How to Write a Letter of Recommendation for a Colleague

A former report messages you: they are applying for a new job, or a certification, or a grad program, and could you write them a letter of recommendation. You say yes right away, because you liked working with them and you mean it. Then you sit down to write it and realize you have no idea how long it should be, how formal to make it, or what a committee that has never met you is supposed to do with a paragraph of warm adjectives.

A recommendation letter is not a LinkedIn endorsement with better formatting, and it is not the same task as taking a reference call. It is a standalone document that gets read cold, often alongside a stack of letters written for other candidates, by someone deciding whether to move a person forward. That reader needs specifics they can weigh, not reassurance that you liked working with someone.

Ask For What You Need Before You Write Anything

A vague request produces a vague letter. Before you write a word, ask for three things: the exact role or program, the deadline and submission method (a PDF, an online portal, a sealed envelope), and their current resume or a short note on what they most want emphasized.

That last piece matters more than it seems. Someone applying for a management role wants a letter about how they led and delegated under pressure; the same person applying for a technical certification wants a letter about depth on one specific skill. You lived through both versions of their work; the candidate knows which one the reader is scoring them on.

State Your Standing, Then Prove It With Specifics

Open by saying who you are, your role, and how long you worked with the person. That context tells the reader how much weight to give what follows. Then move straight into evidence: a project, a decision, a number, a moment where you watched them handle something well.

Before:

To Whom It May Concern: I am writing to recommend Priya for this position. She is hardworking, dependable, and a pleasure to work with. I have no doubt she will do a great job wherever she lands. Please contact me with any questions.

After:

I managed Priya for two years on our operations team, where she took over a vendor escalation process that was missing its resolution deadline on roughly a third of cases. Within one quarter she had that rate under ten percent by renegotiating our SLA terms and building a tracking dashboard the rest of the team still uses. She is the person I would put in front of a client relationship that had already gone wrong.

The first version could describe almost anyone who did not get fired. The second names a specific problem, a specific fix, and a result the reader can picture, which is what makes a letter read as evidence rather than politeness.

Match the Length and Register to Where It Is Going

A job application letter usually runs half a page to a page: an opening paragraph of context, one or two paragraphs of evidence, a closing paragraph that states your support plainly and offers to answer questions. Academic and grant-committee letters run longer, sometimes a full page or more, because those readers expect more detail and often want a comparative ranking against others you have worked with.

Salutation depends on what you know. Use the named recipient if the candidate has one (“Dear Ms. Alvarez”). Into a general application file, “Dear Hiring Committee” reads better than “To Whom It May Concern,” which many readers now register as a sign the letter was never customized for them.

Resist the pull to pad it regardless of length. A one-page letter with three real examples beats a two-page letter repeating the same praise three ways. According to UMBC’s career center guidance on writing recommendation letters, a strong letter states your relationship to the candidate, gives specific examples of relevant skills, and closes with a clear statement of support, the same three moves the example above follows.

A Wrivio Context for This

Rewrite this as a formal letter of recommendation. Open by stating my relationship to the candidate and how long we worked together, keep the specific examples, numbers, and outcomes exactly as written, and close with a clear, direct statement of support. Do not add achievements, dates, or superlatives that are not already in the draft, and do not soften or exaggerate the examples I gave.

Press Ctrl+Shift+Space, paste the draft, and check the diff before you send it. A rewrite that turns “reduced the backlog by about a third” into “dramatically transformed the team’s output” is no longer a claim you can back up if someone calls to verify it, and a recommendation letter is one of the few workplace documents a reader might actually check. This is a companion piece to writing a shorter public LinkedIn recommendation: the platform version runs a paragraph and stays casual, while a formal letter needs the full structure above.

Say So If You Cannot Write a Strong One

Sometimes the honest answer is that you cannot write a strong letter, because you worked with the person only briefly, or your candid assessment would not help their case. Say that directly and early rather than agreeing and then writing something so hedged the reader can tell.

A short, honest decline, or an offer to write a narrower letter about the one project you can speak to, costs the relationship less than a lukewarm letter that undersells them in a stack where every other letter is glowing. If you are the one who needs a letter, asking someone to be a reference is the earlier version of this same conversation: the more specific your ask, the more useful the answer you get back.

Common Questions

How long should a letter of recommendation be?

Half a page to a full page for most job applications, with academic and grant letters sometimes running longer because those readers expect more comparative detail. Length should track how much specific evidence you actually have, not a target word count.

What is the difference between a letter of recommendation and a reference call?

A letter is a standalone document the candidate submits and controls, while a reference call is a live conversation an employer initiates directly, often with more pointed follow-up questions than a letter covers. Candidates typically need both: a letter for the file and a list of people willing to take the call.

Should I address it to a specific person or “To Whom It May Concern”?

Use a named recipient whenever the candidate can give you one, since it reads as more customized. When the letter is going into a general file with no named reader, “Dear Hiring Committee” is a better default than “To Whom It May Concern,” which many readers now read as a sign of a form letter.

Can I reuse the same letter for two different applications?

Only the factual core, since the relationship and examples do not change. The emphasis should shift with each application, leading with whichever examples are closest to what that role or program is actually evaluating.

What if I am asked to write one for someone I cannot fully endorse?

Decline honestly, or offer a narrower letter limited to the one area you can speak to positively. A recommendation with real reservations helps no one, least of all the candidate who assumed you had said yes without conditions.

Download Wrivio for Windows to turn a specific, factual draft into a formal letter of recommendation in Local mode, so a former colleague’s employment history never leaves your machine.