Letters of Recommendation
Being a "Reference"
Sponsor my internship
Change my grading option
Late drop of a course
Resume: Will you take a look?
Q: Will you write a Letter of Recommendation for me?
A: I understand that writing recommendations is a chief secondary duty of faculty and how important recommendations are for students hoping to get Scholarships, admission to grad school, and so on. However, my classes are large, and I need to warn you: I may know you less well than you know me, or than you think I know you.
To request a Letter of Recommendation, write me a briefing by e-mail:
Nothing in the above should preclude you from coming in to office hours and discussing your plans or making your case (for example, by bringing in graded papers). But I will ask you for the e-mail briefing as well, as I handle Letters of Recommendation from my home computer in my spare time.
Q: Will you be a reference for me?
A: Just to be picky here, I will stand as a "Referee" for you, and what I
will give is a reference. (By the way, you are the referand). I'm
happy to give a reference for you.
In practice, many firms ask for the names of people who know you . . . and then don't do anything with the information. That is, they ask you for names, but rarely get around to calling.
The protocol here is to ask me if I'm prepared to be a referee--you can do this by e-mail: Once you have my agreement, you can give the firm my e-mail and phone number (on the tag line of any e-mail you've received from me). It's a good idea to send a follow-up e-mail to alert me to who may be calling me from each firm.
Many firms that handle money (accountants, I-Banks) want me to say that you are honest and trustworthy. No offense, but I don't know that. My experience has been that many people who are delightful in class have very disordered personal lives. I can't comment on things I don't know, and will so state. I can only talk about your behavior that I have observed--most often this is in a limited environment in the classroom.
Please see my text book,
Business Protocol for more information on references, how to come up with
"three good references" and how to present them.
Q: Can you take a look at my resume?
A: Happy to! Before your bring in your resume,
please look at the sample resumes I maintain
for my Business Communications class. As you'll see, there are several
resumes--all of them conform to good layout and our recommendations for content,
but they reflect individual students' situations (the names have been changed)
such as plenty of volunteer work but not much paid employment, and so on. You
should not include your High School graduation (everyone at Berkeley was
valedictorian, really) and by the time you get to Haas, you won't have any
mention of HS activities. I understand, however, that during your first year at
Cal, if you cut out everything to do with HS, you won't have anything left. Note
we're not big on "Honors and Awards" because recruiters aren't interested that
you are listed in "Outstanding HS Students in America" (you're only listed
because you sent in the fee) or that you won the 11th grade Biology prize.
However, if you have something of statewide or national significance (e.g.
National debate champ, Regents' Scholar, fastest backstroker in CA), then, yes,
you can include that.
Please fluff up your resumes as best you can to our style, then I'll be happy to
work with you on wording. Note that it has to be just one page, and you can see
that even though I've had a bit more work experience than you, my resume is just
one page.
Q: Hi Dave! Would you like to sponsor my internship? I'll be working unpaid 20 hours a week at XYZ brokerage and they said I have to have a faculty sponsor.
A: No. Err, no thank you.
Explanation: As I like to say, at Berkeley, we give academic credit for academic work (you know, going off to the library, reading books, writing papers). I'm always tempted to write back: "Why don't you ask XYZ firm if they'll pay you to go to school?" Of course they won't--they pay people for work.
Here's what's going on: In many industries, it makes sense for firms to offer people unpaid internships. But America is a litigious society, and one day the Xerox-person doesn't show up and your boss says: "Would you run the copy machine today?" People go along with this for a while, and then they realize, "Hey! I'm essentially the unpaid copy-person here. I should at least be making minimum wage." So firms that give unpaid internships are in fear and trembling that an intern will come back after the fact and use the Federal Wage & Hour Law to demand at least minimum wage (more likely, the same salary as the Xerox-person was making). Sometime in the last ten years, one company's law firm discovered that there's a wonderful exception to the Minimum Wage Law: If someone is receiving college credit for an internship then they needn't be paid. Note that it's apparently specific: You get either credit or have to be paid, but once you are enrolled for credit you don't need to be paid.
Haas has a clear policy of "no credit for internships". The Career Center
notes that other
departments may be less picky, and the usual work-around is to register for
credit at Community Colleges. Since I don't approve of academic credit for
internships, I will not provide you with any assistance on this.
Q: Can you change my grading option
to P/NP?
A: Instructors cannot change this option--the student can change the option
on-line up to the Universities deadline each semester. After that, the grading
option can only be changed by a "dean" (student services or advisor at your
"college" which may be Letters & Science if undeclared). Note that advisors
almost never give permission for a late change in option after grades have been
posted. If you are asked to get the Instructor's approval, I don't think you
need it--you can show advisors this web-page. I consider the grading option a
matter for the student and college and I take no position on this.
Q: I registered for your course, but haven't been attending. Will you sign this form?
A: No. Almost all our courses have waitlists and unseated students. Your failure to tidy up your enrollments wasted a place in one of our courses.