I need two recommendations from my next job, within a year or two so that I can pivot if needed.
Aside from the obvious, not being clueless and doing my job, what can I do to have a supervisor write me a recommendation.
As for academic, haven't those ships already sailed? Should I take a community college class and talk to a professor?
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I take it from your profile that you're still a student - so we're talking about part time jobs and internships.
Work references should be easy, provided that you've actually worked/interned and not completely fucked up at your job. When I graduated I had worked four different part time jobs and done two full time summer internships. In some of these roles I excelled, in others I was pretty average, but I was able to get references from every one of them. If you just ask your manager when you're leaving to write you a reference, it'd be pretty awkward for them to refuse unless they hated you.
Academic references are a little more tricky. The large class sizes in undergrad mean it's often hard to get to know your professors. I got to know one prof through an extra curricular, and he offered to be a reference if I ever need one. Another of my professors was a semi-famous game theorist, so I figured a reference from him could be useful if I ever decide to study again. Luckily I had good grades in his classes, so all I did was arrange a meeting and ask him for one. Even though I didn't know him, having decent grades meant he really couldn't say no.
Basically, in both cases, just ask.
It's pretty normal to get a reference letter at the end of a job. As Galt93 said, just ask and be transparent regarding where it would lead you. You'd rather have someone refuse to write you one than write you a bad one, especially when applying to degrees where they have to be submitted directly.
Quick addition for academic references, a professor you've had in multiple classes and who gave you good grades is the best. From my experience, the better they know you the better their letter.
I kinda kept my head low the past 2 years of college and never had a professor more than once.
Time to de-regulate yourself, Regulator
I'm confused as to the premise. For a supervisor letter, you ask your former supervisor to write you one. For an academic letter, you ask a favorite professor or your program director/dean to write you one. It's really not any more complicated than that.
You don't need them to do this ahead of time either, although I suppose you can. Former bosses, professors, mentors, etc. should be kept in touch with every so often so that when you need something, you just ask.
Yeah, I kinda suck at the staying in touch part. I am really grateful for the times they have helped me out, but I don't really keep in touch.
I added one on linkedin from 3 years ago, this month. Instead of the "id like to add you to my network" message i wrote something along the lines of "Hi, how are you?" because I didn't know what else to say. They never responded-maybe, because I sent it in the request line- but I am pretty sure that goes to their inmail.
I didn't do it for a reference, just to say hi.
You need to get better at staying in touch with people then. The good news is, this is something that isn't hard to learn.
For some background, I was absolutely terrible at this. I grew up with my immediate family far away from my extended family, all of who lived in the same place. My parents were the only ones to move away. So, as a kid and then a young adult, it was completely normal for me to see someone 1-2 times a year and never feel distant from them as a result. When I went to college, I'd never really talk to my highschool friends because I'd certainly see them once over Christmas and maybe a time or two over the summer. For me, that was the perfect amount of contact. For normal people, that's not the case.
I got called out hard at a good friend of mine's wedding. There were 4 of us in our friend group and the other two guys were in the wedding and I wasn't. I, being as oblivious as always, didn't even think about it or care, but after the wedding, as we were all sitting around drinking and my married friend was heading to his honeymoon, my other two buddies sat me down and told me that they barely knew me anymore, that I never stayed in contact with them, and that I was generally a terrible friend.
That shit really hit home and I vowed to be better at it. I started calling them every month or so and texting in between. I started doing the same with my family as well. Finally, I started doing the same with my business contacts that mattered - emailing them any major updates in my life and asking how they're doing, commenting intelligently on things they post on linkedin, sending them christmas cards every year, seeing their company in the news for something good and congratulating them on it, etc.
Really, the easiest thing in business and in life is to email someone (or text, if we're talking friends/family) and ask to catch up. You literally just ask them about what's going on in their lives and then tell them what's going on in yours. Then, inevitably, there will be a more relevant thing to talk about, such as one of you asking the other for advice, and boom - there's not only a connection but a feeling of "this person really helped me. I'm going to find a way to help them." Hell, I do it now with people I've never actually met (cc Count_Chocula )
Life/Business/etc. is all about your connections with people. You might have to force yourself at first, but eventually it becomes natural.
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