It was supposed to be humorous. But I also don't know if this ex-Navy cat was serious about 25 rec letters.

I've written a ton of rec letters, and spent too much time on every one of them. Most of the folks I've recommended have been hired...a credit to them and not to me. None of them have had more than 5 rec letters. If someone asked me to write a rec letter, knowing full well what goes into writing a good and personalized one (probably making multiple variants to submit to multiple carriers), and I asked them how many folks had put in a good word... the last thing I want to hear is "24."

I'm not in hiring, so my opinion doesn't matter... but 25 rec letters is so far out of (what I suspect is) the norm that I'm not sure it would help. Would 6 to 9 good ones not have been enough? Is the app not strong enough to stand on its own merit? How many ways can we say "Hire this ace of the base before the competition scoops him up!"?

I've been a reference for over a dozen applicants and have never gotten a call from Delta. None of my references or employers were ever contacted. An applicant has to get and win the interview pretty much on his own, and a lone internal rec gets one's app the requisite review.