What’s better than a good reference over the phone?

applauseA good reference might not get you a job on its own but it will certainly help to get you closer to it anyways.

Even better than a good reference can be a referral from a former manager (presumably your current manager won’t refer you to another company!) and/or colleague.

As a recruiter, one of the best things we can get are referrals to other candidates. Even better still is when the referral is coming from the person’s former manager who speaks highly of the person and who tells me I need to give this person a call.

When we get on the phone with a hiring manager and they happen to mention the name of a person they know and used to work with, that’s a great start because you’re obviously held in high esteem by someone who you used to work for. Also good is when a hiring manager emails me the contact info and/or resume for this person and introduces them this way.

Clearly the best thing that can happen is that a former hiring manager takes it upon themselves to contact recruiters and hiring managers and refer you to us but in the instance where this isn’t happening for you, you might consider approaching former managers you’ve worked with – colleagues too – who you trust and who you feel has a good opinion of you and ask them to keep you in mind when they’re on the phone with recruiters and hiring managers who might be interested to speak with you.

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