\u00bb<\/span> CV\/career services<\/a> Your referees can make or break your next job application. And they wreck applications more often than you might think.<\/p>\n Before looking at how to avoid this, and how to choose your referees, here\u2019s a couple of precautionary anecdotes. One\u2019s nearly 30 years\u2019 old and the other\u2019s from the last couple of years.<\/p>\n Shortly after the introduction of Tomorrow\u2019s Schools, a retiring principal advised the newly-appointed school board how to choose his replacement. \u201cAsk each applicant to select three referees and give you their contact details\u201d, he said. \u201cTell the applicants you\u2019ll be sending the referees some questions and asking for written replies that will be confidential to the board\u201d.<\/p>\n The board followed his advice, got 13 applicants and rejected 9 of them straight off on the basis of their referee reports, one of which began \u201cIt would be a brave Board of Trustees who would appoint XYZ as a principal\u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n In the second anecdote, the applicant used a referee from his most-recent job in the knowledge that the employer had valued his work performance, as had all his former employers. What he hadn\u2019t taken into account is that \u2014 during the course of this employment \u2014 he\u2019d suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness, which had resulted in a poor attendance record.<\/p>\n When contacted, his former employer felt obliged to say that, while the applicant was a good worker, his attendance was just too unreliable. Consequently, the applicant failed to get hired for job after job. Fortunately, once he omitted this employer from his CV and his illness was well managed, he returned to the workforce without a problem.<\/p>\n Even when your referees don\u2019t wreck your applications, they can sometimes undermine them. For example, executive recruitment agencies often ask probing questions whenever they phone referees and some will record these conversations in writing to give to the employer, along with their own assessment of the candidate. A key question they might ask is \u201cWould you hire this person again?\u201d A pause, or a qualifying phrase, at this point can seriously undermine an application.<\/p>\n Consequently, if you have the slightest doubt about including a referee, it\u2019s worth asking them whether they feel they\u2019d be in a position to be 100% positive about your work performance. But before posing this question, it\u2019s worth contacting them whenever you\u2019re looking for a new job and having a chat with them.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also worth sending them a copy of your updated CV \u2014 both out of politeness and for its potential practical value. Your CV will remind them of what you\u2019re asking them to support and can sometimes lead to job opportunities via your referees\u2019 network of contacts before you\u2019ve even applied for a vacancy.<\/p>\n So who are you going to select as your referees? First, don\u2019t even think of using a friend or local dignatory. This idea was once quite common, but it\u2019s now well and truly dead.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need two or three people who\u2019re in a position to speak about your work performance \u2014 three if you\u2019re applying for a senior role in government or through an executive recruitment agency, but otherwise two is usually enough.<\/p>\n Ideally, these are people to whom you\u2019ve reported in your last two or three jobs. If possible, include your current employer. In many jobs, this would be a recipe for disaster but it\u2019s quite common in, for example, the education sector.<\/p>\n Include the current job title of each of your referees, the name of their employer, the city or town in which their work is based and their mobile, work and\/or home phone numbers.<\/p>\n If you reported to them in one of their former job roles, list the former role and the organisation to which you both belonged.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve recently been involved in full-time study, you could include one or two tutors as referees. If you\u2019ve recently been self-employed, you could use your accountant, business advisor, solicitor and\/or a major client of your business.<\/p>\n Unless it\u2019s obvious, describe your role relationship with each referee.<\/p>\n Avoid writing \u201cReferees available on request\u201d. This is a poor second to listing them. The roles they\u2019ve held in relationship to your own role can speak well of you, even if they aren\u2019t contacted.<\/p>\n Whoever you choose, never forget that the hiring decision can rest on whatever they say about you. And if they hesitate in the wrong places, or come across as equivocating, it could easily ruin your chances.<\/p>\n
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