It has been said that “Inquiring minds want to know” and no minds are more inquiring than those about to hire you. Rest assured, you will be investigated. As a rule of thumb, the better the job and the higher the pay, the tougher the screening process. If you are up for a good job at a visible company, your references and past employers will be checked in considerable detail. A check of your references is simply the beginning of the investigation a prospective employer will conduct.
When a prospective employer has completed the first round of interviews and you are among the top candidates, their next logical step is to check your references and interview those individuals to whom you reported, and/or their company’s HR representative. Are you certain these individuals will seal the deal for you, or will they kill it? If you are like most people, you probably haven’t given your references much thought. Instead, you have focused on your resume, interviewing skills, networking, and what to wear to the interview. If so, consider a necessary paradigm shift.
Your biggest concern should be the quality of your references and recommendations from past employers, because they will almost certainly make or break your chances. About half of all references that get checked offer commentary that is mediocre to poor about the former employee, so it is very possible that the great job you lost out on at the last moment had nothing to do with your skill set. Rather, it could have had more to do with what a reference or past employer said about you. A negative reference is a frightening scenario when your livelihood is at stake.
Here is a sampling of the damaging comments HR people and supervisors commonly hear when they check references:
- “Our company policy prohibits us saying anything. We can only verify dates of employment and title.” Then the reference goes on to say something like, “Check his references very, very carefully.”
- “Are you certain he gave my name as a reference?”
- “After we settle our lawsuit…”
- “Let me see what the paperwork says I am able to give out regarding _______.”
- “Is he still in this field?”
References and past employers won’t call and warn you that they are not going to be complimentary. The reference situation is ever changing and therefore very volatile because of shifting company policies (not that many employees choose to follow them anyway), new employees in HR departments, new laws governing references, and company liability for giving references.
You are well advised to take more control of your career momentum by finding out what every potential reference will say about you. Whether your reference’s input is stellar or negative, there is a “peace of mind” element in knowing precisely what your reference has – and will say – about you. This allows you to proactively manage your reference-checking process – you will be able to pass on your best references with greater confidence. You will also have the legal recourse to stop references from saying things that are not true, inaccurate or potentially damaging.
In the next blog we will look at some general rules of thumb to maximize your prospects with your job references.
For information about Allison and Taylor, Inc.’s professional reference checking services, click here.