There’s a saying, “Resumes get you the interview, but references get you the job.” So, what can a job candidate do to ensure this final step in the interview process goes well?
“When I’m recruiting an individual and do reference checks, I’m going to ask very specific questions that try to target something in a candidate’s background, or learn about an assignment or project relevant to the job they’re being considered for,” said Chicago executive recruiter and consultant Lynn Hazan. “Those conversations can sometimes help sway salaries because a prospective employer may hear things about a candidate’s skill they weren’t already aware of.”
Because a job finalist may have little time to forewarn a reference, Hazan and other recruitment experts counsel candidates to keep their references informed about their job search progress.
“Often, supervisors forget,” Hazan said. “So anything that a candidate can do to prep a former boss will help. If the candidate makes the effort and time to prepare their references, it generally pays off.”
If candidates left on less-than-ideal terms with an old supervisor, they should be able to satisfactorily explain why a conflict existed and should offer other co-workers, superiors or peers who can vouch for the quality of their work. Those same references will come in handy if a candidate worked for a company that has a policy of not providing references beyond dates of employment.
If you’re worried about what your references may say about you, there’s now a sneaky way to test them. A spate of new companies–for fees ranging from about $29 to $99–will assume the role of a prospective employer and surreptitiously vet your references for you. But carefully select your company; complaints have been lodged against a number of them.
Those who worked for dot-com or technology companies that have substantially reduced their workforce can benefit the most by having their references checked in advance, said Terra Dourlain of MyReferences.com in Jamestown, N.Y. “We’ve found that, when companies start falling apart, the rumor mill kicks in and people assume that employees who left voluntarily were fired or were responsible for problems they had nothing to do with.”
And then there’s the case of a candidate’s death, in the immortal words of Mark Twain, being greatly exaggerated.
“We were doing a reference check . . . and the HR director at his previous employer said, `Why are you calling about this person? That person is dead,'” Dourlain recalled. “He wasn’t dead; he was our client.” The candidate’s son had died recently and the HR director had erroneously assumed it was the company’s former employee.
