In general, habits and processes are good things. Habits can help prevent decision fatigue, and processes – especially well-thought-out ones with good documentation – can help ensure you get the same results every time you do something.
Every once and a while though, it’s important to review these things to make sure they’re still helpful. Occasionally, we’ll find one that has become counterproductive.
Asking for references, whether we’re talking about a job application or a university or college application, strikes me as one of those things that no longer serves a useful purpose.
Here’s why:
They don’t provide any new information
If someone provides you with references, of course those references are going to be positive. Of course they’re going to say that the applicant is very well-suited for the job or degree. That’s because the applicant gets to pick his or her reference contacts, and they’re only going to give you the names of people who will support the application.
They can be faked
Like anything else in the 21st century, you can purchase fake references as easily as you can purchase a lottery ticket. All it takes is two minutes of searching online and a bit of money, and you too can have someone willing to testify to your good character and suitability.
They’re a holdover from a previous era
References come from a time before we had other means of verifying someone’s identity or determining their ability. I know it’s hard to remember, but there was once a time before email, fax, and even telephones. So it’s not like you could just ring up someone to ask if they knew your applicant. The only way to get the measure of someone unknown to you was to ask to see a letter of reference, and typically this letter had to come from someone the employer or school knew personally, or at least knew of, and whom they could trust.
We have other ways now
For better or worse, people now put a lot about themselves online, whether it be through social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter, or on blogs, or simply by leaving comments on discussion sites. Although potential employers shouldn’t use information from social media to influence hiring decisions, many of them have admitted to doing so in surveys. Depending on jurisdiction and local legislation, employers may also make use of background checks to verify someone’s record before considering them for a position.
They create a burden
Writing references creates a lot of extra work for the people who are regularly asked to give them; here I am thinking specifically of academia, where professors are asked to provide letters or references for further academic study or jobs all the time. Indeed, given that each school seems to have its own forms and format requirements for references, it’s not like a professor can even just hand out a standard letter.
But enough about what I think; what’s your opinion? Is there a better way? Or do you think references still have value?
Photo Credit: Silverije via Wikimedia Commons
Chris
Hmmm, let me do some turn-about here. Do YOU contact references when you hire? It seems to be a thing of the past, as few of my references tell me they were contacted about jobs I interviewed for and were even offered.
I agree with everything in your post, and I’ve not been involved with hiring as many people as you have, but I think there is some value in asking for references. As you mentioned, with social media “who you know” is more important than ever. Employers want employees who bring so-far unreachable connections to the employer’s network.
Who are the references? Do I know them? Or even know who they are? What are the specialties of the references? Will these people be valuable additions to my network? Someone who uses irrelevant references might not be very knowledgeable of the field, have much experience in it, or know who the players are. One guy used the night manager at a hotel (and not a former supervisor) in an application for an agricultural program specialist position. We didn’t hire him for other reasons, but we noticed and this helped reinforce our decision.
How old are the references? One mistake I made is I had my PhD major prof as a reference. He’s followed my career and kept in touch but we’ve not worked together directly for some time. I figured he would be able to speak to the breadth of my experiences over 20+ years, but I wonder if it raised eyebrows that I used him instead of someone more recent? Have I not been doing very much since walking across the stage? Although using him might have slowed me down, I might look askance at an old reference were I the one doing the hiring.
Who else do I know who might know this person? This would have avoided the situation I mentioned earlier where the applicant didn’t list the recent major prof. Sixty seconds on the phone might have saved us 6 months of a regrettable hiring decision.
Now that you mention it, in all the career fairs and seminars I’ve attended, never once have I learned about how to choose my references. Are older references such as I described really a bad idea? What about a senior person who knows me but I didn’t work with as directly versus someone less senior but with whom I worked more closely? What about someone in a position junior to the one for which I’m applying? Good idea or no? What about people I’ve supervised in a prior position?