The Philosophers' Cocoon

4 responses to “How to solicit recommendation letters from people outside of your department?”

1. Anonymous

   October 21, 2026

   For me it all came to whether we had substantial interactions. One visited my institution when I was a grad student; another we met several times in conferences, and started to have professional connections, e.g. working as reviewer, exchanging drafts etc.; another one came to visit just because he happened to be physically around, and we eventually came to co-authoring papers.

   I guess what’s important is whether there is anything substantially positive that the letter writer can write.

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2. Anonymous

   October 21, 2026

   I echo the previous poster about cultivating relationships with folks. I don’t think it’s particularly helpful to ask someone simply because they’re well-known, but if you get to know someone respected in the field, or even someone senior who is not outright “famous” but who can speak well and in depth about your abilities as a scholar (hopefully because they’ve seen you present, read your work, and gotten to know you as a colleague), that’s when I would ask.

   I have asked someone who I see every year at conferences going on several years now and so who has seen me present multiple times, and I would ask someone else who has mentioned reading and liking my work, for instance.

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3. Anonymous

   October 21, 2026

   Two things. One, as the person above says, you want to make sure it’s actually a useful letter. I’ve seen very short letters from outside people before that basically said “This person works in the same city as me, they sometimes come to talks at my institution, they ask decent questions.” I don’t think the letter writer meant it as damning with faint praise, but it was hard not to read it that way.

   Two, I think it’s *always* better to go to someone with a request that they can easily say yes to – so I’d first approach someone saying “Hey, could we have a chat and could I get some advice about the job market.” Once you’re meeting with them, you can say something like “How important do you think external letters are? How do I ask someone without putting pressure on them?” That way, if they want to write for you, they can offer. If they don’t, then they can just give you some advice. Either way, you come out with the relationship intact, and maybe you get to know them more in the future and they’ll want to write for you later.

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4. Anonymous

   October 21, 2026

   Keep in mind that outside letters are not necessarily valuable, and will not be so if the person does not know your work well. Don’t ask people to write for you unless you have already provided them with the ability to write a useful letter for you. I regularly get asked to write letters for people who I’ve seen give a 20 minute APA talk and perhaps chatted with over a group dinner. I always decline to do so because I simply do not know enough about their work to write a letter that will be useful for them.

   However, not everyone does so. I’ve seen quite a few outside letters from people who clearly do not know the work of the people they are writing for. These letters not only do not help, they can actively harm an applicant, depending on how they are written. So don’t just let the potential letter writer decide whether to write a letter. Don’t ask unless your engagement has already been sufficiently extensive that they can write a letter that focuses on the quality of your work.

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