Dr. B., Would You Write a Letter of Recommendation for Me? [The Way Ahead]

he course I most frequently teach is a junior-level class that is required for all electrical engineering majors: Signals and Systems. It is the foundational signal processing course covering convolution, Fourier transforms, sampling, and other topics. For years, I have been the only professor teaching this course, so I have the opportunity to meet all of our department's majors. Right after junior year is when most students apply for an internship, a permanent job in industry, or graduate school or a scholarship. Often, it is a joy for me towrite glowing letters about high-performing students whoreally loved my class and interacted frequently. However, because all electrical engineering majors must take this course, there are a few who have a very low level of interest and do not leave the best impression, making it very difficult to write a positive letter for them. I wish all students taking this course-and every course-would always approach it with the attitude that, at the end of the semester, they're going to be asking me, Dr. B., would you write a letter of recommendation for me? What do faculty consider when writing our letters for students? Plenty of things. Let me give you the inside story. One local company with a worldwide footprint has a form, which it used to send me, with a series of questions it wanted answered about its job candidates. These questions are different from those used in live interviews that candidates practice for in advance. I'll share the questions with you and provide some context for each (see What Do Employers Want To Know About Students?). Think about how each professor teaching every course you take might answer these questions. Also, consider what you could do while taking the class so that the professor could write a glowing review for you. This is a test you can prepare for, and it doesn't require you to be an A student. In fact, I have had some C students for whom I wrote nicer letters than those for A students. © 2019 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. All rights reserved.