Picture this scenario: You’ve just “nailed” that second interview and your prospective employer appeared enthusiastic about you. They may even have suggested that you were the leading candidate, or that the job was practically yours. You left the interview with high hopes, waiting for that formal job offer you’d hoped (or expected) within the next few days.
But then…no word. You politely followed up, and were told that the company had “decided to go in a different direction”, with a different candidate. Your prospects had looked so good with this opportunity – was it simply a case of a better candidate in an already challenging economy? Or could it have been something else?
Variations on this unfortunate theme are heard from clients almost daily at Allison & Taylor, a reference checking organization of 30 years. Aside from the understandable disappointment and frustration of losing out on a seemingly strong job prospect, clients are also burdened with the uncertainty of why they did not ultimately get the job. For their own legal protection, prospective employers will virtually never reveal to a candidate that they were not selected as the result of one of their references, or their background check. Instead, employers simply allude to other candidates with stronger credentials, or a change in corporate direction, or – more likely – simply never respond back to the candidate with any kind of input. The candidate is left wondering whether there was more to the rejection than met the eye – without knowing for certain if this was indeed the case.
Fortunately, companies like Allison & Taylor are able to shed light on why job seekers may not have gotten that all-important job offer. By conducting a reference check(s) on one’s former employer, they can identify whether the input from that party could be damaging in the eyes of a prospective employer. When this is the case – as it is in approximately 50% of reference checks conducted by Allison & Taylor – the client will have some form of remedial action available to them (if they wish it) to discourage a negative reference from ever offering such commentary again.
If you – or someone you know – is in this situation, consider the “peace of mind” factor of knowing, not surmising, what your key references may actually be saying about you. The employment stakes are high, and the competition for every new job is already challenging enough – be sure that one of your references isn’t the “weak link” in your attainment of that next new job.
2016 is slated to be the year of new jobs, better jobs and upgrading careers. Job references play a crucial role in this quest for career betterment.
Many of us are aware that a former employer is only supposed to offer limited information about previous employees – typically, employment dates and title. While the track record of corporate Human Resources is generally (but not always) consistent with this policy, it is a different story when considering former supervisors. Most job applications request that information, “To Whom Did You Report?”
While there are a number of reasons why a former supervisor might offer potentially damaging information about a job seeker, the bottom line is that one should never assume that a prior supervisor(s) is following company policy when they are contacted about a reference.
So, what are the reasons why supervisory references may be unfavorable? Seven possible reasons include:
- They simply may not have liked the person, or their performance.
- They may be unhappy that the person left the organization (or are thinking about leaving the organization) and are either retaliating/discouraging someone else from hiring this job seeker.
- They may fall in the “bad boss” or “bully” category.
- They may have issues pertaining to a person’s age, religion or sex.
- They may be having a “bad day,” offering more revealing commentary than they normally might not.
- They may think the person is not qualified for the position for which they are being considered. They may even be envious that one of their team is being considered for such a position.
- They may simply be offering the truth as they see it, not being mindful – or aware – that they should not be offering that level of commentary about a former employee.
Given the substantial number of negative supervisory references, what is a job seeker to do?
A useful first step would be to determine if a former supervisor is indeed a reference problem, by having an organization like Allison & Taylor Reference Checking (www.allisontaylor.com) conduct a reference check on their behalf. If a former supervisor’s commentary is in any way unfavorable, the job seeker will have some form of recourse in discouraging them from offering such commentary again. (One such remedy is the Cease & Desist letter that has an extremely high rate of success.)