How to Ask for a Reference or Recommendation

Julie Obermeyer Author

04/28/2020 Added

12 Plays

Description

CASNR Peer Career Coach Abby Misfeldt explains how to ask for a reference or recommendation.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:02.240]Take 287.
[00:00:03.519](snap)
[00:00:04.352]And a half.
[00:00:05.740]What's up Huskers?
[00:00:06.760]It's me Abby.
[00:00:08.040]After after all of your searching
[00:00:10.150]you finally found the job you love.
[00:00:11.860]Yay!
[00:00:13.180]Or maybe just one that you tolerate
[00:00:14.530]because you know life is expensive.
[00:00:16.040]I got you.
[00:00:17.320]But you've got your resume polished,
[00:00:18.950]your cover letter tailored,
[00:00:20.560]and now all you need are references
[00:00:22.240]to say good things about you.
[00:00:23.750]And you might have a few people in mind.
[00:00:25.300]And they might have already agreed
[00:00:26.680]to be your general reference.
[00:00:28.070]But there are a couple of steps that we're gonna talk about
[00:00:30.530]before you actually list them on an application.
[00:00:33.230]The first thing to do is talk to them.
[00:00:37.630]Ask them if they know you well enough
[00:00:40.630]to write a positive reference.
[00:00:43.026]Don't ask someone who could write a bad one,
[00:00:45.270]or a meh kind of one, no.
[00:00:47.330]The key word is positive.
[00:00:50.780]Tell them about this job you're applying for,
[00:00:52.430]tell them why you're excited,
[00:00:54.450]tell them about this company.
[00:00:55.670]They could know someone who used to work there
[00:00:57.770]or is currently working there
[00:00:58.950]and they could help you out in ways you didn't even know.
[00:01:01.810]The next step, is to provide them with lots of information.
[00:01:06.330]Even if they don't ask for it,
[00:01:07.620]send them your resume, send them the job description.
[00:01:10.140]If you got your Gallup strengths results,
[00:01:12.760]send them that.
[00:01:13.593]Do not make them guess about you.
[00:01:16.620]Tell them about your experiences.
[00:01:18.240]Tell them about what you think your strengths are.
[00:01:20.010]Tell them about what you want them to talk about.
[00:01:23.235]These are all tools to help them
[00:01:25.620]write a better reference for you.
[00:01:28.180]If possible, meet with them in person
[00:01:30.010]or maybe, because it's still quarantine, you can't do that.
[00:01:34.730]Set a meeting over Zoom.
[00:01:36.880]The point is to get them to remember your face,
[00:01:39.170]the job you're applying for, the things that you want.
[00:01:42.380]If all this fails, this is the 21st century,
[00:01:44.650]there's emails, there's phone calls,
[00:01:46.020]there's all kinds of things.
[00:01:47.820]Finally, give them time.
[00:01:50.380]Do not make them cram the same way I know you're cramming.
[00:01:55.030]Employers have different ways of contacting references.
[00:01:57.820]They might call them, they might email them,
[00:01:59.450]they might ask them to write a letter of recommendation.
[00:02:03.470]Be aware of deadlines and give them lots of time.
[00:02:07.470]Now, in this video I talked about getting a job
[00:02:10.000]but all of these skills applies for scholarships,
[00:02:12.630]for internships, for anything, so.
[00:02:17.580]In fact, actually I wrote this script based on
[00:02:20.000]the steps that I took to get my internship.
[00:02:22.200]I knew one of my professors well enough,
[00:02:24.010]I asked him if he could write a positive reference for me
[00:02:26.690]and he did.
[00:02:28.050]I talked to him in person, I sent him my resume,
[00:02:30.540]I sent him the job description,
[00:02:31.880]I told him why I was so excited,
[00:02:33.350]I told him about this company and when we were done,
[00:02:36.590]I emailed everything I had to him
[00:02:39.250]because I would've forgotten, you would have forgotten.
[00:02:41.667]Let's just accept this about ourselves.
[00:02:44.580]So, with all my good references lined up,
[00:02:47.120]my wonderful resume and my hours of interview prep,
[00:02:51.250]I landed an internship that I love
[00:02:54.250]and I'm super pumped for it.
[00:02:55.880]But, that's all for this video and I will see you soon.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

How to Ask for a Reference or Recommendation

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments