Having worked in UK for over a decade with various employers I never got an actual reference letter other than a confirmation of employment. Nor I have ever bee

Having worked in UK for over a decade with various employers I never got an actual reference letter other than a confirmation of employment. Nor I have ever been asked for one when being hired. In fact if I remember correctly it might have been stated in some company documents that "they don't give references" and that "they'll confirm the job start and end date, the employee's job title and number of sick days taken and nothing else(that's required by the law if I remember correctly)". Although I had managers privately tell me of their willingness "to talk to" anyone I might need to give a reference to in private. I never knew in Germany one is expected to obtain actual proper reference letters from past employers. Good to know just in case. Long time ago (15+ years ago) I had worked in Poland. Back then I did get a written reference from the company I worked for. I can't say if those letters are required these days in PL.