How Can I Benefit from Checking My Job References?
There are several benefits one can obtain by having their job references checked and they are as follows:
Peace of mind. Most of our customers believe they are going to get a negative recommendation because they were fired or didn't get along very well with the boss. By hiring us, they discover that their former employer gives them a neutral or even a good recommendation. Perhaps this is out of fear of being sued, but in any event, the person now has peace of mind knowing that he can apply for jobs in the future without fear of the former employer revealing embarrassing information. One client was completely frantic because he had been fired from his previous job and didn't think anyone else would hire him. We called the former supervisor and discovered that they had a "say nothing" policy and would only confirm job title and dates of employment. There was no way a prospective employer was going to find out he was fired unless he told them.
Damage control. If a reference does make negative statements, you have the opportunity to do some damage control which consists mostly of confronting the reference by contacting him or her and saying simply, "A recruiter told me that she called you the other day and you said I was a lazy, unmotivated slob. Why did you tell her that when every single performance review I ever received gave me above average ratings in those areas?" Hopefully, one can persuade the reference to leave out the negative statements in the future and give a more favorable or neutral recommendation. One can even hint at taking legal action if the negative statements continue. So many employers are worried about such litigation that this threat has a good chance of working.
Find out who your friends really are. Some people who hire us do so only after they've been in the job market too long and are puzzled as to why they aren't getting job offers. They are positive that their former supervisor will give them a glowing recommendation but hire us just to eliminate this as the problem. They are often surprised to discover that they are given a very mediocre or neutral recommendation or that their supervisor can't be bothered to return our phone calls. As one client put it, "I can't believe he couldn't be bothered to take a few minutes to return a phone call. He assured me when I left he would do everything he could to help me find a new job." Another client was furious to discover that his supposed "friend" who he still socialized with was stabbing him in the back telling us that our client was "unmotivated" and "wouldn't work unless you kept a fire burning under him."
Has your reference gone missing? Another potential problem you can uncover by checking your references is the general availability of your reference. If we can't get in contact with your reference, then perhaps that prospective employer can't either. So many people are busy that they never answer their phones and just don't want to take the time to return reference check phone calls. And who can blame them? Imagine being a supervisor of a large-sized company who must deal with such calls on a regular basis! It must get quite tedious and after awhile, most people in the same position would ignore most or all of the calls. But their non-response sends a very negative message to prospective employers -- If they can't take a few minutes to help you find a new job then they must not think much of you, or they're trying to tell the prospective employer through their silence that you shouldn't be hired for one reason or another. If you discover this is the problem, you can contact the reference and say to him, "Hey, Bob, I missed out on a very good job opportunity because a recruiter couldn't interview you. She told me that she left three messages on your voice mail but you never called her back . . . What's the deal, don't you like me?". Perhaps you can charm the person enough so he will respond to such calls in the future.
