Hi forum friends,

I need your advice on this one. I am applying for postdoc position in multiple places, mainly the advertised positions for last few months and got several interviews.....Now, my previous boss under whom i did masters says, ''It is difficult to follow up with deadlines of your letters, i would like to send all reco letter together''............but i dont understand how is that possible..... each vacancy has their own deadlines and if i dont succeed in one of them i move to newly advertised one and they will ask for reco again...so that means if gave reco for a last month interview, he needs to give reco one for this month...i dont know what avacncy coming up next motnh or who will select me for interview.........I am bewildered with his comment......could you please give me some suggestion what to tell him...Thanks

It sounds like he is either being lazy, is just far too busy, or doesn't really understand the process (it may have been a long time since he was having to apply for jobs!)

Does he have a PA/administrator? If so, get your boss to give the recommendation letter to him/her to send out on his behalf as and when it is required.

Alternatively, it is sometimes possible to specify that referees should not be contacted unless a job offer is made. Sometimes people do this to hide the fact they are job hunting, and sometimes they do this to avoid causing repeated hassle to their referees. This might be worth doing.

Or, since legally I believe you are permitted to see letters of recommendation anyway, ask him to give you a copy and you can amend it as required, get him to look it over, sign it and then you can send it off. The content can't vary that much so it shouldn't be too arduous.

Thanks friends...your responses are very logical and i found it really helpful....:)

Maybe he does not want to see you succeed, you know what I am saying. Or, yeah, could be that he is lazy, but I think that he wouldn't like to see you get a stronghold in your career path.