References that Work

Описание: http://www.ClearedJobs.Net

HR Management Consultant Patra Frame explains how to get professional references to assist in your job search.

Are you worried about your references? Or perhaps feeling clueless about getting good ones? Let me tell you, you are not alone. But you can make your references an integral, effective part of your job search quite easily.

First, be sure that you prepare your references. You want to ask them to be your reference in the first place. Secondly, you want to prepare them. Once they've said yes, they're willing to be your reference, you want to be sure that you sent them an updated copy of your resume, told them a little bit about what you're really looking for at this point so that they know and are prepared for you.

A while ago, I was helping one of my clients who really needed now to add a senior HR person to their company. And the two founders disagreed on the top candidate. So they asked me to check the references of both women. And I did. And they were miles and miles apart. One set of references, I called. Each of the people that I talked to, not only the references that she gave the company but other references that I knew of and could check, told me wonderful things about her. They really could go into detail about why she'd be a great choice for the job. And you could hear the enthusiasm in their voice when they spoke about working with her.

The other who's resume was frankly somewhat stronger in terms of the job that we are talking about. Her references were very hard to reach. A couple of the phone numbers were wrong. Once I got to the references, it was very clear that they kind of sort of maybe remembered working with her. That she maybe sort of kind of had worked in the job that she said she'd worked in, they sort of maybe thought. They were very difficult references in terms of not only figuring out what she had actually done at several of these companies but who her direct supervisor had been and when.

So a CEO if a company is telling me that yeah he remembered when she worked there and he had hired her. And for a while she worked for him. But mostly she worked his CFO and some other people. And he really couldn't help me a lot with what she had done. He remembered she was fairly nice but he didn't remember any achievements. And this was a critical job for her, and a job in which she had stated some really significant achievements but her reference couldn't support that for me.

So when you're doing a reference, make sure they're prepared. Make sure they know you want them to be a reference. One of her references said to me, "Oh, is she looking for a job? Gee, I haven't talked to her in years." That's not what you want. What you want is someone who can really tell the employer about your skills, about your abilities, about what a terrific person you are to work with. And you do that by preparing them.

Get their contact information correctly and how they want to be contacted. Do they want an email to set up an appointment? Do they want a telephone call? Are they likely to need an alternate because they're traveling a lot? So get that information so that when an employer asks for your reference and is checking them, you're giving the employer the correct information. Making the recruiter's life easier is always a smart thing.

And then, think about this in terms of now you know what you want to do in this job. You know why you want to work with this organization. Call your reference back up and say, "I'm giving your name to XYZ Corporation. And this is why I'm interested in the job. And here are some critical things I think that they're going to want to know about." And tell them a little bit about the organization, about the job, and about some of the things you learned in the interview process that you think they might ask you references. That way, your reference is really well prepared for the call from the person checking the reference.

You also should consider if you use LinkedIn or another social media type of connection to people, have those recommendations. Get several people you have worked for not just people you know to in fact do a recommendation for you. Recruiters use those all sorts of times to pre-screen people and to give them a feel for references they can really help you. The absence of them can hinder you. So don't forget to include that in your process.