Something that I’ve found people often don’t do properly during their career is follow through with things to completion. One specific area is with referrals. I can think of numerous times where someone will ask me for help referring them to someone – which I’ll typically do – and then a few months later when I suddenly remember that they never told me how the referral went, they mention that they never bothered to follow up with the person I’d referred them to. They forget, they were too busy, the usual excuses.

Networking is a great way to meet new people who can positively influence your career as it is, but when you have the opportunity to meet someone that was referred to you and you don’t bother, I just can’t figure that one out. Yet I’ve seen cases including one a few months ago where I referred someone to two recruiters I used to work with after this person asked me for this help and they never bothered to contact either recruiter. You try to help people but they won’t even bother to help themselves.

I’ve seen this with reference checking too. Not letting people know that you’re using them as a reference is pretty stupid but I’ve witnesses it firsthand. A few years back I got a call out of the blue at work from a guy who told me he was calling for a reference check for a woman I’d worked with several years earlier for several months. I hadn’t spoken with her for months and yet she’d decided to use me as a reference…but hadn’t told me! It was a surprise getting the call regarding a job I didn’t know she had applied to for a reference I didn’t realize I was needed for. It took me a few minutes into the reference before I even knew what to say.

I never did find out if she got the job either. She forgot to follow up with me on that too.