Sample Letter of Recommendation

Sample Letters of Recommendation

For a New Graduate

To Whom It May Concern:

I have worked with Leticia Adams for more than a year during her internship in our marketing department. She has demonstrated a wonderful initiative and a positive attitude toward accomplishment. Both qualities that have made her a valuable member of our team. It is with pride that I recommend her for your marketing associate position.

In addition to her general duties, Leticia revamped our dual database system to better facilitate advertising billing and measure effectiveness. She also identified a need for a stronger press release circulation system, researched the options and created a persuasive proposal that convinced the president of our organization to find the funds for the project. Leticia rarely had an idle moment – she always found some way to make things go more smoothly and did it all with a smile. We will sincerely miss her.

Leticia’s attitude, application of effort and innovative spirit will be strong assets to your company. Please do not hesitate to call me if you’d like more information about this recommendation.

Most Sincerely,

Maxine Nichols

Marketing Project Coordinator

Dramark Industries

For an Employment Opportunity

To Whom It May Concern:

Please accept this letter as my personal letter of recommendation for Suzanne Harris. As president of the Midwest Banking Association, I hired Suzanne as a college intern with exceptional potential, and she immediately became an integral member of our staff. Now, six years later, she is in pursuit of new opportunities to expand her considerable skills.

Suzanne has a winning attitude that embraces all challenges and encourages collaboration. The phrase “team player” is often overused, but Suzanne is truly that. She draws the best out of every person, promotes talent and shares successes. To better structure our services, she researched benefit impact and collected input from our association members, and many of her ideas have been mirrored by other regions.

Suzanne is also an effective leader. She clearly communicates expectations and notes strengths to better improve her team’s performance. Out of the four primary research teams in our firm, Suzanne’s is the only one without any turnover for three years running, and her team members evaluate her with high marks every year.

As sad as I am to see her go, it is also my pleasure to recommend Suzanne for your organization. She will be a terrific addition.

Sincerely,

Thomas Ellory

President

Midwest Banking Association

For a Reference of Character

To Whom It May Concern:

I have been a close friend and business associate of Alonzo Garcia for more than four years. We’ve worked together and planned activities on such volunteer projects as our employer’s United Way Campaign, the ALS Walk for Hope and the Everybody Wins reading mentorship program.

Alonzo has a generous spirit and is a loyal, positive individual. He’s also the “go-to” guy in our office; people continually turn to him for extra help both personally and professionally. His strong work ethic has helped him achieve a number of successes in his career, but he still makes time to take his grandmother to dinner every Sunday, saying she’s the reason he remembers, “where he came from.” That’s a quality I’ve always admired. I trust him impeccably because frankly, he’s never let me down. And we laugh together. A lot!

For all these reasons, I would highly recommend Alonzo for the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring program.

Please call me if you need more information.

Sincerely,

Ryan Goldman

Conclusion

While it helps to be a good writer who expresses thought well, the writer and applicant can certainly collaborate on the letter if need be. Another common practice is for someone to sign a letter the applicant has drafted. Both the writer and applicant should keep a copy of the letter for future reference.

As these sample letters of recommendation demonstrate, the key points to remember are:

• Clarify the writer/applicant relationship.
• Detail positive accomplishments, contributions and abilities.
• Be complimentary, but not overtly.