Writing a character reference can be tricky. You need to make sure that you get the main points of the persons character over in a short space of time without getting too boring. Here is a sample to use.

Your address
Date
Phone
Mobile

Correspondents Address

Character Reference – Fred Chump

Dear Sir/Madam

I have known Fred Chump for a many years. He first arrived at S&S as a trainee and has since become Head of section. He is a respected and loyal member of the team and handles the staff that work with him using a firm but fair hand.

He has a pleasant sense of humour and can always find a way to make people smile even during the hardest of tasks.

He has never missed a day of work except through illness, and we will all be sorry to see him leave our factory.

I wish him well in the future and I know he will be an asset to your company.

Yours faithfully

Your name

Your character reference should be FACT based.

You should not include anything on the reference that you wouldn’t let the subject see.

Including something like “Fred is lazy and good for nothing” is probably not a wise think to do…

It would be better to include Fred’s sickness record – hopefully this isn’t the subject of too much debate and the prospective new employer can make up their own mind.

See – how easy it is to stick to the facts and take a structured approach to writing a reference.