What About References?

As a job seeker, you undoubtedly knew from the get-go that you were going to need references. And, you may have assumed it would only take a simple phone call to verify performance on your part. You may have also assumed that any of your previous supervisors/bosses would be willing to provide this information if contacted about you.

Not so fast! This may—or may not—be the case. When a new employer requests references from a candidate, several things may happen. The first one is that the previous employer’s policies only allow them to state that you worked from date X to date Y and if given a salary (or salary ranged) they may confirm it.

Why, might you ask is this the case?  First of all—especially in the case of the previous position you held it is no longer the purview of that employer to do ANYthing for you!

What possible benefit can it be for one of your old supervisors to take time out of his day to ‘chat’ about someone who is no longer in his employ? The answer is obvious.

In addition, a goodly number of companies now have policies in place whereby they refuse to release specific job performance information about former employees for fear they may be sued in the future.  Is this realistic, you may ask?  It doesn’t matter whether it is, or it isn’t. The reality is that a future employer will simply be unable to coax any information out of a company like that.

What’s the solution? Well, the solution is to have had the foresight to get a letter of recommendation from your boss BEFORE leaving his employ—i.e. during the last couple weeks of your job it would be perfectly appropriate for you to ask him/her whether he/she would agree to signing a letter of reference that would provide pertinent details about you.

Even if your company has these ‘don’t tell’ policies in place, you may still be able to get  your boss to do this--especially if such a letter does not appear on company letterhead. (But of course, this would entail YOU writing such a letter.  For tips on doing just this, read the May 26^th posting entitled “Here’s How--and Why—You should Compose Your Own Letter of Recommendation.”

Armed with such a letter--or preferably letters--you’ll be much better equipped to present your credentials to a new employer.