George asked in a comment what a fake audition was. Finally, I’m ready to discuss this. (Sorry for the delay, George.)
A fake audition is when the audition is incongruous with the situation. In the situation described in A Second Chance Audition, the candidate cared about the outcome of the first audition, but the audience did not. The interviewer was not balancing his needs to see the candidate with the candidate’s need to work in a real situation. Although the candidate felt as if this was a real work situation, the audience did not. That kind of unevenness, a lack of congruence is what makes a fake audition.
George’s comment explains how the audition is fake for everyone, which is congruent. I’m curious to know how well the audition is working over time. I’m not fond of role-plays as auditions, but if everyone is playing a role, that works better than when one person is doing some work for real and the others are role-playing.
When you create auditions, make them congruent. That is, make the situation real or fake, but be consistent. Don’t make it real for the candidate and fake for everyone else. That’s capitalizing on the interviewer’s power in the interview and many candidates’ perception of the lack of their power. It’s not respectful and it doesn’t help the candidate show their skills.
While I draft an answer to George’s fake audition question, let me address Alex’s question about using LinkedIn for recommendations.
I use LinkedIn, especially for coaching recommendations. I don’t know if it helps me get more clients, but I keep thinking it should
Just remember, a recommendation is not a reference. A recommendation does not address any specific concerns you might have about a potential candidate (or a potential employer). A recommendation is just that: data that one person liked something about another person.
So use them, but don’t rely on them for references. After all, how can you tell if what one person liked is something you would like?
Jurgen surprised me in a comment, when he said that only the worst employees provided references. He said he doesn’t check references.
I was astonished. I check references each and every time I extend an offer. I check references for people who do work on our house. I check references for people we ask to stay overnight with our children. I check references for people who work on my web site. I don’t pay someone without having done a reference check. No, I did not check references for Mark (my husband), but I did ask the people who introduced us what they knew about him.
I was wondering, why is my experience and preference so different than Jurgen’s?
Well, I check recent references. I don’t check references back to the beginning of time. And, I focus my reference checks on areas that I have concerns about for this job. I don’t pay attention to what references say that I think is irrelevant. Years ago, I was checking references for a release engineer, and the previous manager said, “He always wants us to integrate all the time. I think that’s because he doesn’t want to do his job.” !!!! (For those of you who don’t know about software, continuous integration is a key way to reduce risk in the project and shorten the project duration. This guy was doing an outstanding job for a clueless manager.)
When I check references, I use behavior-description questions about the issues I care most about. I usually ask somewhere between 5-7 questions, making sure I can keep the reference check to about a half hour. So I don’t ask about everything. I ask about what’s most important, and I timebox that time.
Jurgen’s point about not holding everything in a person’s past against them is a good point. But if they haven’t changed behavior, I do want to know that. Read all of Jurgen’s post, No, I Will NOT Call Your Ex-Boss.
John Cook pointed me to this gem: a second look – generosity 3. It’s the story of a fake audition that was dissatisfactory and how another real audition helped the author get a great job.
Avoid those fake auditions. People don’t perform as well as they would in more real circumstances.
Recently, a colleague whom I know from my writings and speaking asked me for a reference. I’ve never seen him work and I explained I could not provide a reference. He was quite angry with me.
In Choose Enough References, I suggest asking people who can explain the value of your work. Let me be more explicit: Do not ask people for references who cannot attest to how you work. Don’t do it.
The value of a reference is in the specifics and enthusiasm of the reference. Last night, I gave a reference for a former babysitter who’s looking for a live-out nanny position. I was enthusiastic, told stories about how wonderful she was when my children were little, medium, and even as young teenagers, when Mark and I needed to be away overnight. The woman who asked for the reference said I must have said the word “wonderful” at least 200 times. That’s the kind of enthusiasm you want to engender in your references.
Ask people for references, and make sure they can attest to the value of your work. Don’t ask people who haven’t worked with you directly, even if you think having them as a reference would be helpful. Unless you’ve worked with a VP who was three levels above you, don’t ask unless there is some project you worked on with the VP.
Being a reference is an honor and a responsibility. Don’t ask someone to take on the responsibility unless you know that person and that person knows your work.
