How long to give Professor to provide a reference?

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Hello, I hope you don't mind me posting in this topic! I graduated a few years ago and recently had to get back in touch with the Professor who was my personal tutor in both my undergraduate and master's to request an academic reference. As you can imagine, having the same personal tutor for both of my degrees as well as her being my master's supervisor means she is the member of staff who know me the best.

I sent an email to her reintroducing myself and asking if she would be willing to be a reference for me and attached my transcripts and updated CV. She replied a few minutes later saying she would be happy to.

I've now sent the request through as well as an email saying that the request has been sent through to them through the applicant portal. However, she haven't responded yet.

The deadline is in 2 weeks and I'm starting to worry that I haven't given her long enough. She is very senior (head of the department) and so I know she is really busy. I did miss one deadline before as she wasn't responding to my emails and didn't submit the reference in time so I'm a little nervous!

I have sent an email to another lecturer of mine to try and have her as a back-up option as this lecturer has been really responsive in the past and has given me references for jobs but she hasn't replied to her email (conscious that she may be on holiday).

Do you think 2 weeks is enough time for them to provide a reference? How frequently should I follow up? Thank you

Email her with a follow up attaching your statement associated with the application and just say "thanks so much for agreeing to give me a reference. I thought it might be useful to attach my statement for you...." This will a) remind her b) make the reference writing easier for her.

Also, usually we do get to this last minute - sorry!

i'm a prof who often gets these kind of requests. writing a reference will take me 20-30 mins when I sit down to do it. the problem is, if i'm travelling or in meetings etc, I may not get 20 mins to sit down to do it in the next 2 weeks.

do email & remind her. and you could also help by drafting the reference that you want in bullet point form so she can edit to suit.

as PP mentioned- i often do not have a 20min free window for weeks.
candidates who can prepopulate a reference template for me to edit, including the key info linked to degrees, dates, dissertation titles, and personnal experience they have which aligns best with the job description are most likely to get an earlier response from me

I don't really feel comfortable writing a reference for them to edit. They have written references for me before so I'm hoping they will be able to use that with a few minor changes.

It's been a week so far, should I follow up already or is that too soon? I don't want to annoy them, but at the same time I missed an important application deadline in the past because my reference wasn't done in time. I hate being so reliant on someone else.

Just remind her. It's not rude after a week.

I would also do as PPs suggest and put some bullet points together. It's far more likely to happen if you make it easy. Make it a job of 5 mins rather than 20.

Honestly, I think most people would do it just before the deadline. Don't remind her now, just send her a polite email 3 days before the deadline to remind her. I am a prof and write a lot of references and I always appreciate a reminder.

If they've written a reference for you before do you need a new one? Would you not just reuse the existing one?

Presumably it’s for a different job….

@Puncturedbicycle85 well yes obviously! But I'd be surprised if the Prof is tailoring then to the JD!

Yes they can most likely use the previous one with a few minor changes. The issue is they have to send it off themselves from their university email address, I can't submit it for them (plus I've never seen a reference they've provided anyway, as all references I've asked for in the past have had to be sent directly by them).

What does the reference need to show?

My uni doesn't give personal refs over 3 years after graduation, just the award. We can't vouch for the professional integrity of any student after 3 years, they could have got up to all sorts during that time! Does your uni have a references dept who can give generic info only?

It's for UCAS, so mainly needs to talk about academic ability. I graduated 4 years ago, and my reference has agreed so fingers crossed it will be ok!