One of the most important items to prepare before you get to the interview are your references, both personal and professional. I have known many people who have had multiple in-depth interviews with one company after another and not come up with the job because of something that was being said by one of their references.
In this day and age when hiring the right employee is so very important to the profit and loss of a company, references are checked more often than you would believe. A recent survey revealed that in general they were checked over 70% of the time, and in cases where the position paid over $50,000, they were checked in 95% or more cases.
We recommend a four-step process to develop good references:
1) Decide whom you will use. Choose at least three professional and two personal references. One of the professional references should be your supervisor in your last job. Even if you do not supply this person as a reference, you know that the employer is going to call them anyway. (In cases where you are still employed, you need to identify someone who was formerly with your firm or who is aware of your search to whom interested parties might speak.) Your other professional references can be carefully chosen to show you in the best possible light. If you are going to have trouble with the reference from your recent supervisor, make sure one of the other two is from your most recent company so that there can be a counter-balancing influence. Your personal references should be your pastor or banker or an individual with whom you are active in civic activities to complement and emphasize your outside and personal strengths.
2) Write down what you would like each of your references to say. Emphasize strengths; do not overlook any negatives, but state them in the best possible manner. For example, if you were fired, “We had a philosophical difference in opinion on how an account should be handled and decided to part ways.” Include how they know of you, your accomplishments, skills, knowledge of your personal habits and traits, and why you left the company.
3) Meet personally, if possible (if not, talk to them on the phone), with each of your references and discuss the reference you have written out and would like for them to give when asked. If they have a problem with any part of it – discuss it; change the wording so they will be more comfortable. Do not get into an argument with the individual; just make sure that you know what is going to be said. If you come away from that discussion unsure of how the person will speak about you by all means find an alternative reference.
4) Mediate any bad that might come from your references by letting your interviewer know in advance what they are going to hear and why. For example: If your former supervisor is going to say that you were terminated because you were never able to finish a project on time, say (if it’s true) that the reason for this is that projects were constantly being thrown upon you with conflicting deadlines and changing parameters which were impossible to meet. By getting your side in first, you can take a lot of the damage out of that type of statement.
5) The real problem in the process is not being able to ever know what is being said about you.
If you are running into roadblocks go back and try and find out where the problem is. Many years ago I had a candidate who had been unemployed entirely too long for their skill set. We did his references and found out that one of the references that he had thought would be his best was giving him a reference that was torpedoing every job opportunity that he had. This person was a Senior Vice President and his reference while positive included a statement of “I cannot comment for legal reasons about the incident that occurred while he was in our employ”. This man was at least three levels above the position that our candidate had held and he was using him simply because of the stature of his position. Most companies hearing that type of statement would quickly eliminate a candidate, as they are more afraid of the unknown than the known. It turned out when we asked him about his relationship with the Senior VP our candidate said that he knew him very well as he had been, at one point, engaged to the man’s youngest daughter. Apparently breaking the big boss’s little girl’s heart was the motivation for breaking the former suitor’s career. Without spelling out the reasons we suggested he offer a different reference and he was in a wonderful new job within a month.
