What's the accepted practice for job references?

TheVoice

TheVoice

TheVoice

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It's been ages since I've had to provide any so forgive me. I've really only got two work references to my name so far; my university who I worked for while/shortly after I was there (about five years ago), and the retail job I got after that for a few years which ended several months back.

Common sense suggests that, after a period of time it's polite to get in touch with them again to ask if they'd be willing provide references, but is 5 years too long? I'm not even sure if the people I worked for at uni are still there themselves but I've contacted one to ask.

What's the etiquette here? If I can't use my uni one I'll need to provide a character reference but god knows who that would be.
 
If the employer has a problem with your references then they'll ask for alternatives.

You could use anyone who knows you but not a friend for character reference, friends mum perhaps? Ex colleague?
 
Technically I don't believe there is any period of time on references, what you will find though is that people move on, jobs change etc. So chances are your Manager, supervisors, colleagues etc may be in different positions.

When I finished Uni, I was trying to get references from old retail jobs and such. Due to people moving on and managers changing, I had a couple which were simply statements that I was employed there, so you may get something like this:


"Dear Sir/Madam,

I can confirm that Joe Bloggs was a staff member at Acme Sorting Ltd, he worked in the stores department from September 2011 - March 2012.

Regards,

Mrs Something Something,
HR Manager,
Acme Sorting Ltd"
 
Sounds like a reasonable approach you've adopted there, just ask them if they're still happy to be your referee. If they're still around then there's a fair chance they will be but if not then as Nexus says companies will often just give a generic response to say you were there during the specified dates.
 
Give them a "heads up" last job ref is fine. There is no such thing as a bad reference by the way - I do references often and decline if its not favourable. good luck.
 
Cool, thanks guys. Started to wonder as some 'guides' I found elsewhere on the net started suggesting you keep regular contact with potential references, let them know how your career progression is going etc which seemed slightly OTT for a retail job!
 
TheVoice said:
Cool, thanks guys. Started to wonder as some 'guides' I found elsewhere on the net started suggesting you keep regular contact with potential references, let them know how your career progression is going etc which seemed slightly OTT for a retail job!
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Depends on the job I'd think.

If you were going for some high flying graduate job or something, I would think they will actually check references.

So if you have put your former manager down, or your university tutor, they might want pre-warning, rather than randomly being hit with a phone call from somebody while having dinner.
 
You're meant to invent new people, provide only email addresses, then reply making yourself sound incredible.
 
Isn't it against the law to give a "bad" reference for someone?

As already said most companies will just give the standard "yes this person worked here".
 
xGBHxPegasus said:
Isn't it against the law to give a "bad" reference for someone?
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No. You have to give a true, accurate and fair reference. So you can't just say 'he was a bit rubbish' but you could say 'he was convicted of xyz'. In reality, most businesses will not want to risk much and just say Mr x worked here from x-y doing abc.
 
Common courtesy would dictate that you contact your referees first just to ask/let them know. There is no time limit on using people as referees, i.e. you could use a good one from many years ago, providing none more recently would be of higher relevance.
 
Max3 said:
yeah it's a myth iirc - if the bad reference is factual then it's fair game.
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Fair enough, it was actually an employer about 5 years ago that told me that. They said you couldn't give a bad reference, all you could do was refuse to give one (which the new employer then knew meant your actual opinion).

....on further investigation I've found this...

Can my employer give me a bad reference?

Yes and no. Many people mistakenly believe that your boss can’t give you a bad reference by law, but that’s not entirely true…
References just have to be accurate and truthful so if you were disciplined at your last job then they could include that on your reference. However, many employers are scared to give bad references because anything considered to be not 100% accurate could be grounds for legal action. If you find out that you have been unfairly given a bad reference then you could possibly sue.
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maybe its different in other industries but IME (in FinTech) you don't generally need 'references' per say - future employers will employ a 3rd party agency to carry out background checks - credit, criminal records and confirming your stated employment history/any gaps on your CV etc...

they do this last bit by contacting HR who tend to reply by simply confirming your job title, period of time you were employed etc... no need to give advance warning to your old manager in the hope that he can be used to write some nice meaningless waffle about you being a good bloke - its a pointless waste of time anyway... they might well ask about you via a call to someone they know at your old firm - it isn't uncommon for someone at the new place who worked at your old firm to be asked about you too, if they don't know you personally they might contact your/their old colleagues etc... can give a better picture than some meaningless waffle in a letter
 
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