Revised January 2015 Page 1
Georgetown University Student Employment Office
How to Write an Effective Recommendation Letter
Georgetown University Student Employment Office
3520 Prospect Street, NW | Car Barn, Suite 304 | Washington, DC 20057
Should I write a recommendation letter for this student?
For many Georgetown students, their on-campus job is their first real job. It is the first time that they have worked in a
professional setting, developed soft skills, and had the opportunity to form a relationship with a supervisor. As such,
you may be asked to write a letter of recommendation for your student employee.
When a student asks you to write a letter of recommendation, it is important to consider your relationship with him/her.
If the student has been working in your department for the past seven semesters and has consistently produced
excellent work, you may want to support this student by writing a strong letter of recommendation. On the other hand,
if you don’t know the student well, you may want to talk to the student and see if they can ask somebody else.
Remember: you should always act in the student’s best interest. If you are not the right person to write a strong letter
of recommendation in support of their application, you should let the student know.
Where should I begin?
The first thing you need to do is prepare. A strong letter of recommendation will be able to speak to the student’s skills.
This requires knowledge of the student, exceeding your everyday interactions.
Note: Don’t ever ask the student to draft their own recommendation letter. This neither saves time nor increases the
quality of the letter! A genuine letter will have much more weight.
To begin, ask the student to provide you with supplementary materials:
Resume – this can give you a general idea of the student’s activities outside of your office. You can take details
from the student’s resume to supplement your statements. For example, if you are commenting on the
student’s leadership skills, you can also mention his/her involvement in a club on campus. Be careful, though, to
not merely repeat everything on the resume. Include your own perceptions, and stay focused on the student’s
performance in your office!
Purpose of the letter – this can help guide your letter: remember, every recommendation letter should be
tailored towards the goal. A recommendation letter for an MBA program would be very different than a
recommendation letter for nursing school. Try to focus on the aspects of the student that would be most
relevant to the position or school.
History with the student – this allows the student to highlight key events that happened during your time
together, from his/her perspective. It might give you an indication of what the student is looking for in the
letter, and it may remind you of important achievements that you have forgotten or overlooked!