Dissecting a Recommendation Letter

An young colleague (YC) has decided to pursue higher education in US of A. As a result, he sent me his recommendation letters for improvising the content. Since I stopped my pursuit of education immediately after getting an engineering degree, I never had to undergo through this pain. After reading through the recommendation, I have a newfound respect towards both the writer and the reader. I am listing some of the excerpts in below in bold.

I have known YC for four years…as an active member of the Malayalee Association. But what is a Malayalee? Does a person sitting in Chico or Kalamazoo and reading this recommendation letter know about Malayalees?

What impressed me about YC right from the beginning is his high spirit and enthusiasm in everything he put his hands on! High spirits make sense. After all, Malayalees are a “spirit” loving people and the sales report of the beverages in the state can vouch for it. But what intrigues me is how the professor found out “everything” that YC put his hands on? The search for everything in the subsequent paragraphs were futile. There is no quantification of everything! It is open to interpretation.

His energy level is so high that everyone wanted his presence for making the function a success. YC is very modest. What can he do if the professor noticed the clamoring for YC’s presence!

He does not accept what he is told to him and asks questions to satiate his curiosity… YC may come across as a person having problem with authority. But we are like this only!

The major issue was attendance shortage. YC took it upon himself to counsel his classmates with a shortage of attendance and ensure that they henceforth attended classes and made up their attendance. WOW! Since I did not have anyone half as nice as you as my classmate, I had to rely on the shady overweight doctor running the clinic who was ready to write out an illness certificate for Rs 20.

Thus, I would say that YC has a very well rounded personality! Bingo! You got that correct. YC is in fact a well “round”ed person!

Picture Courtesy: http://www.apcweb.com

Tags: Musings,Young Colleague

Comments

  1. ROFL , Kudos to the writer :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. smart buddy u dint say about yrself in "henpecked" list hehehh..:) cheers yar..

    ReplyDelete
  3. Read this one earlier but did not have the time to post a comment.
    This was funny. I have often read some CVs sent to my husband for jobs and found them very entertaining. I specially like reading the part regarding marital status, though I do not know what has that got to do with a job. One guy wrote "willing to try" under marital status!

    ReplyDelete
  4. your post reminded me of the business of recommendations that i often get to see on linkedIn. your take on this case was funny (as is this business)

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Aparna - That was funny! The weird info in a resume are parent's name and occupation!

    @Vaz - :) Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment