✓ Sample reference What every Academy graduate's verifiable reference page looks like · annotated below

Built In Ireland · references · sample

This is exactly what
your reference looks like.

Every member who completes The Academy graduates with a page like this at builtinireland.ie/references/<your-name>/. It's not a certificate. It's a signed letter on a public URL that anyone — employer, recruiter, anyone — can visit. Below: the template, annotated, with every field explained. For a fully-realised sample see the Aoife O'Brien sample.

Reference anatomy — field by field

The letter below is the template every reference is built from. The orange notes explain why each field is there.

Raven Design ravendesign.ie · Leitrim, Ireland
Built In Ireland builtinireland.ie
The co-signing letterheadTwo organisations sign every reference. Raven Design (the mentor's studio) and Built In Ireland (the cooperative). Both names appear at the top so a recruiter sees immediately that this is a multi-party reference, not a single individual's opinion.

To whom it may concern,

This letter confirms that [member name] completed [cohort identifier, e.g. Cohort 1 — County Carlow] of The Academy — Built In Ireland's cooperative-project programme — working on the [project, e.g. localnews.ie] project under my mentorship between [start date] and [end date].

The opening paragraphFive facts in one sentence: who it's about, which cohort, which project, the dates. Recruiters scanning for "did this person actually do something for four weeks" can stop reading here and have their answer.

[Project description in one paragraph — what the site does, scale, why the work matters.]

What [member] shipped

  • [Specific deliverable, with technical detail and deep link to live code or output.]
  • [Specific deliverable.]
  • [Specific deliverable. There are usually 4–7 of these.]
What was shippedThis is the section that makes the reference verifiable. Each bullet is a concrete deliverable that can be checked against the live site. Each deep-link goes to production. If the link 404s, the reference is suspect.

Impact

As of this letter's date, [member]'s work is [describes traffic, ingest volume, or other measurable effect using Matomo / GSC / pipeline numbers].

ImpactNumbers from the live system. Matomo for traffic. GSC for impressions. Pipeline counts for scrapers. We name a source for every number so a recruiter could ask us for the underlying data.

How [member] worked

[One paragraph on the member's working style — attendance at check-ins, quality of questions, response to feedback, self-awareness about their own work. Honest. Not flattery.]

How they workedThe bit that makes references actually useful. A mentor who saw someone work for four weeks knows things a CV cannot show: did they ask good questions, did they bail at the first blocker, did they flag their own bad work or hide it. This paragraph is the closest you can get on paper to having worked with someone.

My recommendation

[One sentence. "I'd hire X into a Y role on a Z team without hesitation" or honest variants. Not "great person to know" hand-wave.]

The recommendationA specific recommendation about a specific role. Vague endorsements are useless to recruiters. We write a real one or we don't write one.
Kali Founder, Raven Design Mentor, [cohort] kali@ravendesign.ie
Built In Ireland Co-signer builtinireland.ie Reference ID: [BII-YYYY-NNN]
The signaturesTwo named signers with real emails. Kali at Raven Design always picks up the phone or replies to mail about a reference within one business day. The reference ID has a fixed format and lives in the public register — if you can't find the ID there, the reference isn't ours.

How to verify any reference

Three independent ways. Pick whichever you trust most.

🔗

1. Visit the URL

Every reference lives at builtinireland.ie/references/<slug>/. If the URL exists and the content matches the PDF a candidate sent you, the reference is real. The page is committed to a public git repository at issue and cannot be edited after.

📧

2. Email the mentor

Email kali@ravendesign.ie with the reference ID. Confirm or deny within one business day. A real person, a real reply.

📂

3. Check the public register

All Built In Ireland references are listed at builtinireland.ie/references/ with their dates, projects, and signers. If the reference isn't in the register, it's not ours.

Want to see a fully-realised example?

The Aoife O'Brien sample reference is a fictional but complete reference letter showing what one looks like when filled in for a real cohort member — specific deliverables, specific impact numbers, specific recommendation, real verification mechanics.

The first real references will be issued from the current Academy cohort. See the public register for status.

Open the Aoife sample →

What you'll see on a real reference
✓Specific deliverables, named
✓Deep links to live work
✓Measurable impact numbers
✓Named signers, real emails
✓Stable reference ID

How to earn one

The criteria are public, the same for every cohort, and don't move.

  1. Join a cohort at The Academy. Current cohort is open for signups.
  2. Ship four issues over four weeks. "Shipped" means in production, reviewed, accepted.
  3. Attend the four weekly check-ins. Missing one is fine; going silent for two ends the reference path.
  4. Mentor signs off. One-click yes/no after week four.
  5. Write a two-paragraph self-reflection. Becomes the basis for the letter text.

Apply to The Academy →