Throughout your academic and professional career, you will need to ask others for letters of recommendation. Fortunately, your teachers and bosses generally want you to succeed and are happy to help if they’ve had a positive relationship to you. We all needed letters of recommendation to get where we are, and we’re generally happy to return the favor! Here are the steps to getting a successful recommendation letter.
Make sure you’ve presented yourself positively to the recommender throughout your relationship. The recommender's name and professional reputation are on the line when they write you a recommendation. If you didn’t follow directions, didn’t participate, or didn’t show yourself in a positive light, it will be hard for someone to write you a good recommendation. Always behave like everyone is watching – they are!
Get their contact info. If you’re planning to ask your vet for a recommendation letter, you should be sure to get their contact info before the program ends.
Give advanced notice. You should consider one week to be the minimum lead time, and try to give more time than that. Of course, you are welcome to ask for a last-minute recommendation in an emergency, but know that most vets will not be able to comply.
Ask in a professional way. A text or FaceBook message is not an appropriate way to ask for a recommendation letter. A short, polite email, addressed to their professional name, is appropriate.
Include all necessary information. Help the recommender help you! Including a resume or information on your additional relevant experience will help your recommender write a good letter. You should certainly include all deadlines and submission requirements of whatever letter you need. It may also help for you to provide a short summary of the position or job to which you are applying so that the letter can be tailored to that goal.
Say thank you. Writing a polite thank-you email or letter helps ensure that your recommender will be likely to help you again if needed. If you do not need a recommendation letter but would like to list one of your Loop Abroad staff as a reference, please contact them and ask ahead of time. You should never list a reference who isn’t expecting that they might be contacted – think of how it sounds to your potential employer or academic institution that the best recommendation you could think to list had no idea they were being listed as a reference! We look forward to sharing all the great stuff we know about you with anyone who asks!