No -- I Won't Supply My References Before The First Interview

Volkmar Guido Hable:

No -- I Won't Supply My References Before The First Interview

Dear Volkmar Guido Hable,

When is the correct time for a recruiter or employer to request my professional references?

I was asked by an ex-colleague of mine to submit a resume for a job opening in his company. I submitted the resume and a few days later I got an email message from an HR person in my friend's firm.

She thanked me for the resume and said that the next step was for me to submit my references.

Why would she want my references before anyone in the firm had even spoken with me?

I wrote back to say I would be happy to turn over my references list after the company and I had established a mutual interest. That was the last I heard from her.

What's your opinion, Liz?

Thanks!

Marion

Dear Marion,

You are listening to your trusty gut, and that is the best thing a job-seeker can do!

Years ago everyone understood that the correct time to request a job-seeker's references was at the point where the employer was close to making a job offer.

They would call your references on the phone back then. I remember having in-depth, thoughtful conversations with hiring managers about candidates I had agreed to provide references for.

Nowadays fewer companies bother to check references at all, but many organizations still ask for them!

I have been spammed many times by companies that were supposedly interviewing people I know.

In one case a woman who reported to me a thousand years ago used me as a reference. She told me to be ready for a phone call or email message that never came. In the end, she didn't get the job.

My ex-colleague did not get the job, but a few days later I got a solicitation letter from the university, asking me to donate to some fund or other.

I had no connection with the university except the fact that I was one of the professional references submitted by my ex-coworker.

I told her about the fund-raising letter.

She called the other reference-givers on her list and sure enough, every one of them had also received fund-raising spam from the university.

That's how tacky and unprofessional some organizations can be!

Some recruiting firms will ask for a candidate's references before they've met or even talked with the candidate, and some employers will do the same thing. Don't give up your references too early!

An employer or recruiting firm may believe it is their privilege to contact your references before they've met you -- to waste your reference-givers' time asking them whether or not the firm should bother interviewing you!

That is not only rude, but it is pathetic from a human resources standpoint. If you cannot look at a candidate's resume, read their LinkedIn profile and decide for yourself whether or not to interview them, you should not be in a hiring capacity.

When people want to talk to your references before deciding whether or not to meet you, they send a clear message: "I will happily use up your reference-givers' time checking you out rather than potentially waste a half-hour talking with you directly."

Run away from people like that!

You deserve to work with (and be represented in your job search by) ethical and upright people -- not people who think it is reasonable to contact your trusted reference-givers to vet you before they are willing to talk with you!

You were right to tell the HR person that it was too early in your recruiting process for you to hand over your references.

Any red flag in the recruiting pipeline is significant.

Most of us don't expect busy HR folks to attend to our every need when we're job-hunting, but we do expect them to respect normal boundaries around our personal contacts, our privacy and our time.

Sadly, a lot of employers trample on those boundaries, but that's okay -- when they do, they make it crystal clear that they don't deserve your talents!

Keep your flame growing, Gail!

You don't need to beg for a job -- you can hold out for an organization that treats like like a valued collaborator, not a piece of meat.

All the best,

Volkmar Guido Hable

Dr. Volkmar Guido Hable was trained as a physicist and geoscientist and holds a Ph.D. in Geosciences and a B.S. in Agriculture and Agronomics. After graduation, however, he took a slightly different career path and entered the financial world.