Today’s Tip: Get Yourself Checked Out!

Are you worried that your past employers are saying things (to people checking your references) that are preventing you from receiving offers? If so, are you going to do anything about it? My suggestion is you get that checked out before it causes any further amputations!

I would ask a real close recruiter or HR friend to call into your former employers and do a reference check on you. You will be surprised what information you hear (and don't hear) from each company. The stuff you hear is in direct correlation with the companies policies and the competence level of the person providing the information at your previous company.

If possible, have the person checking your references do a 3-way call where you are listening in to the conversation (but obviously being quite or on mute).

So what information does a smart company (one that doesn't have a pile of lawsuits in their history) say to those checking references? It's pretty short: start date, end date and title. That's it! Now if every company just gave out those 3 pieces of information, I wouldn't have to write this post. But as you can imagine, some give out way too much information.

Here is a partial list of the information that I would try to pull out of them:

• Start date, end date, title


• Compensation


• Performance ratings


• Reason for leaving


• Supervisor's name and contact information


• Re-hirable? Y/N


• Level of responsibility


• Any performance issues


• Attendance problems


• Attitude


• Skills used on the job


• and many more...

I ask a question, then no matter what the answer is, I probe them trying to get something negative out. If they are good, they will deflect my bullet and move me on to the next question.

Caution: A lot of companies will give an answer that will kill your chances of getting hired and they are doing it unintentionally! Let me explain. When I ask the company the "reason for leaving", some companies will answer, "He was terminated". Wow, this is not good! However, I know that there is more to this story than meets the eye. This is just HR talk. "Terminated" can mean a whole bunch of things. So, (as a smart recruiter), I would say, "What was the reason for the termination?" and their answer is, "He was part of a company-wide reduction in force (layoff)". Wow, big change in the end result here... A few minutes ago, I might not have hired this person, but now, no worries! Moral of story, if you learn that your former company says "terminated", you will need to coach the person checking your references to "probe" about the reason for that termination.

I hope you you get checked out before being bumped out! Let me know how this goes for you (leave a comment).