# Letter of Reference



## MM9232 (Dec 24, 2011)

I am currently an engineering undergrad student with a career fair approaching(early February). One of my professors offered to write a letter of reference if i ever needed it after seeing my performance in his class. I am not familiar with a letter of ref though, are they commonly specific to a company? or simply something that is universal(essentially the same as your list of references). Also, should i include this professor on my list of references even though i also have the written letter? Any advice is appreciated, as you can see i am clearly lacking knowledge in this field.


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## solomonb (Dec 25, 2011)

OK, not a problem! Have the professor write the letter of reference for you. I am sure that he has written many reference letters before and knows the drill. Keep the original copy in a safe place and if necessary, make copies to give to your business contacts. Yes, include this professor on your reference contact list also. Sometimes, hiring officials do not see the correllation between the letter and the list of references. Makes no difference, be glad that he offered to give you a letter!

You don't need to identify references in your resume-- if you get an interview, the topic will probably arise at that time. It is then that you need to share that you have these references and want the interview official to have them and check with them about you. Make sure that your references think positively about you, will give you a great reference instead of a "lukewarm" reference. No reference is better than one that is just luke warm.

Good luck with the job fair! Have you taken and successfully passed the FE exam? If not, get studying-- get that done, so that you can get the clock started on the PE exam.


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## jeb6294 (Jan 4, 2012)

My resume has the standard "References available upon request" but I don't think it's ever come up. I think by that point, they've already been sufficiently impressed (or repulsed...whatever the case may be) by your resume and interview that references aren't a huge deal. Nice to have it though, I had one from a family friend who owned his own engineering company.


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