Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am writing a recommendation letter for an employee of mine for his graduate studies and I have no idea what to reply to this required question, can someone give me an idea how to approach this:
Describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant’s response.
That seems like an odd focus. I'm not familiar with grad school programs providing a list of questions to people providing letters of recommendation, but--whatever.
What type of job was it? Did you have the opportunity to provide constructive feedback to the employee? I think they're after--> how did the employee excel at the job, or what did s/he do that was noteworthy? What were his/her strengths, that lead you to provide positive feedback?
That seems like an odd focus. I'm not familiar with grad school programs providing a list of questions to people providing letters of recommendation, but--whatever.
What type of job was it? Did you have the opportunity to provide constructive feedback to the employee? I think they're after--> how did the employee excel at the job, or what did s/he do that was noteworthy? What were his/her strengths, that lead you to provide positive feedback?
Does that help?
yes it helps. i still have no idea how to write it though lol
Describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant’s response.
This may be very different from what I understand the question to be, but it sounds like the prompt is asking you to give a specific instance where you have given this employee feedback on areas in which he or she may improve, how the applicant responded to said feedback, and whether the applicant evolved from the feedback.
For example, your employee may have done a tremendous job at a presentation where he or she presented the information in an organized and clear format. He or she was also an engaging speaker. However, you noticed his or her over-reliance on powerpoint slides and the slides were too busy with too many words and animations. You give your employee constructive feedback by suggesting less text-heavy visual aids and less animations. You suggested this might allow the audience to focus more on his/her presentation with less distractions from the busy powerpoint slides. Detail whether your employee took the time to digest the advice, whether he/she was graceful/appreciative/combative/argumentative in receiving the suggestion, and whether you saw the advice incorporated in subsequent presentations.
This is really a standard question about someone's ability to listen, process, and grow as an adult learner. In the adult world, and especially in higher education, people receive suggestions and constructive criticism from their mentors and peers all the time. Some people have the maturity to process these suggestions and incorporate some or all of the suggestions in their subsequent work. Some do not take suggestions kindly and have difficulty seeing their behavior/work outside the scope of their personal worldviews. Many programs in higher education and in the real world are interested in individuals who demonstrate the ability to reflect and mature academically and professionally. Hope this helps you craft your response to the prompt.
Assuming you are writing a very positive letter, I would start off saying that X takes direction and feedback well and seeks to make appropriate changes. Then give the specific example and how X responded and how that improved his/her quality of work (or whatever) and increased his/her learning in the position. I would work it into the paragraph about X's positive qualities.
If they are your employee, probably at some point you've conducted a performance review. Look at those and see what comments were made about areas of improvement. Hopefully these areas were discussed constructively rather than just as a criticism.
So you basically relate that information in your letter to the school. It sounds like the school is just trying to get something useful out of the references rather than the typical 'XYZ is a wonderful person that I strong recommend for blah blah blah' BS.
Say he was in sales and a customer was looking to buy a product from him. He sold the product and did well with the customer. You told him so but that he missed a chance to ask the customer for any other people the product could help.
He thanked you and next time got leads from the customer he sold to. He followed thru on your advice to upsell
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
