If you’re job-searching, at some point you’re going to be asked for references … and if you’re like a lot of people, you’re going to hand them over without giving much thought to what will happen next.
Over at U.S. News & World Report today, I talk about eight things about the reference-checking process that you might not know. Check it out here.
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What was the original source about this urban legend that it’s illegal to give anything other than dates of employment/title(s)/salaries.
Two companies for whom I’ve worked in the past had HR departments who swore by this as if it were holy writ.
Is this just an over-correction because someone once won a lawsuit over a bad reference? It’s just so weird that it’s as pervasive as it is.
Exactly, it’s a total overcorrect out of fear of litigation. I wrote a little bit about that here:
http://www.askamanager.org/2010/06/its-not-illegal-to-give-bad-job.html
Your number 1 was going to be my number 1. I can’t believe how many people are shocked that we don’t have to stick to the references given. I love to respond, “Why not?” when people tell me “Well, you can’t call anyone not on the reference list.” They’re never able to follow it up with an answer.
How can then the issue about warning your references ahead of time really work when the interviewer can call people who are not on your exact reference list?
I hear the “myth” of what can be said in a reference phone call from people who have worked decades ago. It seems like this generation is saying otherwise.
It’s two different things: When you hand over a list of references, they assume that you’ve prepared those people on it to expect a call. But of course, if they call someone not on the list, they don’t assume that.
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