Letters of recommendation vs. reference checks

Many faculty searches collect letters of recommendation with the application and then, later, check references. Committees sometimes treat the two as the same thing and skip the second. They are not the same: a letter is written for the candidate, and a reference check answers the committee’s questions.

What a letter of recommendation is

A letter is requested by the candidate, from writers the candidate chooses, and written before the writer knows much about your position. In many fields the same letter goes to several institutions in a cycle. Writers know the candidate will be judged on it, so letters are positive by design, and their format and length vary with the writer’s habits.

None of that makes letters less useful. It makes them a particular kind of evidence: an informed, considered account of the candidate’s work, written to advocate for them.

What letters do well

• Context on scholarship. A senior scholar in the field can place the candidate’s work in a way the committee may not be able to.
• Early signal. Letters arrive with the application, so they help the committee build a long list without contacting anyone.
• Depth. A well-written letter covers years of work, in more detail than a short set of questions invites.

What letters miss

• Your questions. A letter answers the writer’s idea of what matters, not the committee’s questions about this position.
• Comparability. Three letters for one finalist and three for another cannot be lined up question by question.
• Concerns. Writers rarely include reservations in a letter the candidate asked them to write.
• Recency. A letter written for the job market may predate the candidate’s current role or most recent work.
• Follow-up. The committee cannot ask a letter for an example.
• Uneven language. Studies of academic letters have found systematic differences in how writers describe women and men, and in one study the wording linked to women was associated with weaker hiring evaluations.

What a reference check adds

A reference check reverses who sets the agenda. The committee asks its own questions, tied to the position description, of people who have seen the candidate’s work. Every reference for every finalist answers the same set, often with a rating next to an example, so the committee can compare finalists on the same evidence.

It also happens at a different moment. References are checked for finalists, with the candidate’s consent, when the committee knows exactly what it still needs to learn. The same questions for every reference do not remove the risk of uneven language, but they give the committee a common frame for every finalist. Structured reference checks explains how to make those answers comparable.

Using both in one search

1. Ask for letters with the application where your field expects them, and use them to build the long list.
2. At the finalist stage, ask each finalist for references in the roles you need: a supervisor, someone who has seen them teach, a collaborator.
3. Record the candidate’s consent before contacting anyone.
4. Send every reference the same questions, written from the position description.
5. Read letters and references together for each finalist, noting where they agree and where a reference adds something a letter did not.

A letter writer can also be a reference. They know the candidate’s work well, and answering the committee’s specific questions is a different task from writing the letter. Ask the candidate before you contact a letter writer as a reference, as you would for anyone else.

Reading letters and references together

For each finalist, read the letters first for context, then the references for the committee’s questions. Four things are worth looking for as you go.

• Agreement with examples. When a letter and a reference describe the same strength and each gives its own example, the committee can rely on it.
• Silence. A letter that never mentions teaching, for a role that is mostly teaching, is a question to put to a reference, not a judgment to make.
• Recency. A letter written for last year’s market and a reference from the candidate’s current chair may describe different stages of a career. Weigh the more recent account of current work more heavily.
• One source counted once. If a letter writer is also a reference, treat their two accounts as one voice, so the committee does not count the same opinion twice.

In staff searches

Staff searches usually skip letters and go straight to references, which makes the reference check the main outside evidence the hiring manager sees. The same principles apply: the candidate’s consent first, the same questions for each finalist and answers kept with the reasons behind them.

For both kinds of search, when to check references in a faculty search covers where in the process references belong, and our faculty reference check questions give the committee a starting set.