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.

Last month we talked about a few ways to stand out from the pack with regards to your job search. I gave a few examples of things that I’ve seen – as well as one thing I did earlier in my career – to get a leg up on my competitors for jobs.

It got me to thinking about some of the things that people I’ve interviewed for jobs have done that were a bit different from the norm:

1. Resume on a memory stick: I recall back in 2000 when memory sticks and other memory devices were still kind of novelties, a few people I was interviewing for jobs handed me a memory stick with their resume on it. A few years earlier, I remember a guy I knew using a mini CD-Rom to distribute his resume. At the time, I think they were kind of novel ideas but other than being novel and perhaps expensive, I’m not sure I see the point especially these days when we’re used to seeing resumed delivered electronically. Save your money and email your resume.

2. Reference letters and recommendations: Every few weeks, I interview someone who brings a folder of information with them that contains letters of recommendation, copies of their degrees, printed out emails from colleagues that congratulate them for something they did, copies of training courses they’ve taken and other stuff that makes them look good. Often it seems that the person is trying a bit too hard to look good. The most organized, professional people I’ve interviewed tend to bring a copy or two of their resume along and that’s about it. If we need supporting materials like the ones mentioned above, we’ll ask for them.

3. Personal website: These days many people are running their own website(s) and/or blog and probably belong to one or more of the popular social networks. As a recruiter, the most common thing I’ve found in this regard is getting a LinkedIn invite from job searchers that I’ve interviewed and I have no problem accepting the invite and linking back. I think it makes sense. Of course if you’re also going to mention your personal website to recruiters and/or hiring managers you just want to ensure that the material contained therein doesn’t hurt your cause, something we spoke about back on November 21.