10 Guidelines for Awesome Job Search References

by Jackalope Jobs


Your resume caught the recruiter’s eye. You impressed in the interview. Now comes a last, and often overlooked – but critical – hurdle.

Personal references (insert ominous music here).

Most employers will ask you to provide personal and/or professional references. Your resume and your answers during the interview showed you have the necessary skills to get the job done. Now they want to know what your former co-workers think about you… a picture of you, from outside perspectives:

• Do you have a strong work ethic?
• Are you easy to work with?
• What do others see as your strengths and weaknesses?

To make sure you pass this last test, well before you apply for a job line up four to six professional references ready to talk about you. For those with some workforce experience, these should be former colleagues, managers and mentors. For college students who may not have that many professional references, your professors, advisors and mentors from within your chosen industry will do  quite well.
Since they’re critical to your job search, be prepared to help your references help you by following these 10 guidelines:

1.  Get permission before listing someone as a reference; no one likes surprises

2. Make sure you have up-to-date contact information (listing a phone number or email no longer in use shows the recruiter you haven’t been in contact for perhaps quite some time)

3.  List your references on a separate page from your resume (never list your references on your resume!)

4.  Be thorough: for each reference, provide their professional titles, where they work, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and how they know you

5.  If you are considering two career directions, choose the best references for each path; a reference who is an accountant when you are seeking a position in marketing may not considered an effective reference by the employer

Tips 6-10 and the complete article