Writing own reference

[questconnect]

Hi all, I just wondered how common this was? I asked a Prof if they would act as referee and they agreed. They have now been asked for the reference and the Prof has come back to me asking me to write it myself as they are too busy. Is this normal practice or should I feel slightly let down? It probably didn't help that later the same day she asked me to draft a paragraph for a funding bid she is working on - without having asked if I would like to be part of it (I would be well qualified and have invited her on to my bids in the past).

sorry about strange switch between they/she on that post!

I wrote my own reference for promotion, ostensibly from my HoD. It’s standard practice here, apparently. I found it bizarre.

I am a prof and also work in a role where I have to write a lot of letters of support for candidates and I would NEVER ask them to write their own - for the letters of support I might get them to check it over, but asking you to write your own reference is really taking the piss.

Hi OP, from my experience this is quite common with academics from/in continental Europe. Is your referee based in the UK? I personally found it pretty difficult to write my own reference and in some cases I even decided to replace them with other colleagues as I felt it would be more straightforward this way. As for what they asked you to do, it does seem excessive to say the least. You could follow up to ask whether that means you will participate in the grant application.

Hmm. Thanks for the responses. I did think about asking someone else but then I wondered if that might look odd at this stage of the process. She is in the UK. I really don't want to write it (it's bad enough writing cringey job applications etc) but I guess if I have to I will be amazingly enthusiastic about my multiple skills and she can change it as she wishes! She has not asked me to participate in the grant application. I could say more but won't as it's potentially a little outing.

Yep, very common! I work with a lot of clinical academics through who are stupidly stretched, do 2 jobs anyway and often don't know your full background so could t give the best account

I have asked students who require an academic reference to send me details of their contributions online, grades etc to save me admin time.

Asking you to draft your own reference is not unusual/too much of an issue I would say.

What is a massive issue however, is being asked to contribute to the writing of a grant without being included in the application. I would play the 'naive' card here - 'Thank you so much for including me in the grant! What FTE contribution do you envisage me having as Co-I - it would be great to know so I can plan my future workload. Let me know when the application deadline is, I'll get something turned around asap for that papragraph."

Thanks for all your thoughts everybody. I wrote the reference, it didn't take too long in the end, so I was probably making a fuss about not too much. And I've had the job interview. So ... fingers crossed I think.

Good luck!