While recently working with candidate in preparing their
client presentation, I asked for professional references. Standard procedure.
This experience reminded me however as to the importance of carefully selecting
whom you provide as your references. There are numerous writings on the
internet regarding this topic, and I don’t want to reproduce what is already
readily available, but instead just take a moment to stress the importance
of this part of your job search. This candidate provided high profile
co-workers from a previous employer; not only peers but supervisory types of
references. The candidate provided references that were in a position to be
able to accurately speak to their work product and provide a positive
reflection upon the person’s abilities and work they had done at this past
employer. Well, they could have anyway. The problem with these references was
that the company had a policy against providing opinion, aka: references,
regarding former employees. So all these references were basically under a gag
order by their employer. So bottom line, none could help. All positioned well
to be excellent references if only they could have spoken to me. Instead I only
got title and employment dates. That was not so useful.
So I asked the candidate to consider other individuals
they worked with at this employer that have since left. That is one possible
solution anyway. So we are still working through that but it certainly reminds
me of the importance of considering whom you use as references. And in this
case, know the company’s policy of providing references. Be certain to talk to
each reference to see if they are in a position to be able to provide useful
information.
In the spirit of this topic I have included a link to an
article on TheLadders.com that adds some additional useful information
regarding references. It’s a quick read. Straight and to the point.
Scot Dickerson, CPC
President
President
Capstone Search
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