How to Make Sure That Reference Doesn’t Hurt You!

In a perfect world, all of us would have impeccable credentials and gushing references.

Even Trudy would have them.

Who is Trudy?

I fired her for multiple reasons, not the least of which was the fact that she crashed a company car and wasted a lot of desk time flirting on the computer.

“I’m a natural blond” one of her missives cooed.

You get the picture. She wasn’t a model employee, though she was using Goodman Time to find modeling jobs.

Within about six months of her departure I got a phone call.

“I realize I didn’t leave under the best of circumstances,” she said, nearly weeping with contrition, “but I’m job hunting right now.”

“Yes,” I said with all of the patience and forbearance I could muster.

“And I’d like to mention what I did, when I did it, and my job title on my resume, but I won’t if you know, they’ll contact you and you’ll slime me, for lack of a better term.”

“Uh-huh,” I uttered without enthusiasm.

“What I want to know is whether you’ll just kind of tell them that I worked for you in a certain capacity without going into why you laid me off. Could you do that?”

“Yeah, I can do that,” I said, relieved she wasn’t asking for something really out of the question, like a personal loan or a nominating speech before the Employee Hall of Fame committee.

“Oh, great, uh, thanks, goodbye!”

I think I got one or two calls from people who wanted to confirm her employment dates, job titles, and so on and I delivered.

When asked, “Would she be eligible for re-hiring?” and “Would you recommend her with enthusiasm?” I simply said “It’s our policy not to go into specifics.”

In other words, I certainly didn’t hurt her candidacy elsewhere, and I probably helped.

To her credit, Trudy engineered this result by contacting me and pre-screening how I would characterize her.

I suggest you do the same with any reference you are thinking of listing, and with all previous employers. Keep these three things in mind:

(1) If you fess up to the fact that you left under cloudy circumstances, and you sound apologetic about it, you’ll win some sympathy. After all, you’re unemployed and the person you’re communicating with isn’t.

(2) If you negotiate for something reasonable, which isn’t a glowing reference, but a simple “name, rank, and serial number” authentication of your past employment, you’re not asking the contact to lie, just to be decent and tight-lipped.

(3) The worst thing that can happen is someone will tell you, through his tone of voice or quite explicitly, “I wouldn’t be comfortable doing that.” That’s a great thing to know so you can AVOID mentioning that person, seeking instead someone else to pick up the slack for you.

You don’t have to hire Trudy, but based on how she handled me as a reference, you do have to admire her, at least for that!

Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com

Best-selling author of 12 books and more than 1,000 articles, Dr. Gary S. Goodman is considered "The Gold Standard" in negotiation, sales development, customer service, and telephone effectiveness. Top-rated as a speaker, seminar leader, and consultant, his clients extend across the globe and the organizational spectrum, from the Fortune 1000 to small businesses. He can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

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