Asking for References

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

I recently graduated from university within the last year, and now that I’m looking for a job, I can’t think of anyone to ask for references. I was that shy and introverted person who didn’t really bond or connect with others so I didn’t have anyone I would call a friend throughout college except my own sister, and I hardly if ever interacted with my professors. Not to mention, I wasn’t an ambitious student like I should have been and was just content with getting the bare minimum passing grade to pass my classes… I don’t know if it was because of my depression, but looking back, I wish I had put myself out there more. But anyway, on to my question:

Can I still ask my former professors to be my job references even if I didn’t earn an A in their class? I’ve heard about how you shouldn’t ask a teacher or professor for a reference if you did mediocre in their class, but I don’t know who to ask to be my references since I had 0 networking skills in college.

2

Depends on the professor, some will say no, some will say yes. Honestly in my experiences it depends more on the popularity that, that professor gets asked for recommendations. If the professor writes a lot of recommendations, they become much more particular in who, whereas professors who don’t write as many will say yes because it adds to their ego.

Some professors will only write recommendations for students they remember (regardless of their grade), some will only write recommendations for students that got an A (regardless if they remember them), and some will require both.