Another ? for the HR folks

[Galaril]

Here is another thread to harass all you HR hiring managers and such :p This is kind of a continuation on the other thread aboiut resumes and coverletters. I am wondering how many letters of recommendation should someone have especially for IT jobs? Is two or three too few? What kind of content should it contain rough idea? Most of the people I have ask for letters have said "Sure. Just send me a email/note with what you want me to say." Should letters be sealed/ unopened, which means they would need to send me like 50 copies of a letter each.Should the letter be on their business/company stationery, does it matter?

[Marc Vaughan]

(first off - I'm not a 'real' HR person, just that SI is small enough that I happen to do hiring etc. ... so feel free to ignore me)

The letter should defniitely be on company stationary (as it decreases the chances your mum wrote it ;) ) ...

If you want to be flash make it a sealed envelope as a less cynical person than myself might take that as a statement of faith in what is within it (ie. you might nnot know yourself) ... which if swallowed is obviously a positive.

Regarding the content itself I'd expect it to simply indicate what the persons view of you is in relation to the work you did with them at the company (as this shows that you worked together and that they have a positive view of your work, examples of specifics is useful if it doesn't violate any contracts - it doesn't have to be techy, just an overview).

Hope this helps,

Marc

[Galaril]

(first off - I'm not a 'real' HR person, just that SI is small enough that I happen to do hiring etc. ... so feel free to ignore me)

The letter should defniitely be on company stationary (as it decreases the chances your mum wrote it ;) ) ...

If you want to be flash make it a sealed envelope as a less cynical person than myself might take that as a statement of faith in what is within it (ie. you might nnot know yourself) ... which if swallowed is obviously a positive.

Regarding the content itself I'd expect it to simply indicate what the persons view of you is in relation to the work you did with them at the company (as this shows that you worked together and that they have a positive view of your work, examples of specifics is useful if it doesn't violate any contracts - it doesn't have to be techy, just an overview).

Hope this helps,

Marc


Thanks that is some help. Yeah, I got a couple of recoomendations from people but one of them is no longer employed at the same company we worked at togther and is now self-employed so the letter they gave me was just a standard letter though signed . But it does have contact number so that might smooth that over.