As I write this we have had some our former college student volunteers coming in and asking for letters of recommendation.

I see them making mistakes.  In this section I’d like to look at what I see as good and bad practices when it comes to letters of recommendations.

Don’t Be Shy

As a pharmacist who takes volunteers I expect to get asked to write letters of recommendation.  So ask.  Too often I get students in who come in with their head hanging, shuffling their feet and beating around the bush.  I (yes, this is a personal thing but it’s my book) view this as a form of social ineptitude.

If your desire is to become a pharmacist we’ve already talked about the fact that you have to be able to confront and talk to doctors and other extremely smart personnel.  Get used to it.  Practice your pitch before you come in.  It doesn’t have to be anything more than, “Curtis, would you be willing to write a letter of recommendation for me?” It shouldn’t be any harder than that.

Give Them Material to Work With

When you  ask for a letter of recommendation make sure to give that person as much background material as they need…and then some.

By background material I mean your transcripts and who, specifically, the letter will be going to.

For example, if I know that a student will be applying to my alma mater that might change some of the wording in the letter because I have personal experience with that school.  If it’s another school that might change the wording to referring to my experience as an off-site instructor for a school of pharmacy.

Also, transcripts help for obvious reasons.  Are you worried about your transcripts?  Grades a little marginal?  My method has always been to address that in the letter of recommendation.  I’m a direct person and I have found that you’re not going to fool anyone by not addressing it.

Say for example you got a ‘B’ in organic chemistry.  Was there extenuating circumstances for why that happened?  Perhaps you were taking care of a loved one and had a lot of stress in your life?  I would address that and commend you for it in the letter.  Not only is it the truth but I think it can help your letter stand out a bit.  Remember, the schools aren’t necessarily looking for ‘robots’.  They went the most highly qualified applicants.  You don’t have to have straight A’s.  You do have to work hard.  Having a ‘B’ can still fall into that category.

Ask For It Early

Don’t come in three days before you have to send your letter off.  Pharmacists are busy people and, by in large, we have to write the letters of recommendation in our ‘off’ time.

All your going to do is show that you don’t care that much.  If you did, it would be a priority.

Go To the Best

In addition to giving the letter of recommendation writer material to work with you also have to couple that with getting the best letter of recommendation period.

What do I mean?  If you need three letters of recommendation try to get six.  Because some of the letters of recommendation you get back may not be all that convincing.

You could place your three less appealing letters of recommendation on your website that I talked abut earlier.

Frankly, you should probably know the person pretty well ahead of time and know what kind of effort they’ll put into something.

There’s nothing worse for a letter of recommendation to have one or two paragraphs that basically say, “Suzie was a really nice person and I recommend that you let her into pharmacy school.  Oh, did I mention that she’s a really nice person?”

You get the point.

It’s a balancing act between being a good candidate and finding the right people who will write you a great letter of recommendation.

An Option

Sometimes, people just aren’t very good at writing and struggle with it.

If that is the case here is something you may want to try, but you must be tactful.

Go and buy – or if you can find one free on the internet that you think is actually a quality piece of work – a letter of recommendation template book.

Basically, it’s a big compilation of different types of letters of recommendations that give you a bunch of ideas of how to format it.

When you get the person to commit to doing a letter of recommendation simply photocopy a few of the examples you liked and then tell the person something to the effect of, “If you are anything like me you might struggle getting started writing something like this.  Not to mention I know how busy you are so I hope you don’t mind that I’ve included a couple of examples of letters of recommendation that might save you some time and agony.”

While I write for part of my living and can usually come up with something, I can virtually promise you no one will shun you for this little gem.

The fact is most people view writing anything as some sort of gargantuan feat.  If you give them something like this you’ll be giving them ideas to use to make their job easier.

Not Just Pharmacists

While there’s nothing wrong with getting letters of recommendations from pharmacists it’s advisable to think outside the box also.

For example, do you know any doctors or nurses or any other respected health care professionals who work with or around pharmacists and know a good one from a dud?

If so, ask them.

Also, if you already have three good references (I mention three a lot because it seems to be the universal number when it comes to letters of recommendation) don’t be afraid to send one or two extra if they are really good.  Unless your application specifically states to only send three.  So don’t get carried away.

The point is to make your application stand out among a sea hundreds, maybe even thousands of other eager applicants.

Weak letters of recommendation won’t cut it.

No Excuses

One of the first things I see with potential pharmacy students is they aren’t willing to do the work needed to gather really good letters of recommendation.

Remember, pharmacy school is very competitive.  You are going to have to go above and beyond.  If this is something you don’t want to do then you’re only setting yourself  up for frustration.

If you want to become a pharmacist that means you are going to be taking on a lot of responsibility down the road.

Recently I was reading a book by Pat Summit.  If you are a basketball fan you immediately know that she is the head coach of The University of Tennessee’s women’s basketball program.  And has more national championships, other than John Wooden, than any coach in major college history.

In her book she was talking about responsibility.  In it she said if you want responsibility that means taking responsibility whether it’s your fault or not.  She’s right.

Related posts:

1. How To Pass the NAPLEX
2. Pharmacy Jobs: An Intro To Your Options
3. What If The Pharmacy School Rejects Me?