Final answer:
The sentence needs a comma after the word 'company' to separate the independent and dependent clauses.
Step-by-step explanation:
The sentence needs a comma after the word 'company' to separate the independent and dependent clauses. The correct sentence would be: 'Before the student could be hired by the company, the student's adviser had to provide a letter of recommendation.' The comma is used to indicate a pause and separate the two clauses.