Don’t request or get a recommendation/reference letter from a random person, a friend, or a family member who has never worked with you or taught you. Their evaluations are assumed to be biased and will not count much.

I get requests from online connections daily asking for recommendation letters for admissions or jobs. This is not to your advantage since I haven’t worked with most of you and can’t say anything concrete about you. Even if I am able to say anything meaningful, it may not count and you would have wasted an opportunity to get a valid referee. Avoid.

There is nothing wrong with providing a summary of key achievements in relation to your time with each referee that they can build on to write your reference. They may not be able to remember all of them. It also makes work easier since people are generally busy. In fact, I will strongly advise you to do this.

#RitaOrjiTips

Just a reminder, when applying for jobs or admission: ‘Use the job title as the email subject line. Never leave this blank or use things like, CV or looking for a job, etc. If you are not applying for a specific role, then indicate the types of roles you are looking for instead.’

To be continued…