Posts filed under 'reference'
Several of my colleagues are concerned by their “back-door” references, or unintentional references. They’ve gone on interviews, felt as if they’d aced the interview, were told “we just need to check references” and boom, they are out of contention for the job.
One colleague was told, “Oh those people you worked with > 10 years ago, that reference wasn’t a good one.” When the colleague protested, “I know. That person and I had trouble resolving our conflicts, which I explained. That’s why I didn’t provide that person as a reference.” The candidate could not persuade the hiring manager to look at a more recent reference or try the candidate temp to perm, or any other alternative.
If you’re providing a back door reference, please be careful. What you knew about the candidate several years ago may no longer be true.
Candidates, if you feel as if your back door references hurt your chances of landing a job, first touch base with your references. Make sure you know what your references are saying about you. Make sure you’ve chosen enough references. If that doesn’t work, be honest with your hiring managers. “When you contact my references, you might find some back door or unintentional references at the same company. If you check references with them, you may not hear nice things about my work. Let me explain why.”
Back door references can hurt candidates. Before you, as a hiring manager, listen to them, learn what you are listening for. Someone who wants to prevent someone from finding a new job? Or honest information? As a candidate, make sure you don’t take your references for granted.
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February 9th, 2009
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?
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December 10th, 2008
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.
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December 7th, 2008
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.
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December 2nd, 2008
You’re interviewing someone for a position at your company. You remember working with that person years ago, and you were unimpressed. Maybe it was the jerk factor, maybe it was the way he didn’t quite finish work, or maybe it was her perfume. Whatever it was, you were not excited about the candidate then, and you would like to avoid working with the candidate in the future. What do you do?
Tell the hiring manager. Explain with examples. “Back 10 years ago, when the candidate and I worked at SmallerCo, I was unimpressed by these things.” (Explain the things. If it’s not finishing, explain what you thought done meant and what the candidate did.) “When you check references, can you please check on this?”
The hiring manager should then ask the references, “Can you give me an example of a time the candidate did a great job finishing something?” and “Can you give me an example of a time the candidate had trouble finishing work?” and “How often do you think the candidate was great at finishing and how often did the candidate have trouble?” (Change this question to be the issue concerning you.)
You should let your manager know about your reservations–that’s the unintentional reference part. But you should make allowances for people having changed over time.
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February 11th, 2008
I recently spoke with a hiring manager who was unhappy about a candidate’s references, “All the references are for jobs 10 years ago. And he’s had 4 jobs in the last 5 years. Why aren’t there references from those jobs?”
If you’re a hiring manager, you’ll notice many candidates were either unemployed or had multiple jobs in the last 5 years. As they’ve moved around, their managers and peers have moved around too. It’s entirely possible that people are no longer in the field or that your candidate can’t find new references anymore.
If you’re faced with references that can’t provide useful information about a candidate because their experience with the candidate is not recent, consider these options:
- Ask for more recent references. The candidate may not have remember to send you the most recent references. Or your job may be similar to something the candidate did a while ago and thought you’d prefer these references.
- Ask the candidate to perform an audition if you haven’t already.
- Ask the candidate why he or she has no recent references. The answer may surprise you. I’ve heard “I’ve been working at a (particular) retail store. Since that job is nothing like this one, I didn’t think you’d want a reference from there.” I’ve also heard “I have no respect for these people and I thought you wouldn’t either. Why would I ask an ex-manager for a reference when he was stupid?”
Normally, when a candidate tells me a previous manager was stupid, red flags go up. I asked this candidate why he thought the manager was stupid. His answer, “He ignored what people wanted to do and assigned us to work we didn’t have expertise to perform. He thought nothing of assigning us to 6 projects at a time and then berating us in public for not finishing the work. …” This manager was, at the least, misguided. I can see why the candidate didn’t want him for a reference. Throw in a couple of years of looking for work along with some temporary work, and you can see why candidates might not have recent references.
Before you give up on this candidate, decide if it’s worth your time to hire the candidate on probation, or as a temp-to-perm employee. Experienced technical people can provide your organization a maturity and perseverance some of the less seasoned people may not have. Take the old references as part of the picture of the candidate. Assess the total risk to hiring the candidate. Don’t just flip off candidates because they have old references.Candidates, if you have old references, find newer ones. Nip this objection in the bud.
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May 28th, 2004
I was a reference for a senior manager yesterday. At first, the reference started to ask me, “What do you think are so-and-so’s weaknesses?” I hate that question, because it all depends on the context. And I’m smart enough to turn that question around so a weakness doesn’t sound like a weakness. Grr.
But then, the reference asked me, “What do you think it will take for so-and-so to succeed here?”Ah, asking about what it would take to succeed is a great question. (If you’re a candidate, ask yourself: What would it take for me to succeed at a company?) Now I have a question I can answer, and we can discuss the issues. I could say, “So-and-so needs an organization that hasn’t already made up its mind about everything. They don’t need to be totally flexible, but they need to know that there are multiple ways to make the projects happen.” That’s not a weakness; it’s a statement of how much adaptability the organization needs, and how little so-and-so needs to make the projects successful.
So, when you check references, make sure you ask the question, “What would it take for this candidate to be successful here?” You’ll hear much more valuable information than asking about weaknesses.
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January 21st, 2004
I was a reference for a senior manager the other day. A lovely HR person called and asked me a bunch of generic questions about the senior manager. Unfortunately, she didn’t ask me any of the important questions. It sounded as if her reference check was a standard set of questions, usable for anyone in the organization.
If the hiring manager (yes, the CEO here) had called, I would have been able to supply him with necessary information about the senior manager. But because he wasn’t asking the questions, I’m not sure the HR rep heard my answers, and understood what those answers meant as a reference for a senior exec.
For example, senior managers who don’t work well with others don’t succeed. This senior manager works very well with other people – she builds relationships even with jerks But when the HR rep asked me about the senior manager’s ability to get along with others, she was thinking about the manager-employee relationship, not the management peer relationship. One is as necessary as the other for senior managers. A missed opportunity on a reference check.
If you’re thinking of hiring someone, check references yourself. Don’t delegate reference checks. You’ll be able to take advantage of serendipitous moments and learn more about the candidate — what you need to know.
I’m conferencing again this week (
AYE conference, where I’m leading a session about interviewing), so don’t expect much blogging this week again.
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November 2nd, 2003
Most people don’t lie on their resumes or in interviews. However, if you’re not sure about a candidate, here’s a checklist to help you detect the truth about a candidate:
- Always check references. I ask for a minimum of three references from a candidate, at least one of which is a manager. Develop a reference checklist or script, so you ask the questions for which you need answers.
- Always check the current manager or the employee’s HR department as a reference. If a candidate is currently employed, the candidate may be reluctant to provide his/her current supervisor as a reference. You can always make the offer contingent on an accurate reference of just title, salary, and length of employment. The candidate’s HR rep can supply that information.
- If you suspect the candidate is stretching the truth, ask open-ended pointed questions of the reference, “Can you tell me about the candidate’s contribution to that project?”
- If a candidate’s background matters enough to you, perform a check on the candidate’s schooling. (If your company is a services firm, the kinds of degrees and schools may matter.)
- Verify the candidate held each job listed on the resume for the amount of time on the resume. You can call the HR departments of each company listed on the resume.
- Even people who don’t consider themselves out-and-out liars sometimes stretch the truth. If someone claims some number of years of tool, technology, or industry experience, ask pointed questions or use an audition that they should be able to answer
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June 13th, 2003