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Submitting extra recommendation letters?

In our December "how can we help you?" thread, Overthinker writes:

I have been wondering how committees might feel about getting more letters of recommendation than usual from an applicant. I don't have any worries about getting good letters from my advisory committee, one of whom is from an outside institution. But I think I could get letters from a couple professors who can speak to my non-research work in the department, like my teaching, service, and good relationships with the faculty. Are letters that emphasize those sorts of things overkill or even irrelevant, so that it would be more of a waste of time for the letter writers?

Good question. I'm not sure what the answer is. I personally don't focus very much on letters as a search committee member, and in fact I'm pretty opposed to them being used in job applications for these reasons. However, I do know search committee members who take them pretty seriously, especially teaching letters if you are applying to a job at a teaching focused university (indeed, not including one for a job like that might send the wrong message: that you see yourself primarily as a researcher and don't fit the job or culture well). So I'm not sure. One reader submitted the following response:

That is overkill. It will never come down to two candidates with good research letters, and then the scale is tipped by an extra letter that says you are one of the first to bring a tasty casserole to a department party.

Fair enough. But what about if you have been involved in significant service to the department? At my university, service is taken very seriously (it's a central part of the job, on a par with research in terms of how much of our time we are supposed to apportion to it). So, if a candidate does serious service and is a good colleague, might a letter on this stuff help? Maybe, I'm not sure. What do you all think, particularly those of you who have actually served on search committees? (It might be helpful to note what kind of university you work at in answering, to give your answer some context). 

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One response to “Submitting extra recommendation letters?”

  1. Evan

    I read the article link. And I can’t help but think the author was preaching to the choir. “Letter of recommendation” literally entails recommending somebody for some job or position. So, some of the complaints about it were out of touch with commonsense. It’s pretty obvious, as the name literally suggests, letters of recommendations are supposed to persuade the committee(s) to hire or admit this person; it’s structure and content are necessarily positive due to the nature of it.
    However, I do agree about the concern of exaggerating a positive image of the candidate. As such, perhaps instead of a “letter of recommendation” how about have a “letter of evaluation”? Evaluation includes both positive and negative aspects of the person. The cost, however, is that it will probably contribute to the low self-esteem of the candidates and probably make hiring even harder than it is now. The benefit is that it will provide a more truthful description of the candidate.
    Since we’re not going to do away with letters of recommendation anytime soon, it’s best to read them carefully. Letter of recommendation tend to be rhetorical. Look for specific examples of why or how the candidate is good or competent in the letter. The person (academic) writing the recommendation letter should not commit elementary mistakes like using hyperboles, vagueness, emotional language, etc.
    It’s not hard to tell whether a person is good at something. I use the words “thus” a lot because of my high school pre-calc teacher. He taught us in “premise-to-conclusion” form. I was already familiar was logical argumentation even though I didn’t know it at the time. It was made explicit once I actually took a philosophy class. Using basic logic to teach math was quite innovative and new I thought. It actually helped a lot.
    Try to be less vague and back up your praise with evidence or concrete examples. If somebody did something great or innovative, people will mostly likely remember it.

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