Letter of Rec Woes
The numbers are tapering off now, but every now and then I still get a desparate student contacting me for a letter of recommendation. I should point out that I left academia about four and a half years ago to pursue a nice, mundane, relatively drama-less job concerning computers and programming. The extra bonus--no dumb students.
Anyway, I just got off the phone about 10 seconds ago. This guy worked as a physics tutor, was smart, nice, but essentially, I barely knew him. In fact, he only worked for me for one semester. Aside from saying he was punctual and that he has a heavy accent, I can't think of anything else that stands out about this guy. For an academic job, merely being smart isn't good enough--you either have to be a phenominal teacher or produce phenominal research. He begged for a letter of rec (due in a week, mind you) trying to wrench my arm into writing him one because no one else would write a letter for him.
Now, this ought to have been a clue to said grad student. Unfortauntely I had to flat out tell him that a bad or mediocre letter of rec is even worse than no rec at all. He seemed hurt.
I feel mildly guilty. In reality, I do remember some things about him and none are good. I remember that he started the PhD program 4 years before I started, that I finished my masters and was working for my 4th year while he was still in the same PhD program. He took too damn long to find an advisor he liked and essentially had to start again. I remember funding was taken away from him due to not producing anything or worth and he had to transfer to another school. Before doing so, he worked for me for one semester. I found it odd that someone many years my senior was now my employee.... At the new university, he managed to finish a second masters. That is to say, he didn't finish his PhD there either.
So now, he's trying to find work teaching at a community college. There's this mean side to me that wants him to get a dose of tough love. It's his fault for not having several back ups for these letters of recs and his fault for not covering his tracks with ample work experience, etc. At the same time, he's from Korea and language is probably a barrier. I wonder if he reached out to me because I'm Asian, hoping for some mercy. I'm not sure. Either way, I'm not feeling good about the situation.
I'm thinking about my own academic bridges I've burned. My advisor and I ended on ill terms and the last job I was at, I quit. Hence, are there people who could write a good letter of rec for me if I needed it? Probably not. But instead of begging a past supervisor and doing the whole "but no one will help me bit!" I would have taken other classes, taken on other small jobs, etc. to build up a group of people who would say something nice about me. Blargh. Tough love indeed.
On a whimsical note. I wonder if Trent would write me a letter of rec if I asked. Ha!
Anyway, I just got off the phone about 10 seconds ago. This guy worked as a physics tutor, was smart, nice, but essentially, I barely knew him. In fact, he only worked for me for one semester. Aside from saying he was punctual and that he has a heavy accent, I can't think of anything else that stands out about this guy. For an academic job, merely being smart isn't good enough--you either have to be a phenominal teacher or produce phenominal research. He begged for a letter of rec (due in a week, mind you) trying to wrench my arm into writing him one because no one else would write a letter for him.
Now, this ought to have been a clue to said grad student. Unfortauntely I had to flat out tell him that a bad or mediocre letter of rec is even worse than no rec at all. He seemed hurt.
I feel mildly guilty. In reality, I do remember some things about him and none are good. I remember that he started the PhD program 4 years before I started, that I finished my masters and was working for my 4th year while he was still in the same PhD program. He took too damn long to find an advisor he liked and essentially had to start again. I remember funding was taken away from him due to not producing anything or worth and he had to transfer to another school. Before doing so, he worked for me for one semester. I found it odd that someone many years my senior was now my employee.... At the new university, he managed to finish a second masters. That is to say, he didn't finish his PhD there either.
So now, he's trying to find work teaching at a community college. There's this mean side to me that wants him to get a dose of tough love. It's his fault for not having several back ups for these letters of recs and his fault for not covering his tracks with ample work experience, etc. At the same time, he's from Korea and language is probably a barrier. I wonder if he reached out to me because I'm Asian, hoping for some mercy. I'm not sure. Either way, I'm not feeling good about the situation.
I'm thinking about my own academic bridges I've burned. My advisor and I ended on ill terms and the last job I was at, I quit. Hence, are there people who could write a good letter of rec for me if I needed it? Probably not. But instead of begging a past supervisor and doing the whole "but no one will help me bit!" I would have taken other classes, taken on other small jobs, etc. to build up a group of people who would say something nice about me. Blargh. Tough love indeed.
On a whimsical note. I wonder if Trent would write me a letter of rec if I asked. Ha!
posted by cchang at 11:59 AM
5 Comments:
you probably did him a favor, though. like you said, a bad letter isn't worth it. it sucks that he's having problems getting recommendations, but if there's nothing good to say about him then it would be a reeeely short letter. and it's not like you could increase the font size and decrease the margins and add charts or anything...not that that normally helps anyway (found that out the hard way...).
and it would be awesome if you got a letter of rec from trent. :) when i worked in admissions processing we got a letter of rec for an applicant from lisa kudrow (phoebe from friends). it was a nice letter. we all wanted to steal it and sell it on ebay. and that's all i can say because god knows who is reading this.
just kidding. I WAS A GOOD EMPLOYEE.
Lisa Kudro? Really? Wow!
P.S. I got into ballet!!!!! Holy shit, the teacher is nice looking and straight. He looks like MAtthew McCounaghey
yay! IS he matthew mcconaughey??
No. he's better looking. :) Not as bulky and can actually dance.
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