Personal recommendations are an important request and require special attention to make them suitable. If you’ve been asked to write a personal letter of recommendation for a friend, you may have ...

Here is a common scene: A supervisor agrees to write your letter of recommendation with one condition—you draft it. Shocker. We, too, were surprised the first time this happened to us. We assumed ...

Confirm you’re comfortable writing it. Politely declining is perfectly OK if you don’t feel you can write a strong or meaningful recommendation. It’s better to be honest than to provide a lukewarm ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Mark C. Perna is a generational expert who covers education & careers.

A compelling reference letter can be a decisive factor in the hiring process. The value of a strong recommendation cannot be overstated in today’s competitive job market. I’ve seen how a well-crafted ...

Johnny C. Taylor Jr. tackles your human resources questions as part of a series for USA TODAY. Taylor is president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management, the world's largest HR ...

A few years ago, I wrote “A Letter to College Students (From All Profs)” in which I provided advice to students about how to ask for letters of recommendation. Interestingly, just as students do not ...

Writing a counselor recommendation letter for a student applying to college is a meaningful responsibility. You're not just offering support — you're adding valuable context that college admissions ...

Writing letters of reference for your employees is an important part of the employee separation process when a company closes. A company shutdown is a difficult situation for everyone involved, but a ...

If you are in any leadership position, you will likely have to write a letter of recommendation for an employee, coworker, student or intern. Being asked to write a letter of recommendation means the ...

Johnny C. Taylor Jr. tackles your human resources questions as part of a series for USA TODAY. Taylor is president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management, the world's largest HR ...