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Nearly a month ago I had an interview at company A, but since at that time I was working for another company they said to let them know if, at the end of my working period for company B, I was still interested in working for them.

Now my working period at company B is ended, therefore I contacted company A to tell them I was willing to work for them if there was still the possibility (they had interviews with other people in the meanwhile). I never got an answer.

Yesterday my old boss sent me the reference letter I asked her to write. Since the letter is very positive, I think it might help me in "convincing" company B to give me an apportunity. So, should I send the letter to company B although they never answered my first email? If yes, how can I explain it since they never asked me for a reference letter?

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The 95+% chance is that company A has filled the position they were hiring for, so it doesn't matter how good you or your reference letter are, they're not going to hire you now. "Keep in touch" is just a thing that companies say - a lot of the time, it doesn't mean anything.

On the other hand, it probably wouldn't do any harm to send another mail of some sort; worst case is that they'll just delete it. However, if they've already interviewed you, a reference letter, no matter how positive it is, isn't going to change very much - I'd trust what I saw in an interview over a letter from someone I don't know every single time.

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  • Your last sentence is true, but what about skills like problem solving, independence, team work etc.? You cannot actually understand if a person has those skills from an interview, that's why I thought it might be useful to give them the opinion of my previous boss.
    – Rhei
    Commented Feb 15, 2016 at 12:32
  • I think I can make a better estimate of those factors than I'll get from a reference - "war stories" tell an interviewer a lot.
    – Philip Kendall
    Commented Feb 15, 2016 at 13:15
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    If they can't determine that in an interview, you need to pokish your resume and your interview skills. Even if they don't ask directly, you can chooss examples to give them which showcase these skills.
    – keshlam
    Commented Feb 15, 2016 at 13:15
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Don't overwork your references. Protecting them from unnecessary work is one of the reasons to provide them only upon request.

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  • I was thinking to add the reference letter at the end of my CV, but according to what you wrote it is not a good idea, is it?
    – Rhei
    Commented Feb 15, 2016 at 12:19
  • A company prefers to get the reference letter directly, rather than through you, to make sure it really is the reference's opinion and hasn't been forged or tampered with... so you wouldn't be saving them much work and may be creating more work for your reference, since you're encouraging the company to check even if they aren't seriously interested in you. Unless you've got a reference saying "This guy is far better than his grades suggest and you really don't want to pass uo the chance to hire him" -- which almost never happems -- standard practice is "references upon request."
    – keshlam
    Commented Feb 15, 2016 at 13:13

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