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Writing a recommendation letter for an employee or a coworker is a big responsibility, as your alphabetic character could brand or break their job application. So how can you lot write an effective letter of recommendation that will impress a hiring manager?

This article will explicate how to write a recommendation alphabetic character for a job, besides every bit provide 5 recommendation letter of the alphabet samples to guide you lot through the process.

Apply the table of contents to bound straight to the samples, or keep reading for tips on how to write an excellent letter of recommendation.

  • Recommendation letter sample 1
  • Recommendation letter of the alphabet sample 2
  • Recommendation letter of the alphabet sample 3
  • Recommendation letter sample 4
  • Recommendation alphabetic character sample v

Why are recommendation letters important?

Earlier diving into the recommendation alphabetic character samples, allow's consider what office recommendation messages play in the job application procedure. Why do hiring managers ask for letters of recommendation? What purpose do reference letters serve?

Powerfully advocate for the job seeker

Well for one, you lot tin can powerfully advocate for a candidate in your letter. By throwing your support behind them, the hiring manager volition run across that this person has successfully worked with a dominate or colleague in the past.

Add together personality to a chore awarding

Your letter can besides aid personalize someone's application. A hiring manager might read through lots of resumes, but your letter will help the candidate come to life by shedding light on their personality and piece of work style.

Point out past achievements

Past discussing specific achievements a candidate has fabricated, you tin likewise help prove the job seeker will brand similar accomplishments in the time to come. They say past behavior points to future behavior, so sharing anecdotes in your letter will help the hiring managing director see what the job seeker would exist like if they got hired.

Assist the task seeker get hired

If you write a generic, vague letter, information technology might not exercise much to sway a hiring manager's opinion. Or information technology could easily be outshined past someone else'due south letter of recommendation, where the author took the fourth dimension to get personal and specific.

Merely if you accept the time to arts and crafts a strong, thoughtful letter, it could aid push the job seeker's candidacy over the edge and land them the job — or at least a job interview!

6 means to make your alphabetic character of recommendation effective

Assuming you want to help the job seeker as much as you can, how can you craft a letter that volition help their application stand out? Hither are a few ways to brand your alphabetic character of recommendation powerful.

1. Customize your alphabetic character to the job at hand

Simply as a job seeker should customize their cover letter to each chore they apply to, then likewise should yous customize your alphabetic character of recommendation to the job at mitt. If yous send off a general letter without mentioning what job the candidate is applying for, it volition look weak compared to one that was written specifically for the role.

Let's say you're recommending an employee who worked in marketing and is now going after a director role. If you just draw what it was like to work with that employee, your letter of the alphabet will fall flat.

Instead, you lot should talk nearly why you're recommending them to become a director; discuss what makes them ready to move into a managerial part.

In your letter of the alphabet, proper noun the new task and company to evidence that you empathize what job the candidate is applying for and wholeheartedly recommend them for the specific position. Retrieve, the hiring director is looking for someone who would be a good fit; your letter tin go a long fashion toward persuading them this is the person they've been looking for.

ii. Utilize 2-three specific examples

While calling the candidate motivated, accountable, or creative is all well and practiced, you lot want to back up these descriptors with bodily examples. Let's say you're talking about how the candidate is great at creative problem-solving.

Choose a specific time when a problem came along and talk nigh how the candidate solved it. Past providing ii to iii specific anecdotes, you can prove the candidate actually has the qualities y'all say they do.

Plus, your letter will come up to life, rather than just being a repeat of what'due south already on the candidate's resume. If it's just a list of titles and certifications, it doesn't add anything extra to the application.

Since you worked with the candidate in the past, you can shed light on their past achievements. By identifying a few specific accomplishments, your recommendation letter will go even more valuable and convincing.

Bonus points in the accomplishments y'all highlight match upwardly to a core competency of the job description. For instance, if the new function wants someone who takes initiative, choose a story where the candidate took initiative in the past.

3. Speak to the candidate before you write

Writing a letter of recommendation is a tall order, and you lot don't have to do information technology all on your own. Earlier you sit downwards to write, speak with the job seeker about their plans.

Let them tell you what the new office is and why they're excited about it. They might even share their cover letter and application materials, so you lot can make sure your letter complements the story they're presenting in their awarding.

You might even ask the candidate to provide 2 to three specific anecdotes they'd similar you lot to include in your letter. If yous worked closely with this person, you can probably come up up with these on your ain.

But sitting down to chat will assist you get insight into their goals and craft an effective letter.

4. Explain why your stance matters

Let'southward face it, a recommendation letter of the alphabet from someone's mom isn't going to concur as much weight as one from their director. A hiring manager wants to see the alphabetic character comes from a reputable source who has worked closely with the candidate in the past.

So somewhere in the kickoff of your letter, explicate who y'all are and what makes you qualified to recommend this person. That way, your reader will empathise where you lot're coming from and know to take your opinion seriously.

v. Start with enthusiasm

Another good way to take hold of your reader'southward attention is to showtime your letter with a strong statement of support. Some stiff openers include,

  • Equally Juan's old manager at XYZ Visitor, information technology'south my great accolade to recommend him for the role of…
  • It's my great pleasure to recommend Laura for the position of…

Although it's like shooting fish in a barrel to showtime with "I'grand writing to recommend…," that opener will expect lukewarm adjacent to something more powerful. So effort to hook your reader with enthusiasm right away.

six. Format your letter correctly

Although some companies are more than formal than others, it's still of import to format your letter in an official manner. Use official letterhead if possible, making sure to include your proper noun, position, workplace, and contact information.

At the top, include the contact information for the hiring manager (see samples below). Address your letter of the alphabet to a specific person, if possible.

Your letter will probably be iii to five short paragraphs with spaces in between, and it doesn't have to be longer than a page.

At the terminate, invite the reader to follow up with yous via electronic mail or phone for whatever further information.

5 recommendation letter of the alphabet samples

At present that you have a sense of what makes a strong recommendation, check out these practices in activity in these five recommendation letter samples. While your letter should be unique, these examples can deed as recommendation letter templates and guide y'all as you write your own.

Recommendation alphabetic character sample #i: Pedagogy job

Ms. Lila Sullivan
Principal
Alpine High School
1 Swiss Road
Townton, Anywhere U.s.a.

Dear Ms. Sullivan,

Information technology's my great pleasure to recommend Stacy Nichols for the position of English language teacher with Alpine High School. Every bit the principal of Mountain High School, where Stacy has taught for the past five years, I've been extremely impressed with Stacy's skills as an educator, commitment to her students, and creativity in the classroom. I have no doubtfulness she will bring the same enthusiasm, rigor, and dedication to her new office in your school.

Forth with her enthusiasm, positive energy, and attentiveness to students' needs, Stacy brings a special talent to curriculum design. She led a committee final twelvemonth to revamp the 11th and 12th grade curriculum, adding new books that meliorate fulfilled our mission of inclusivity and diverseness. She also helped revise our senior thesis project to bring in multimedia and make it more relevant to current events.

As a Google-certified educator, Stacy leads the way when it comes to bringing technology into the classroom. She's also taken the time to railroad train other teachers on how to incorporate technology as an effective vehicle for learning. This year, for instance, she led three trainings for the English section on how to contain the Google suite of tools into classroom lessons.

Finally, Stacy is special for her ability to connect with students and be sensitive to their needs. At the end of last yr, I had several parents contact me direct about what a positive affect Stacy and her class had on their sons and daughters. This positive bear on was obvious by the surprise party her students threw her on the concluding day of the semester!

While the team and I would love to keep Stacy here forever, we accept to bid her farewell when she moves across the country next month. Although we'll miss having her as part of the team, we're 100% confident she'll brand an incredible add-on to your English department at Alpine Loftier School.

Delight don't hesitate to contact me for whatsoever more information at 617-716-7566 or past email at rachel.smith@mhs.edu.

Sincerely yours,

Rachel Smith
Master
Mountain High School

Recommendation alphabetic character sample #2: Remote content writer chore

Roberta Moor
Director of Marketing
Facegramchat
55 Market St.
Anywhere, USA

Dear Ms. Moor,

I'm writing to wholeheartedly recommend David Sanchez for the part of content author with Facegramchat. Equally the director of marketing for Instabooksnap, I hired David when he was fresh out of college with his caste in English language and communications.

David has grown tremendously over the years and has get one of the well-nigh valuable and prolific writers on our squad. Although we'll all be sad to run across him go, I understand his to want to piece of work in a remote part, an arrangement our company unfortunately cannot offer him at this fourth dimension.

David is a talented wordsmith, researcher, and editor who has a fashion with words. He's extremely skilled at naturally incorporating keywords throughout his articles and has an intuitive sense of how to write SEO-optimized articles that rank well in organic search.

In fact, his article on XYZ is consistently the highest driver of traffic to our site with more than 5,000 unique visitors per day. Along with SEO-optimized articles, David is skilled at pitching original ideas, reporting on news, and interviewing sources to add together original commentary to his pieces.

He'south besides been a tremendous contributor to our team internally, crafting process documents to help our squad run more than smoothly and leading trainings in our weekly meetings. In the past calendar month, David created a training document on best practices for competitor analysis for new writers, besides every bit led a grooming on the subject. These grooming documents will exist an excellent addition to our onboarding guide for new squad members.

David is extremely answerable to deadlines and skilled at working independently, while at the aforementioned fourth dimension is proactive well-nigh contributing to the team and collaborating with his colleagues. Because he'due south so answerable and communicative, I take no doubt that David will excel in a remote office with a distributed team.

As I'thousand sure you can tell from David's portfolio, the quality of his writing speaks for itself. As his director for four years, I can adjure that David is an impressive, reliable, consistent, and creative employee who supports his colleagues, takes initiative, and is an absolute pleasance to piece of work with.

Please experience free to contact me at 555-525-5252 or bob.mcintire@gmail.com for any more information.

Best regards,

Bob McIntire
Director of Marketing
Instabooksnap

Recommendation letter sample #iii: Remote sales job

Victor Snow
We Sell Stuff Co.
5 Seller's Lane
Townplace, U.s.

Dear Mr. Snow,

It'south my pleasure and laurels to recommend Brian Danson for the account manager position with We Sell Stuff Co. Brian and I worked together for the past five years, where I was his manager at Sellers Gotta Sell, Inc.

Throughout his fourth dimension with our sales squad, Brian proved himself to be a difficult-working, motivated, ambitious, charismatic, and reliable employee. His honesty, dependability, confidence, and excellent communication skills helped him become the top salesperson ii years running, surpassing his quarterly goals by an incredibly impressive 22%.

Positive testimonials about working with Brian have poured in from our clients. Our team besides holds Brian in the highest regard, not only because he'southward a slap-up person but as well considering he's taken a proactive part in organizing part parties and celebrations.

While Brian's next sales role will be remote, I have no doubt he'll keep to brand a positive impact on his teammates, wherever they're located. He's a talented salesperson and overall great person to be around. While we'll miss having him on the team, I take no doubt he'll exceed all expectations equally a member of Nosotros Sell Stuff Co.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with whatever questions at 677-776-6767 or kim.commercio@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Kim Commercio
Director of Sales
Sellers Gotta Sell, Inc.
5 London Lane
Los Angeles, CA

Recommendation letter sample #4: Customer service job

Kathy Rosenstein
Manager of Customer Support
Glossy Glasses Co.
1 Clients Fashion
Anywhere, USA

Dear Ms. Rosenstein,

Information technology's my great pleasance to recommend Jill Harrison for the position of customer back up representative with Sleeky Glasses Co. Jill has worked as a customer support representative for our company for the past two years. As her direct supervisor, I've been incredibly impressed with her warmth, personability, and commitment to our customers.

Jill is a true people person who loves speaking with customers and resolving their questions and concerns. She truly embodies our mission to put the customer first and help solve problems in whatever manner we tin.

Positive reviews accept flooded in from customers that have spoken with Jill about the customer service they received, with most recommending her for our top monthly incentive prize of an Amazon gift card (satisfied customers tin also choose a gratis coffee or lunch).

Along with providing excellent support to our customers and helping build long-term relationships with our customer base, Jill has been proactive about improving our team processes. She volunteered to outline our procedures and answers to mutual questions, creating documents that are a great help to our current team members and will exist extremely useful when onboarding new hires.

Jill stands out for her kindness, commitment, and initiative, and I'chiliad completely confident she will surpass all expectations when joining your customer service team.

Thanks for your time, and please experience free to contact me at 888-888-8888 or elizabeth.ward@gmail.com.

Very best,

Elizabeth Ward
Director of Customer Service
Moda Moda

Recommendation letter sample #5: Remote web designer job

Melanie Davos
Director of Engineering
Coding Xx
ix Computer Way
Austin, TX

Dear Ms. Davos,

It's my absolute pleasure to recommend Julie Brown for the office of spider web designer with Coding XX. Julie has worked with our company Outdoor Gear Inc. on a freelance basis for the past iii years. From her work with us, as well as our Slack chats and video meetings, I've gotten to know her as a highly skilled and passionate web designer with a knack for visual design.

In her work with us, Julie redesigned our spider web folio to our specifications while contributing neat ideas herself on how to brand our website convenient and cute for our users. Since her redesign, we've seen our time on page and conversion metrics increase by 5 times what they were with our old site.

Julie also ensured her new, elegant designs are consistent beyond all our branding platforms, including electronic mail newsletters, social media, and our outreach efforts with other sites. Her contributions accept been admittedly invaluable, and information technology seems there'south no claiming as well large for Julie to tackle.

Julie is particularly passionate nearly your company's mission to teach girls and young women to code, so I'm excited for her to have the opportunity to join your team. I'm completely confident her skills and experience every bit a web designer, combined with her delivery to your important cause, volition make her an invaluable employee who will drive your system forward.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions at 454-321-1234 or steven.programmer@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Steven Programmer
Engineering science Manager
Outdoor Gear Inc.

Writing the best letter of recommendation you can

Now that yous've read through the sample recommendation letters, you have a general recommendation letter template to guide your writing.

  • Start with the name, task title, and company address of the hiring manager, and address your letter to a specific person.
  • In your intro, explain why yous're writing and what your human relationship to the chore candidate is.
  • In two to three short paragraphs, depict what'due south so special about the candidate, and exercise your best to provide specific anecdotes to back up your assertions.
  • Finally, conclude with a final bulletin of support, and invite the hiring manager to contact you lot via phone or email with any questions.

Make your recommendation letter of the alphabet positive simply accurate, and retrieve of means to brand it stand out from others that might exist in the pile.

And don't forget to customize your letter to the specific chore. Maybe the new company has a mission that the job seeker is especially passionate about, for instance, or perchance you lot know the job seeker would excel in a remote role where they tin can accept a flexible schedule.

By following these tips, yous'll be sure to write a stiff letter of recommendation for your employee or colleague. Your letter might even be that special sauce that scores them the job!

About Rebecca Safier

Rebecca Safier is a blogger and digital marketer who teaches others how to use SEO and other best practices to build assisting blogging businesses.