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I'm a 3L and the deadline for judicial clerkships in my Commonwealth is fast approaching. I've asked the supervising attorney at my externship to write me a letter of recommendation and she asked me to write my own (which she will of course review and edit).

Ack! What should I do?

I'm sort of frozen on this. I'm generally okay with listing competencies, but I'm a bit shy about praise. For example, I'd like to say that my presence at the office has elevated the practice of the attorneys and the office as a whole, something my supervisor has said to me on more than one occasion, but writing that out seems really prideful.

Any advice would be helpful and appreciated.

What should you do? Well, this is obvious, but you should write the letter of recommendation.

When I had undergrad profs tell me to write my own LoR, I had friends write them for me in exchange for a case of beer.

I too felt very weird about praising myself, but I think a 3rd party can do this much better and naturally. Also it won't be in your own writing style, if they are also seeing other writing of yours

never written a letter of rec for this kind of thing, but i have written a letter of rec for myself before. i had letters of rec written for me by other people, and modeled it on those letters.

I wrote one for myself and slathered on a heaping shit ton of praise, which my supervisor later cut down on. That's fine, let them make the choice of what they're comfortable with. But at least that way you'll get a great letter out of it.

Danger Zone wrote:I wrote one for myself and slathered on a heaping shit ton of praise, which my supervisor later cut down on. That's fine, let them make the choice of what they're comfortable with. But at least that way you'll get a great letter out of it.

Yes. The supervisor won't hesitate to cut things s/he doesn't agree with. You need to be your own best advocate right now. Using the "elevate the entire office" phrase is totally fair game if your supervisor said it. Don't be over-the-top, but spin it for you. Details, specific examples of instances you fulfilled desirable traits, will help.

i dont see why this is so hard. my supervisor asked me to do this. I wrote an awesome rec letter. after he read what i wrote he exclaimed "you made it sound like I'm in love with you." he didn't change anything though. he didn't really care. its pretty undestanding you will write great things about yourself

Write the best letter you could expect from your supervisor. You owe it to yourself to write nothing less, and the supervisor can cut out anything they wouldn't want their name attached to.

Write the best letter you possibly can. If the supervisor has a problem s/he can change it.

I write the strongest-worded letter possible and it has helped me a lot, actually.

short and sweet. millennial clerks will be reading these so keep it under 160 chars.

you can use mine as an example:

"name notorious, dick game glorious"

fats provolone wrote:short and sweet. millennial clerks will be reading these so keep it under 160 chars.

you can use mine as an example:

"name notorious, dick game glorious"

i like to add 'sense of humor uproarious' as it shows i'm well rounded

ruski wrote:i dont see why this is so hard.

It is hard because I am humble, not because it is difficult.

What I needed was a good kick in the pants to be proud and advocate as zealously for myself as I do for my clients. Y'all have provided that.

Thanks to all.

BvBPL wrote:

ruski wrote:i dont see why this is so hard.

It is hard because I am humble

No hate but get over yourself