One great idea – in my opinion anyways – is the use of testimonials or quotes from former managers, colleagues or customers that you include in your resume or cover letter.

I recall reading a few resumes that have used this device and thought it was quite clever. In these cases, the job searcher had written their cover letter in the usual fashion but had made comments about their strongest attributes (i.e. strong organization skills) and then followed right up with a quote from a former manager or colleague who commented on that particular trait.

Of course, that same person leaving the quote was typically one of their references so the person reading the cover letter could then follow up with them to either expand on the quote or to simply verify its authenticity and accuracy.

If you’re looking for a way to positively stand out from your competitors you could try this sort of technique assuming you can find a few former co-workers or managers who’d be willing to do it. One possible way would be to either start or end your cover letter (or both actually) with a quote(s) to catch the reader’s attention and to help you stand out from your competitors for the same job.

Employers (and recruiters) have an increasingly number of good Internet resources at their disposal to scope out and learn more about potential employees using publicly available information that these job searchers are either putting out there themselves or that are available due to their connections and friends on various social networks.

In the old days before the Internet, if you lost track of someone you might look them up in the white pages of the phone book and maybe ask a few friends or colleagues “whatever happened to insert-person’s-name-here.”

These days, you – and other people who might be thinking of hiring you – can use your LinkedIn profile and other networks like Facebook, Twitter or MySpace to locate people who have worked with you in the past or who might be able to speak about you, your skills and experience.

People are increasingly turning to secret references or unauthorized ones where they contact someone who is not on your list of authorized references and get them to do a reference on you.

Personally, I’ve never done this. I find it sneaky and back-handed.

I’d be afraid that in addition to how sneaky it is, I’d end up calling an unauthorized reference who would then tell someone with your current employer that you’re interviewing elsewhere for a new job that would result in you getting a lot of grief.

I suspect if this sort of thing happened and the job searcher finds out about it, there would be a lawsuit filed by the job searcher against the person who started calling unauthorized references. I read an article where a lawyer had suggested that contacting people who are not on your reference list is not illegal, but if it results in your current employer finding out about your job search and making your life difficult, isn’t this going to cause you to look for someone to pay for causing you this trouble?

Plus, it probably won’t look too good on the company doing the secret references once word gets out in the job search community that they’re doing this sort of thing.

Having said that, if you’re going to link up with various people with online social networks that essentially offer public domain information where you understand that other people will be allowed to view it, perhaps nothing wrong is being done?

Still, I don’t like the idea of skulking around looking for people to contact behind a job searcher’s back to do a reference on them. If someone called me unannounced and unexpectedly to do a reference on a former co-worker, the first thing when I’d do when I hang up is call my former co-worker and ask them why this person just called me for a reference without my former co-worker knowing about it.

When linking up with various people through online social networks, I’d be careful to ensure the information and people I’m linking up with won’t come back to haunt me in the future.

A 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.

“When should I provide my references” is a question that job searchers often ask.

Generally speaking, two groups of people are going to request your references at one point or another:

A company that might hire you: A company that has you fill out an application upon arriving for an interview might ask you for your references right away, expecting that you always carry their names and contact details with you. I’d tend to leave this section blank and if they ask why you didn’t fill that part out, I’d tell them I don’t carry this information with me and normally provide them when a company decides they’d like to hire me. Afterall, if you provide your references to every company you interview with, potentially dozens of people are going to have them and why exactly is that necessary?

A recruiter that might help you: Understand that the reason why a recruiter wants your references as soon as possible is so that if they can’t find you a job, they’re going to call your references and try to either help them find a job if they’re a job searcher or help them hire staff if they’re an employer. Even if they do help you find a job they’re probably going to do the same thing so if you provide your references to a dozen different recruiters expect that your references are going to get called by a dozen different recruiters. Probably within one day of you giving them the references. Regardless of whether they help you find a new job or not.

If a recruiter seems to be spending more time worrying about getting your references from you than anything else, I’d question why. Based on what I just mentioned above, you already know even if they won’t admit it and of course they won’t.

When a hiring company requests your references up front, I’d want to know why, too. References are typically done directly before a job offer is extended so asking for them up front is a bit unusual.

If you’re handing out your references freely, I’d be afraid that they’ll start receiving so many calls that they no longer want to act as a reference for you.

We’ve already spoken about the importance of references and some of the things you need to do to properly manage them.

What about other forms of references, like the “Recommendations” section on LinkedIn where you get people to recommend you and say nice things about you? Certainly this is one example of how people can recommend one another using online means and how people who don’t know you can read about you in the eyes of other people.

In my experience and in my opinion, these recommendations do little to add to your credibility but they probably can’t hurt, assuming that they say nice things that are actually true and accurate of course.

I’ve seen online recommendations written about people who I used to work with – we’re talking lazy, unmotivated people here – and the recommendations would make you believe they’re a superstar. Some are actually quite funny when I read them because I know they are simply untrue based on the fact that I’ve worked with these people in the past.

Typically what has happened of course is that the person I worked with got a positive recommendation from someone…and then gave that person a positive recommendation too.

Quid pro quo I guess. You give me a good reference, I’ll give you one too.

And therein lies the problem. Many of these recommendations are simply two people trading nice words about each other for no other reason than the same reason why you follow someone on Twitter just so they’ll follow you in return, too.

You’re padding your stats and they’re padding theirs.

The days of written reference letters are long gone. No one accepts them these days and online references tend to fall into the same basket. They’re nice to have but at the end of the day, a hiring manager is most likely going to want to actually speak with your references on the phone.

As we’ve spoken about in the past, the reference check process tends to be an area that many job searchers don’t consider that much or take seriously for some reason.

The truth is that you can lose jobs due to poor references or because the company thinking about hiring you has difficulty getting your reference checks completed.

With many people, they take the time to apply for jobs, interview, go back for more interviews, get the job offer and then leave it up to fate to get their references completed. I’ve seen may people who basically hand me their list of references and then cross their fingers and hope they turn out well.

One of the biggest mistakes people make with references is that they don’t keep in touch with them. They know who they’re going to use as references but they go months and in some cases years without even speaking with them.

Then when they need to get references done, they run around trying to locate these people because they can’t find them.

Another mistake is not realizing that in many cases, hiring someone is time sensitive and if your references are on holiday or otherwise unavailable, the company may not wait around to complete your references and go to another candidate if they need to get this person hired quickly.

Other than what we already spoke about in an earlier post on reference check mistakes that people often make, another big mistake that people make is not considering who they should use as references and which people should only be used when absolutely necessary.

Specifically, I’m referring to people who simply aren’t great on the phone or not very talkative. Since the reference check process is typically handled over the phone you really want someone who is good on the phone. Someone who can speak comfortably and honestly of course, but someone who can talk.

Typically, here is how the reference check process is done when you work with a recruiter. This is how it has worked at all the recruitment companies I’ve worked for:

1. I receive a list of references from the job searcher and I get agreement from them that I can call them.

2. I contact 3 references including at least one manager unless the hiring company has asked for something different.

3. While I’m speaking with the reference on the phone and asking them a series of pre-determined questions, I type their answers as they give them to me. I have already told the reference ahead of time that I’ll be typing their answers so they are aware.

4. Once the references are done and I’ve read them over to ensure there are no typos or errors, the references get emailed in Word format to the hiring manager.

Typically, references get done when a company lets the recruiter know that they’d like to hire you (ie. a job offer is forthcoming) but some recruitment companies might want to do one or more references up front before they even help you with your search. I’ve worked for companies that like to do that, too. I also know of clients who ask that when your resume is submitted to them, it comes with one reference complete, too.

If a hiring company chooses to do their references themselves as some do, they may or may not document the references in writing but recruiters tend to do it so that they can then forward then to the hiring manager to keep on file.

The worst references I’ve done are ones with people who just aren’t good on the phone, don’t have much time to spend, or really don’t seem to care.

Some people just don’t talk much or are not very convincing. When possible, you don’t want to use such people as references. Their lack of communication skills might be misinterpreted by the person doing the reference as meaning that your reference is not that keen on you when in fact this might not be the case.

If you’re using a recruiter and you have one or more references who aren’t great on the phone or are difficult to get hold of on the phone, there is something you can try that I’ve used with success.

In these cases, you might want to ask your recruiter to try emailing a series of questions to your reference if they’re open to completing the questions in written form rather than over the phone.

I’ve done this with some good success.

In these instances, the people filled out the form with (most times) a lot of detail and gave really good answers, perhaps better and more thoughtful ones than they would have given me over the phone.

This can be good in cases where the reference travels a lot, lives overseas in a different timezone on the other side of the world, or if phone contact is difficult.

Plus, unlike a phone reference where I basically have to quickly type their answers while listening to them and try not to miss anything important, they typed the answers out for me in their own words.

Your recruiter might be open to this and in some cases when you have a reference who might be better suited to completing a series of questions in written rather than verbal form, it just might make sense.

NOTE: I’m not referring to getting a reference letter and giving it to a company. Reference letters are fairly useless and aren’t used anymore to any degree. I’m simply referring to having a reference complete the questions in written form rather than over the phone.

There are many reference check questions that typically get asked and that tend to pop up a regular basis. The reference check process always seems to be one of the areas that job searchers ignore or pay little attention to even though it can often be one of the most important.

While a great reference check may not get you the job (although it could do just that), a bad reference check can cost you one. I’ve seen it happen.

Come to think of it, I have actually seen where a good reference helps someone get a job. This was in the instance where two candidates were being considered for the same job and it ended up going to the one whose former manager gave them a reference that led the hiring manager to believe that they had a small edge over the other candidate.

In my experience, reference check questions tend to do the following:

• Confirm the dates that you worked for the company.
• Confirm the job responsibilities that you held.
• Confirm your starting and end salary.
• Describe your main strengths and weaknesses.
• Describe areas that you need to improve on.
• Discuss your biggest accomplishments at the company.
• Confirm your attendance record and your punctuality.
• Confirm any promotions you received.
• Describe your communication/management/mentoring skills.
• Rate your technical skills.
• Assess your ability to work under pressure and to meet deadlines.
• Detail your ability to work with others and as part of a team.
• Detail your ability to work independently.
• Critique your ability to plan long and short term.
• Confirm whether or not you were respected by your coworkers.
• Confirm whether or not you are an honest employee.
• Describe your level of integrity.
• Confirm why left the company if you no longer work there.
• Verify if your reference would hire you again if the opportunity arose.
• Verify if your reference feels you are suitable for this particular position.
• Confirm anything else the hiring company should know about you.

Hopefully this list comes in handy for both job searchers and hiring managers for the following reasons:

Job searcher: From your perspective, ask yourself if the people you’re choosing as references are capable of honestly and convincingly answer questions that relate to each of the things mentioned above. Remember to choose references who are honest but who are also good speakers. The worst references I’ve done are with the people who either can’t or don’t want to talk and give me nothing but short, curt answers. These people don’t help your ability to get the job.

Hiring manager: From your perspective, are these the types of questions you ask during the reference check phase or do your references tend to more cursory discussions where you’re almost afraid to ask questions that could get answered with a response that could eliminate a job searcher from consideration?

Background checks are one part of the job search process that can be part and parcel of getting a job offer. Depending on the type of job you’re applying for, you might find yourself facing a background check especially if you’re being hired by a company that holds sensitive information or classified information such as a financial institution, government organization or military contractor to name but three.

Background checks can be quite extensive and a prior criminal conviction or other indiscretion on your part might cost you a job if you’re subjected to one. They can differ depending on the job you’re applying for and the country you live in.

They might include checking your financial history, criminal records, education records, legal working status and other aspects of your background. They might subject you to drug testing or if the job warrants it, a security clearance test.

When a company chooses to perform a background check, it can help them ensure they are hiring someone who is telling the truth about their skills and experience but it can also help them to verify certain information that might be important to the job they are planning to hire you for.

I’ve seen people lose out on jobs because background checks showed that they didn’t hold all the credentials they said they did. I recall a guy who was offered a contract position losing out on a job when he wasn’t able to prove that he actually held the Masters degree that he said he said.

This is a polite way of saying he didn’t actually hold the degree. And this was for a contract position, not a fulltime job.

Moral of the story? Tell the truth. Lying tends to get found out one way or the other.

Among the most common things that people lie about on their resume or during interviews that are usually easy to expose include the following:

• Overstating how much money they earn
• Over inflating the level of their skills and expertise
• Exaggerating their accomplishments and experience
• Passing off theoretical or scholastic experience as actual hands-on experience
• Exaggerating the dates they worked at certain companies
• Lying about why they left certain companies
• Offering misleading or false information about university degrees, certifications, diplomas etc.

With the growth in fake university degrees and online degree mills that enable people to literally buy diplomas and degrees without actually completing them, smart companies are using methods to ensure that the certifications you say you have are actually ones that you really do hold.

Some people out and out lie about things on their resume and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve caught people in lies while interviewing them.

I’ve also lost count of the number of times where I would read a person’s resume and would immediately know they were offering misleading information about (for example) the degree that they held.

A warning light goes on in my head when a person offers incomplete information regarding their schooling. I am always suspect of people who state something like “University of ABC, Business” or something like that.

Often, the university would be one that I hadn’t heard of and the person didn’t mention what city or even country it was located in.

They list “Business” or “Computer Science” or something like that, but don’t actually say what they attained! Was it a Bachelors degree? A Masters? A Diploma?

They also fail to list the years that they attended the school so I don’t know if it’s a 2 year diploma, a 3 year degree, a 4 years Honors degree or something different?

When I ask for specifics, I’d usually find that the person hadn’t actually graduated. They’d taken 1 or 2 years of classes and dropped out and tried to list their schooling in a way that would lead people to believe they’d graduated without actually lying flat out and saying they’d graduated.

The worst liar I ever came across was a software engineer I’d found on an online job board. When I started speaking with him over the phone, he seemed ok and when I hung up, I went and told my colleague about him since he had a job I thought might interest the software engineer I’d just spoken with.

It turns out that he was currently working for the same company that my colleague’s wife had recently worked for in their HR department. She quickly confirmed that the guy had exaggerated his accomplishments and was making his job look more senior than it was.

I then found that he had another resume available on the same Internet job board…under a different name, where the dates he’d worked for various companies were different than the resume he’d sent to me!

He’d written two different resumes, under different names that showed two different work histories but they were close enough that I quickly realized the resumes belonged to the same guy. They had different email addresses in the contact section but the same phone number.

When I confronted the guy on the phone about this, he pretended he couldn’t talk much because he was at work – which was true, but I was using the contact number he’d supplied on his resume – and he made up some story about how he used a nickname on one resume which was a lie since his last name was different on both resumes, too! He couldn’t explain why the dates for each job didn’t match up however.

This was the last time I spoke with this guy. There was no way I was going to help him with his job search.

The funny part was that months later when I checked, he still had both versions of his resumes online and available for people to read!

In a nutshell, this is why companies do background checks and why they use employment screening techniques.

To avoid hiring guys like him.

If you’re going to lie on your resume and/or job interviews, you better be willing to live with the consequences if and when you get caught.

Well, smart hiring managers and companies do reference checks anyways.

I’m surprised by the number of people who not only don’t take the reference check stage of a job search seriously, but who also believe many/most companies don’t actually do reference checks. You do all the work to locate a job you’re interested in, apply for it, go through the interview stage, and then sit back and roll the dice and assume things will work out just fine when it comes to reference checks. I’ve seen many people do this and they don’t seem to realize job offers end up getting lost at or before the reference check stage quite frequently. This is one of the misconceptions regarding reference checks that can cost you.

You can’t use your aunt as a reference either. Seriously. Nor can you use your parents, sibling, spouse or best friend either.

In fact, you can’t use any relative as a reference or close friend either but that won’t stop some people from doing so with a straight face.

There are quite a few misconceptions about references checks and one of them seems to be that companies don’t actually do them. Companies – smart ones anyways – really do conduct references checks before hiring someone, too.

If you expect that companies don’t really do reference checks or don’t take them very seriously, you might be looking for a new job for longer than you imagined. Reference checks tend to be taken very seriously by hiring companies anyways. Many job searchers, not so much it seems.

I’ve done reference checks with people who didn’t know they were being called for a reference, couldn’t remember the person I was calling about and who disputed many of the things that the job searcher had told me they had accomplished while working for the company.

Some reference checks turn out kind of funny to be honest. I once did a reference check with a job searcher’s current boss as instructed by the job searcher. The job searcher told me his boss knew he was searching for a new job and that his boss was ok with it. He wasn’t. That was an awkward call.

There is such a thing as a bad reference, too. I once did a reference check for a person whose former manager told me that they definitely wouldn’t recommend this person because they’d quit without giving the required 2 weeks notice and had left the company in a lurch.

I recommend that you contact your references before they are about to be called to act as for a reference for you. At a minimum, you want to:

• ensure they are still happy to actually do the reference check for you.
• make sure they know what type of job you’re applying for, the company who will be calling them, who from the company will be calling them (ie. HR person, technical manager, etc) and what skills the job requires so that they can highlight your skills in these areas.
• ensure they are actually going to be around to do the reference check and aren’t on holiday or otherwise unavailable which could cause a delay and possibly cost you the job if it’s time sensitive.
• confirm the best time and method (ie. get the correct phone number) for them to be contacted to do the reference.

I always recommend keeping in touch with your references to ensure you know where to find them and ensure that you keep them up to date as to your whereabouts.

If you aren’t getting past the reference check stage, you might want to reconsider who you are using as references and how you’re utilizing them.