The myths of job reference checking
Did you ever wonder what your former employer would tell your prospective employer about you? If you’d like to find out, head for jobreferenceexperts.com for your confidential employer reference check. The cost: $79 to $99. There’s a great deal of reference-related information on the website that will help you see what can and can’t be said, and what is said “between the lines.”
A don’t miss the feature: 7 Deadly Myths of Job Reference Checking. Here are five of them: Myth 1 — Companies are not allowed to say anything negative about a former employee. That’s true; most company policies speak to verifying title, dates of employment, eligibility for rehire and (sometimes) compensation. But companies don’t give references; people do. Get them talking and they become emotional; if there’s an axe to grind, they’ll grind it — 50 percent of the references received by Job Search References
Jim Pawlak are poor to bad.
Myth 2 – HR won’t say anything bad about me. That’s true; but if an HR staffer answers “No” when asked, “Is so-and-so eligible for rehire?”, what do you think the caller will infer?
Myth 3 — I left some jobs off my résumé because I: 1) had issues with some employers, or 2) only stayed at others for short periods of time. Can prospective employers find out? Maybe; maybe not. It depends on how thorough a prospective employer is when doing a background check. If it uses a background check based upon social security number, all employers will show. If all weren’t on the résumé, it may send up a red flag to the prospective employer.
Myth 5 — Once a company hires me, my references really don’t matter. Wrong. Most new employees are on a 90-day probation period. Additionally, it’s rare that a company would receive all the references prior to an employee starting.
Myth 6 — I sued my former employer; it can’t say anything about me. But it can say: “Let me check with our legal counsel to see if I can tell you anything.” That statement speaks volumes.
There’s also a slide presentation that takes you through the “how and why” of reference checking.
If you feel the need to brush up on your interviewing skills, head for arabianmorgan.com/intv2.htm and take the tour of My Interview Simulator. Its interactive CD-ROM based training costs $100. What do you get for your investment? Plenty. The CD includes seven sets of basic questions with suggested answers; there’s also a section on how to deal with illegal questions. One of the areas where it shines is behavioral interviewing. The 85 questions cover topics on leadership, decision making, motivation, initiative, interpersonal skills, work standards and teamwork. Each section has eight to 10 questions.
To make the most of this tool, you’ll need to cut and paste between the questions and instructions on the CD into a word processing document so you can plug in your answers. Then you need to rehearse. An interview isn’t improvisation; its orchestration. Your answers need to sound like they’re unrehearsed; the only way to make them sound that way is to rehearse them until they flow naturally — that’s the way actors do it. But unlike actors who have to memorize each line, you only have to grasp content.
What’s the likelihood that you’ll be asked a majority of these questions? Slim. But, the simulation accomplishes its goal because you’ll know how to answer interview questions.
If you’re interested in starting a business, the U.S. Small Business Administration provides several resources. At https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/10-steps-startyour-business/ you’ll find the basic steps. The SBA also offers a catalog of free online courses; point your cursor to sba.gov/training/ courses.html. The courses expand on the 10-steps mentioned above. There’s also a course for teenager-entrepreneurs. Another resource for teen entrepreneurs: The Teen Entrepreneur Academy at Concordia University (Irvine, CA) offers on-campus program July 22-28,2018. Its $1,250 cost covers tuition, room and board; https:// www.cui.edu/en-us/academicprograms/business/tea.
Myth 5 — Once a company hires me, my references really don’t matter. Wrong. Most new employees are on a 90-day probation period. Additionally, it’s rare that a company would receive all the references prior to an employee starting.