stop sending me recommendation letters by Alison Green on November 17, 2008 Please stop with the letters of recommendation! Don’t attach them to your resume and don’t offer them up at the interview. I know you feel good about them but, unfortunately, they aren’t useful. Here’s why: When hiring managers get to the point that we want to talk to your references, we want to talk to them—on the phone, where we can ask questions and probe around. We want to hear their tone, hear where they hesitate before answering, hear what happens when we dig around about potential problem areas. Plus, we know that those letters don’t count for much, having been asked to write them ourselves. No one puts critical information in those letters, even though constructive criticism can be had for everyone, no matter how great they are, and that sort of information is obviously of great interest when checking references. Taken to an extreme, letters can even hurt you. I’ve had applicants attach 10 or more letters of recommendation to their application. That kind of overkill looks silly and naive. When I’m ready for references, I’ll ask you for phone numbers of people who are willing to talk to me about you. Letters are not useful to most hiring managers. You may also like:should you attach your cover letter or put it in the body of the email?interviewer missed two phone interviews, exposing tattoos to coworkers, and moreour staff chat all day long and it’s messing up their work, my daughter rejected me for a job, and more { Comments Off on stop sending me recommendation letters }