well does the individual work with others? Is she team-oriented, cooperative, congenial, open-minded, and understanding? Does she  have effective written and oral communication skills? Does she understand how to work in today’s diverse, multi-generational, and global workplace?

Work Competence
Is the candidate able to apply training and experience to get results? Are his knowledge and skills up-to-date, and is he able to learn quickly and continuously? Does he have a network of professional associates to network with? Does he plan and organize work effectively, completing assignments in a timely manner, accurately and thoroughly?  Does he possess a good work ethic exhibiting punctuality and little unexplained absenteeism?

Character Attributes
Is the individual enthusiastic, motivated, self-starting, creative, a problem-solver, industrious, an independent logical thinker, perceptive, positive, emotionally stable and exercises good judgment, with honesty and integrity? Does the candidate have leadership qualities? Does she handle conflict, uncertainty and stress?

Providing an employment job reference recommendation is an important professional responsibility.  Accepting this task will give you a good feeling of contributing to the success and future of a fellow human-being. Always remember that someday even you to may have the need to ask others for a letter of recommendation.

For the Job Seeker

As an aside, it is essential that a departing employee not “burn bridges.”  Most recruiters will request references from previous employers. Never, under any circumstances, should a departing employee criticize the company or the people in the company that he is leaving.  Doing so can haunt a job seeker for the rest of his career. Memory is long and communication in today’s world is quick.

Additionally, it is important that an individual leaving a position recognize that the average employee will change jobs as many as ten times during a career.  No matter how secure a job is, it is important to always be on the outlook for people who might serve as job references.  For example, this may be a mentor, a co-worker, a client, or it may be an influential business or social contact. Growing professional relationships with these people can pay dividends when embarking on a job seeking campaign.  References do not always need to be former employers; a good mix of references that have different perspectives is valuable.  Each can play an important role in unexpected or planned job-seeking.

Whether successful or not in obtaining a desired position, the candidate should always express gratitude to those who were supportive in a job seeking campaign.

Terrance Malkinson is a communications specialist, business analyst and futurist. He is Vice-Chair of the IEEE-USA Communications Committee, an international correspondent for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer , editor-in-chief of IEEE-USA Today's Engineer Digest, associate editor for IEEE Canadian Review, and a member of the editorial advisory board of IEEE The Institute.  He was an elected Senator of the University of Calgary and an elected Governor of the IEEE Engineering Management Society as well as an elected Administrative Committee member of the IEEE Professional Communication Society. He has been the editor of several IEEE conference proceedings, and past editor of IEEE Engineering Management. He is the author of more than 385 publications, and is an accomplished triathlete. His career path includes being an accomplished technical supervisor and medical researcher at the University of Calgary a business proposal manager for the General Electric Company, an associate for Sears Canada Inc. and research administrator with the School of Health and Public Safety/Applied Research and Innovation Services at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary Canada.

The author is grateful to the professional support of the Haskayne School of Business Library at the University of Calgary.

He can be reached at todaysengineer@ieee.org.