Safe Reference Letter: Fill & Download for Free

The only mandatory document is the reference/experience letter which:should be an official document printed on company letterhead (must include the applicant’s name, the company’s contact information [address, telephone number and email address], and the name, title and signature of the immediate supervisor or personnel officer at the company),should indicate all positions held while employed at the company and must include the following details: job title, duties and responsibilities, job status (if current job), dates worked for the company, number of work hours per week and annual salary plus benefitsPayslips can be provided as additional proof of employment. I personally attached both my payslips and ITR just to be on safe side and I am through with the process.

I'm going to answer this question specifically for people who want to do a PhD, since that's the kind of grad school I'm personally familiar with. My advice probably doesn't apply so much for other kinds of graduate programs.I'd say that both the biggest advantages of either choice are going to be psychological in nature.Advantage of going into a PhD right away:People seem to have more limitless energy for doing foolhardy crazy things when they're younger, and that's the kind of energy that drives people to do PhDs in the first place.You also kind of need the youthful ignorance that permits you to climb a mountain that's impossible to climb, simply because no one ever told you it was impossible to climb, and by the time you realize it, you've already reached the top. When are you too old to have that youthful ignorance? Too humble to arrogantly start climbing before getting the warning?Well, the specific age where you start to lose that naivety probably varies for everyone, but I will say one thing is certain -- as you get older, you tend to get tied down by other big life events. Getting married, having children, living a life where you actually have to know what day of the week it is, etc. As you will learn when you do your PhD, anything that you are tied to that isn't your dissertation is a distraction from your goal.Whether it's good to have distractions or not while working on a PhD can be argued both ways. Distractions may be good for your mental health, but they also may end up reminding you that your dissertation is nothing more than a pipe-dream.Advantage of going to work before you start your PhD:About half-way through your PhD (sometimes even sooner), if you've never had a real job, you will start to wonder if the "grass is greener on the other side" -- the other side being that huge landscape full of people who've never done a PhD. I went straight into my PhD, and I certainly reached this point. What are you missing out on that all your friends who didn't do a PhD have right now?Conversely, I've heard that getting real world work experience before doing a PhD can be a huge motivator. You'll know the pros and cons of working outside of academia before you even start your PhD, and it gives you a mission to take what you learn from your PhD back to that flawed real world to solve the problems that made you fed up with your imperfect non-academic job, in the first place.Starting your PhD at an older age should also have its benefits as well. No one cares if you're in your 30's starting a PhD. It's not like doing an undergrad degree when you're above the traditional age range. Doing a PhD is an ageless experience, so whether you're 20 or 30, you should find you fit-in just as well I'd think.But the flip-side, finishing your PhD at 30 and realizing that you're lacking a lot of the basic life skills that everyone else your age has, can make you feel kind of left behind to say the least. It's like time froze for you while you were doing your PhD but the rest of the world kept spinning. And the fear is that people will look at you and see someone who doesn't know how to do a lot of these basic things that everyone knows how to do at 30, and say, "Really, that guy has a PhD?"So from the perspective of being well-adjusted and not feeling ostracized, it's probably better to start your PhD later in life.Practical considerations of either choice:There is really only one practical non-psychological consideration, which is that when you're applying to graduate school, you will need reference letters. And it's easier to obtain good academic reference letters while you're still an undergrad.However, you can plan to make up for this disadvantage. If you know that you plan to one day go to grad school, you must ask the professors who would write you reference letters if you went immediately to write you letters while you're still fresh in their minds, and then make sure those letters are stored safely in a vault somewhere.It helps if your school has a place to securely store reference letters, because the professor might lose their copy, or something might happen to them (like they retire or die).Note that I think in most cases, a strong academic reference letter that's a few years old will carry more weight with an admissions committee than a recent work reference. So just sending the exact references that were written before you started your job may be good enough. Of course, it's always good if you can get back in touch with the professors who wrote these letters and have them update them to reflect where you're currently at.Now, since you're going to ask professors for reference letters before leaving undergrad, you might as well go through the entire process of applying to graduate school, as if you were applying immediately. Write a draft of your personal statement. You'll probably have to change it later, but having that draft will be a good starting place. Doing all these things will also tell the professors you ask for reference letters that you're serious about applying to graduate school.

I haven’t done it myself, although I’ve heard of it being done in style. The master of one of the Cambridge colleges in the early 20th century wrote a reference letter to the Bishop for a student who was applying for ordination training.The letter extolled the student’s academic abilities as a theologian, then continued with the assurance “I would finally like to address any concerns you may have about the risk of him embarrassing the Church with the scandal of an adulterous affair. I can assure you that he is completely safe in this regard, as he has neither the strength of character to carry it through, nor the personal charm for the matter to become relevant.”