# ACS Reference Letter for Assessment



## ibrahimahmed (Jan 1, 2015)

Hi everyone,
I am planning to apply ACS assessment for 261312 - Developer Programmer.
can someone please check my reference letter to see if it is ok to apply for assessment. I just want to make sure before applying or else i can ask my manager to write me a new one.


Date of Letter

To whom it may concern,
This is to certify that *Name* was an employee of *Company* and was employed from *date* until *date*.

*Name* was employed on Full Time basis as a Software Developer.
During this employment period his duties were:
•	Analyse user requirements, develop proof of concepts to demonstrate the design feasibility and support system analysts to document user requirements.
•	Translate the solutions provided by systems analysts into comprehensive program specifications including the design of application.
•	Design, develop and maintain Microsoft.Net framework based client and server side applications in accordance with technical requirements and specifications.
•	Design and develop database, write & optimize queries and stored procedures using T-SQL for Microsoft SQL Server.
•	Evaluate and modify existing applications by designing and developing new features to meet the new requirements and specifications
•	Test the developed applications to diagnose any errors or defects and debug the application code to rectify any faults to ensure that application perform according to the specifications and meet the quality standards.
•	Develop and/or assist in the development of Project documentations, such as project plans, test plans, design documentation, end-user documentation, quality assurance documentation, policy and procedure documentations etc.
•	Deploy developed client or server side applications in the production environment and resolve any issues 
Technologies, Tools, Databases, Frameworks/APIs
•	C#
•	VB.NET
•	ASP.NET
•	WCF
•	T-SQL(Microsoft SQL Server)
•	Microsoft Visual Studio
•	HTML/CSS
•	JavaScript
•	SOAP
•	XML
•	RESTful
•	JSON

Also, is it ok to mention technologies, frameworks etc or no need for it?
Thanks


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## yasitha999 (Nov 25, 2014)

Your reference letter looks ok, Its OK to mention technologies and frameworks as well. 
This is the sample reference letter format provided by ACS. Seems your letter complies with their sample.

Wish you all the best. 



ibrahimahmed said:


> Hi everyone,
> I am planning to apply ACS assessment for 261312 - Developer Programmer.
> can someone please check my reference letter to see if it is ok to apply for assessment. I just want to make sure before applying or else i can ask my manager to write me a new one.
> 
> ...


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## idreamofoz (Oct 8, 2014)

Location/Country is missing in the letter. Please add the same.

HTH


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## ibrahimahmed (Jan 1, 2015)

idreamofoz said:


> Location/Country is missing in the letter. Please add the same.
> 
> HTH


DO i have to mention the country in the letter? because the sample reference letter provided by ACS doesn't have Country. 
Company address contains the country as well.


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## ibrahimahmed (Jan 1, 2015)

idreamofoz said:


> Location/Country is missing in the letter. Please add the same.
> 
> HTH


Just wondering, how many days it took you to get the assessment result from ACS?


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## ibrahimahmed (Jan 1, 2015)

yasitha999 said:


> Your reference letter looks ok, Its OK to mention technologies and frameworks as well.
> This is the sample reference letter format provided by ACS. Seems your letter complies with their sample.
> 
> Wish you all the best.


Yes, i actually sent the Sample letter to my manager and i think he used that to create my reference letter. DO you have any other format which may be better than this and you don't mind sharing? I can't afford to have -ve assessment from ACS.
Did you actually get your assessment in one week?


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## yasitha999 (Nov 25, 2014)

ibrahimahmed said:


> Yes, i actually sent the Sample letter to my manager and i think he used that to create my reference letter. DO you have any other format which may be better than this and you don't mind sharing? I can't afford to have -ve assessment from ACS.
> Did you actually get your assessment in one week?


Actually I also asked my manager to refer sample letter when creating my reference letter. 
I think its sufficient to have location in the address, One of my previous company manager forgot to mention the location, but its available on letter head address. and there was no issue with the assessment. 

Yes these days they provide assessment very quickly. mine took only 4 - 5 days. while early 2014 took around 3 months.


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## idreamofoz (Oct 8, 2014)

ibrahimahmed said:


> Just wondering, how many days it took you to get the assessment result from ACS?


Yes, I got the assessment in my hand within 7 days of applying. 
Also, I mentioned my work location as (Bangalore/Karnataka/India( coz didn't want to take any chances.

Tx


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## ibrahimahmed (Jan 1, 2015)

Thanks Guys, Really appreciated. I hope i will get the +ve assessment too.


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## abrao115 (Apr 29, 2014)

Hi mates,
I am planning to apply ACS assessment for 261313 - Software Engineer
I have prepared my reference letter with my roles and responsibilities to get the print out in my company's letterhead.

Hence could you please check the and provide some suggestions, if it needs amendments to reach the ACS standards.

Based on your amendments I will get the print out in my company's letterhead in India, because I am going to India on 24th Jan. I know one of the HR team member in my company. He will help me in this matter.

So could you please send the amendments ASAP if needed.

Date of Letter ***

To whom it may concern,
This is to certify that Name*** is an employee of Company name ****and has been working in our organization since 14 July 2008 to until date. He had been worked in Chennai, India from 14th July to 9th Jan 2012 then deputed to Australia and has been working in Melbourne in company name*** since 10th Jan 2012 to till date.

Name**** is employee on Full Time basis as a Sr. GIS engineer.
During this employment period his duties were:
§	Designing and development of mobile GIS application and Implementation of offline maps for mobile GIS application.
§	Conducting code reviews and troubleshoots for program errors in existing systems.
§	Writing shell scripts and SQL scripts to quick deploy across multiple environments and writing tools for report generation.
§	Involving in engineering web development, Implementation of software development life cycle policies and procedures and in software planning, status monitoring and reporting.
§	Develops software solutions and web services for online data synchronization by studying information needs; conferring with users; studying systems flow, data usage, and work processes; investigating problem areas.
§	Develop features across multiple subsystems within our applications, including collaboration in requirements definition, prototyping, design, coding, unit testing and deployment
§	Provide engineering support when building, deploying, configuring and supporting systems for customers and conducting code reviews. Performing integration testing and provide end to end-user support.
§	Provide technical support to other project teams, conducting user training sessions, knowledge transfer sessions and preparation of user training materials. 
§	Investigate, analyze and make recommendations to management regarding technology improvements, upgrades and modifications

Technologies, Tools, Databases, Frameworks/APIs:
•	C, Objective C#, Java, Java Script, C#Net,
•	Oracle, T-SQL(Microsoft SQL Server),SQL
•	J2EE, Struts, HTML5/CSS3, XML
•	Windows XP/Windows7, Linux.
•	Boundless Open Geo, Geoserver, QGIS


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## ibrahimahmed (Jan 1, 2015)

abrao115 said:


> Hi mates,
> I am planning to apply ACS assessment for 261313 - Software Engineer
> I have prepared my reference letter with my roles and responsibilities to get the print out in my company's letterhead.
> 
> ...


Have you already applied for assessment?
If not, you might wanna fix some grammatical errors in the letter. "He had been worked in Chennai," to "He has been working in"


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## ambyboy (Jan 12, 2015)

Guys,

I need help here. My employer has refused to provide "To Whomsover it may Concern" letter for job reference.

I'm a CA looking to complete work assessment from ACCA.

My question is Should thn th letter be addressed to ACCA? If yes, then will this be an issue post EOI at documetaion submission stage? 

If letter is addressed to CO, then will this be a problem with ACCA during their assesment?


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## purple5 (May 30, 2015)

Hi,

Did you use "till date" as end date of your employment in the reference letter?
Is it okay with ACS?
Thanks 




abrao115 said:


> Hi mates,
> I am planning to apply ACS assessment for 261313 - Software Engineer
> I have prepared my reference letter with my roles and responsibilities to get the print out in my company's letterhead.
> 
> ...


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## bharathi039 (Jul 7, 2015)

Hi guys,

Really need your advise before I start my ACS process

I have pursued B.Tech in Information Technology(4 yrs) and have overall experience of 5 yrs in Software Industry.

I am planning to apply for ACS and just want to know how feasible is to claim entire 5 years of experience. I believe my degree should be categorized as ICT major. Would that still result in cutting down 2 years from my work experience?

I am standing right at the tip of 5 years experience. Having said that, if at all ACS chops of 2 years, I am little pessimistic to forecast if I would fall short of 3 years (that would give me 0 pts )

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!


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## bishtpan (Jun 25, 2016)

Hi Guys,

Long in short : I am planning to apply ACS assessment for 261313 - Software Engineer . 
My *question *is , *without *the mention of technology on the experience letter , will my assessment be rejected ?


I have received my experience letter from all my past employers on the letter head . I followed the latest format from the ACS website . The content is as follows . However , I am hearing some suggestions that its better to include technology . Now I am bit worried that ACS might reject . Although on there website the pdf doc has no mention of technology . 

It took me lot of effort to chase the people for the letter and to start all over again for 4 letters its a daunting task . Although I am presuming . 




Date: 

To whom this may concern.

Dir Sir / Madam.
Re: MY NAME

Regarding the individual named above; we confirmed the following

Start Date 12 June 2006
End Date 4 April 2009
Corporate Grade	Manager
Engagement Status	Permanent and Full Time
Employing Entity	XYZ Private Ltd (India)

His Job Duties and Responsibilities were:

•	Writing and maintaining program code to meet system requirements , system designs and technical specifications in accordance with quality accredited standards
•	Testing , debugging , diagnosing and correcting errors and faults in an applications programming language within established testing protocols, guidelines and quality standards to ensure programs and applications perform to specification
•	Analyzing and evaluating system program needs
•	Identifying technology limitations and deficiencies in existing systems and associated processes, procedures and methods
•	Writing updating and maintaining end user documentation and operational procedures

Sincerely yours,


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## bagri1989 (Jun 22, 2016)

abrao115 said:


> Hi mates,
> I am planning to apply ACS assessment for 261313 - Software Engineer
> I have prepared my reference letter with my roles and responsibilities to get the print out in my company's letterhead.
> 
> ...


Did you get positive assessment on above roles and responsibility for 261313 ?


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## poonamjain88 (Jun 15, 2016)

Hello bishtpan, abrao115, ibrahimahmed,

Saw your post with sample Reference letter from company could you please advise if any one of the above got successful ACS assessment?

If not could you please share the one which got successful assessment.

Thanking you in advance.

_________________________________________________________________
189 | 261312 | PTE | ACS 

AGE- 30 | Qualification- 15 | Partner skill- 5 | PTE-10 = 60


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## ajaiswal1099 (Mar 6, 2018)

bishtpan said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> Long in short : I am planning to apply ACS assessment for 261313 - Software Engineer .
> My *question *is , *without *the mention of technology on the experience letter , will my assessment be rejected ?
> ...



Did you got positive assessment for the above letter, and did you had the same content from all of your employers ?


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## vjspeaks (Mar 29, 2019)

ibrahimahmed said:


> Hi everyone,
> I am planning to apply ACS assessment for 261312 - Developer Programmer.
> can someone please check my reference letter to see if it is ok to apply for assessment. I just want to make sure before applying or else i can ask my manager to write me a new one.
> 
> ...


Really an awesome letter buddy, being a dot net developer myself, is it OK if I use your letter for reference? My manager is not someone who would do this for me and plain copy pasting it (before asking) didn't feel alright to me!


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## NB (Mar 29, 2017)

vjspeaks said:


> Really an awesome letter buddy, being a dot net developer myself, is it OK if I use your letter for reference? My manager is not someone who would do this for me and plain copy pasting it (before asking) didn't feel alright to me!


You are looking for trouble, if you ask me

Copying someone else’s RNR is not the way to go, if you really want your grant

Cheers


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## vjspeaks (Mar 29, 2019)

NB said:


> You are looking for trouble, if you ask me
> 
> Copying someone else’s RNR is not the way to go, if you really want your grant
> 
> Cheers


Hey NB,

Thanks for your quick and useful reply (as always! ) but I think I didn't write my question correctly. It should be more appropriate to ask, can I use this as a reference and maybe change some verbiage, add or remove some of the other responsibilities - that are very specific to my roles and maybe use this letter as general skeleton since this is as close as it can be to a .Net Developer's role and hence very tempting, or should I write a new reference letter altogether (I understand it would be stupid to just copy paste it).


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## NB (Mar 29, 2017)

vjspeaks said:


> Hey NB,
> 
> Thanks for your quick and useful reply (as always! ) but I think I didn't write my question correctly. It should be more appropriate to ask, can I use this as a reference and maybe change some verbiage, add or remove some of the other responsibilities - that are very specific to my roles and maybe use this letter as general skeleton since this is as close as it can be to a .Net Developer's role and hence very tempting, or should I write a new reference letter altogether (I understand it would be stupid to just copy paste it).


The template is already given in the Anzsco code

Why do you want to go elsewhere I don’t understand unless you want to copy paste and edit it

Cheers


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## vjspeaks (Mar 29, 2019)

NB said:


> The template is already given in the Anzsco code
> 
> Why do you want to go elsewhere I don’t understand unless you want to copy paste and edit it
> 
> Cheers


Hey NB,

I hope I don't come across too sleazy here p) but the Roles and Responsibilities mentioned in this letter is literally everything I (and most .Net devs I guess) do, its true and I have no shame in accepting it. :brick:

I know there's a template provided in the 'Skills Assessment Guidelines for Applicants' and that's more than enough to begin with but if you're suggesting me there's something more specific to the ANZSCO codes in 2613 unit group, please point me in that direction! So far I'm assuming it still would be a copy-paste and edit of the descriptions provided here - 1220.0 - ANZSCO - Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, 2013, Version 1.2
which some members of the group suggested would still count to plagiarism! 

I guess my profession is just too mainstream for me to try and create something very unique and your suggestion/s will truly help me! 

Cheers to you too!


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## NB (Mar 29, 2017)

vjspeaks said:


> Hey NB,
> 
> I hope I don't come across too sleazy here p) but the Roles and Responsibilities mentioned in this letter is literally everything I (and most .Net devs I guess) do, its true and I have no shame in accepting it. :brick:
> 
> ...


In our company we have thousands of employees, but I doubt that those with more then 5 years experience would have a common RNR

When you are just beginning your career, I can understand that some RnR would be similar but after 5 years I really doubt it

Anyways each to his own

Cheers


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## vjspeaks (Mar 29, 2019)

NB said:


> In our company we have thousands of employees, but I doubt that those with more then 5 years experience would have a common RNR
> 
> When you are just beginning your career, I can understand that some RnR would be similar but after 5 years I really doubt it
> 
> ...


Hey NB,

Understood Sir, makes perfect sense! 

So I guess translating more of what I particularly do on a day-to-day basis is the way to go then (and on a lighter note, copy pasting is definitely one of it...LOL!)

Thumbs up for bearing with me, you're not the hero we deserve but the hero we needed! :clap2:

Cheers


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## vjspeaks (Mar 29, 2019)

One quick question, when submitting this Statutory Declaration, is it also mandatory to submit Manager's/Supervising Colleague's documents - like payslip, etc.?


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## NB (Mar 29, 2017)

vjspeaks said:


> One quick question, when submitting this Statutory Declaration, is it also mandatory to submit Manager's/Supervising Colleague's documents - like payslip, etc.?


Nope

Cheers


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## vjspeaks (Mar 29, 2019)

NB said:


> vjspeaks said:
> 
> 
> > One quick question, when submitting this Statutory Declaration, is it also mandatory to submit Manager's/Supervising Colleague's documents - like payslip, etc.?
> ...


Hey NB,

First of all thank you for guiding me about writing my own letter, got my assessment result today without a single hiccup. Much appreciated!

Secondly, could you please help me with a doubt, 

My assessment reads as below :

The following employment a�er 22 July 2014 is considered to equate to work at an appropriately skilled level and relevant to ANZSCO Code 261313 (So�ware Engineer).
Dates:
07/12 - 05/19 - 6 year(s) 10 month(s) 

Does this mean I can start claiming points from one month after 07/12 or from one month after 22 July 2014?

Please suggest!


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## NB (Mar 29, 2017)

vjspeaks said:


> Hey NB,
> 
> First of all thank you for guiding me about writing my own letter, got my assessment result today without a single hiccup. Much appreciated!
> 
> ...


ACS generally doesn’t give the exact date in the assessment, only the month and year
But as they have given you an exact date, you can start claiming points from 23 July 2014 itself

Cheers


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