"VivienB" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 17:34:45 +0100, "tuin man"
wrote:

That said, over the years I've had a few and was left wondering is there
some special way of reading them, as in decoding.
The reason being that I can recall the distinct differences between
reference I've obtained from landlords and employers.

Firstly thank you Rod, Jenny and VivienB.

The last time I had to ask for a job related reference was ooooh... 1984.

Since then I've being more or less self employed, with one exception of a
short while working for a firm here in London, who I wouldn't ask for a
reference from, as I sure as hell wouldn't recommend them to anyone.

The last job related reference I got did incorporate the fact that I had
being a foreman (being, or been... I always get them mixed up)

And so I guess if being a foreman entails the need to have initiative, so
then I guess it was implied.

Reading The Times recently, I saw an article where a firm provides odd-job
people. (0800handyman apparently) The unique characteristic of this firm was
hailed as being because two thirds of the employees are graduates and
several from Oxbridge.

The advantage of graduates doing this kind of work was because graduates are
inherently problem solvers! (Like the rest of us aren't?)

Total nonsense in my view. Well, as we all know, odd jobs can be quite
fiddly.

This got me thinking about the implied gaps which (I imagined, prior to
reading Jenny's outline of the process that I have being away from for a
long time), might arise between 2 identical reference but academic
differences


It is especially difficult to write a general-purpose reference (that
is not for a specific, known, potential employer), as you do not know
what is likely to be of most interest to a new employer.

Yes, this may explain the exactness and greater value of the landlord type
references.

As for the reference you got which mentioned following instructions,
do not be insulted! There is nothing more annoying in any employee
than one who decides to do what s/he fancies rather than what they are
asked to do, whether they know what they are about or not. I imagine
this is especially important to architects and the like who have
speciified clearly what they want (in agreement with the client).

Not only important, but I wish I had kept some of them, albeit only for the
purposes of posting here, so that customers can see how to be specific with
their instructions, or at least what amounts to a professional standard!!
(there's way too much dross about)

Initiative has its place and time, but it takes gumption to know when
and where that is - something you obviously have, maybe if they had
credited you with that, you wouldn't have been quite so put out?

Yes, oh yes, For the most part, the instructions from the architects were
excellent, though nothing more than detailing proper levels of professional
standards required. For that reason, when the unexpected occurs, initiative
has, by the very meaning of the word, to be independent and creative.

What I had hoped for was a reference, which would better allow me to seem to
be a more attractive candidate for a risk-taker employer whose ambitions
required just such gumption. And, not a house trained puppy... albeit that
they can be incredibly cute and would love to have one myself (-: (along
with a spell checker that does not tell me all is ok when I can pick out
words that ain't.

The question is how much better does my references have to be to compete
with a graduate... however, Jenny's outline does diminish reference's
importance.



Patrick