As a follow up to last week’s post on letters of recommendation: have you ever had to write your own? Have you ever asked a student or intern to write her own?
It’s hard enough to convey someone else’s distinctive strengths and detail what makes them a great match for a particular job. But writing about yourself—that takes a kind of optimistic objectivity that most of us struggle to find.
And yet, writing your own recommendation can pay dividends with all of your promotional materials. It’s great for generating material for your bio, cover letter, or teaching philosophy statement.
In a letter of recommendation, we have limited words to make an impression. Just like in an interview, bio, or cover letter, it’s about choosing carefully what to highlight and doing our best to consider this from the intended reader’s perspective.
This is not about trying to write whatever we think will please the reader. But it IS about understanding their priorities so that we focus on the most relevant essentials, detailing the aspects and illustrating the experience and skills we have that matter most.
Ultimately, an effective letter of recommendation needs to answer the question, what kind of dent in the universe is the candidate likely to make? It’s a question about how you affect others and how you effect change.
To draft the most recent letters of recommendation I needed to write, I started by thinking about the core qualities of the individuals in question.
To identify these qualities I thought about stand out moments in my experience working with them. Moments that seemed to crystalize or illustrate that person’s thinking, the way they interact with others, and their values—as demonstrated in their work.
You can use this same approach to draft your own “recommendation material” to use in bios, cover letters, etc:
This week’s challenge: Take a 10 minute coffee/tea break and draft a short list of the top 3 qualities you believe you are known for — in relation to the work you do or would like to do.
Think about what colleagues and mentors would write about you in a letter of recommendation. Note: this is not the time to be overly hard on yourself — be both optimistic AND objective: positive AND honest.
Extra points if your 3 qualities address:
A. The way you think
B. The way you treat others
C. The quality of the work you produce
Next to each quality list a specific example from your past that demonstrates your quality in action.
Once you have your 3 qualities and examples for each, check if these are included in your current bio, cover letters, and other promotional materials. If not, why not?
As always, I’d LOVE to hear what you think about any of this!
Dream Big, Plan Smart, Live Well
