Reference letter - how relevant is it?
insane polycounter
Hi!
What are your thoughts about reference/recommendation letters as 3D/2D artist?
- When quitting a 3D job after some years, should one ask for one?
- How much relevancy does it have today? If you are involved in hiring, how much value do you give it?
- Is it accepted/common to provide the employer/client with a pre written letter? How long should it be and how specific?
- Can you recommend any good resources or examples for reference letters (specific to 3D artists)?
I recently tried writing a reference letter and noticed that it's hard for me to put this experience in a short good to read form. Would love to hear your experiences and thoughts! Thanks 🙂
Replies
no harm in asking
policy on references can depend on the organisation you're leaving - I used to work at a first party studio and we weren't allowed to give formal references ourselves - instead the company had an official process/form letter that was sent out on request.
in less formal environments usually it's good form to ask someone if they're willing to give you a reference and if they say yes you can simply add their contact email to your application so your new employer can make contact if necessary
short answer - no need for a prewritten one in my experience
During an application process for a position outside of the CGI entertainment industry, its' common practice to provide CV- Resume' referee/s to support ones initial submission, in fact mandatory to do so where I live.
Now, I've not worked within a 3D production setting but a friend related his recent experience, even though less than conventional 'word-of-mouth' route was taken however, there's still the usual follow up queries over zoom which eventually for him proved successful.
So yeah, wouldn't hurt too ask, imo.
Thanks for your replies 👍️
Update:
Getting the reference letter was no issue. I was asked to hand in a description of my typical tasks, which was adopted for the most part. Other than that the document contained information about the company and project and myself as a employee/coworker.
The document proved to be a useful testimony, when I applied for a start-up grant (successfully, yay). So it really didn't hurt, especially when having to prove ones competence to people outside of the industry.