Recommendation Letter

[msdaschcav]

I completed a nurse refresher course this December and the instructor was nice enough to write me a recommendation letter. I was licensed in 2009 and never worked as a nurse. The problem is he is a contract instructor at the college and also a firefighter and the letter is not on letterhead. I don't want to bother him again and ask him to re-write it. What should I do?

[caliotter3]

Use the letter as it is. At least you got one. I am assuming that he explains the professional contact in the letter, if not, then a new letter would be in line, and you could mention using college letterhead.

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

Use the letter that he gave you. If the HR department has a question about it, they will either call you or contact him if he left contact info.

If it will ease your anxiety, you could email him and tell him that you are submitting his letter and that you want to give him a "head's up" that he might be contacted by various HR departments to verify that he was indeed the author since it was not on college letterhead. This act will do two things for you: you will be communicating to him that he should expect a call regarding his letter about you (there is nothing worse than being in the middle of something, getting a call from someone you don't know who wants to talk about verification and reaching into your memory bank with the resulting silence as you catch up with the caller), and you will be gently reminding him that most places of employment expect a letter of recommendation on college letterhead. He will be appreciative for the notice and you will feel more relaxed.

[MJB2010]

Can you photocopy it onto letterhead? I actually would recommend making copies of reference letters to keep for your file anyway, so you have them later on. Keep the original. Otherwise youll have to ask the guy for a new letter for each job, which could be annoying.

I copied all of my references onto the same paper as my resume and give a packet when interviewing, I keep the originals in my folder and have offered to show to interviewers but none of them have cared to see the original. I just liked having it all look uniform. Weird maybe?