Between the interview and the job offer come the reference and background check. Background checks are easy enough. You just need to verify that the person has the degrees he or she claims to have, that they don’t have any surprising criminal history (any relevant convictions should have come up in your application process), and, if relevant, you want to make sure their credit is good enough. If all those things check out, it’s time to speak with actual other humans about your your job candidate.
Reference checks are generally necessary to lessen the chances of making a bad hire. (You can never completely eliminate the risk of bad hires.) After all, you don’t want to hire the guy who embezzled from his last company, nor the woman who was fired for sexual harassment. But, there are sometimes you should think twice before taking a reference at face value.
To keep reading, click here: 6 Reasons to Ignore a Bad Reference
I got to the reference checking portion of an interview and was told “No thanks” because of a misunderstood reference and a confused hiring manager.
The reference apparently said that I “needed direction”. It’s true; I had many discussions with that manager because he never gave me any. Some call it “direction”. Some call it “setting expectations”. Even the most independent workers need to occasionally be handed a compass and be told “Head NNW”.
But the person hearing this feared that it meant I needed constant hands-on micromanagement. Eh. The job I got instead was better (and had compass directions).