Job Discussion Forums

[baa_baa]

[baa_baa]

[nomad soul]

Reference or recommendation letters (AKA experience/reference certificates) from your last two or three employers should include the dates you were employed with them as well as info about your character, work habits, accomplishments, classroom management, teaching style, yada yada � basically, when and how you performed your work and why you're a great catch. Each letter should be on official letterhead and include the contact information, title, and signature of the person providing the reference. (Before listing someone as a reference on your resume/CV or job application, contact them first to make sure they're okay with providing a written or verbal recommendation or reference on your behalf.)

[veiledsentiments]

[baa_baa]

[nomad soul]

I hear you, VS, but reference/recommendation letters are just that: a description of the employee's experience and character as a predictor for potential employment. They're not intended to confirm dates a person was employed. However, having general dates on these letters simply indicates how recent the employers' observations and interactions with the employee occurred. As for salaries and specific dates of employment over the past umpteen years, that info usually goes on the employment application along with the HR contact information for each previous employer. This has been my experience working in the Gulf thus far. But I can see where requiring employment verification letters from past places of employment could be a nightmare. I guess it comes down to what each potential employer is looking for in terms of verification and references.

[veiledsentiments]

[johnslat]

In Saudi, every time I left, the Director at that time would tell me, "You write it; I'll sign it."

It was very difficult to be modest - so, I didn't try to be

Regards,
John

[veiledsentiments]

I presume that your director was not a native speaker of English. I only got that response once with a local, rather than expat, supervisor. It made me uncomfortable to write about myself, so I agreed to sit down and write it "with" her rather than for her.

Turns out that I was a wonderful employee and person.

VS

[johnslat]

Dear VS,

My directors were always Saudis - and I had 4 or 5 different ones in my time there. Amazingly enough, they were all fine - ranging from good to excellent.

The only problems the "good" one had were that he was vulnerable to student wasta and lacked the backbone to stand up to the higher-ups when those higher-ups were proposing some idiotic new policy.

Bur there was really only one like that. The others were excellent. I still correspond with some of them.

Regards,
John