Believe it or not, many individuals struggle with gathering their employment references, for two reasons. The first: they are not prepared ahead of time. The second: they use the wrong people (usually unknowingly). Creating a solid list of references starts before typing up the document. You should be planting seeds ahead of time to ensure you have the right people, quality people, to speak on your behalf. Let’s walk step by step through the process together. It is important to note that references are NOT the same thing as employment verification. You will often see on job applications a section that states “May we contact this employer?” with a yes or no option. This question does NOT mean that they wish to contact them for a reference. This means that they may contact them to verify your employment. When a company calls to verify employment, your current or former employer is not allowed to say anything negative about you. All they are legally allowed to do is verify details of your employment such as job title, start date, if you still work there, and if you are eligible for re-hire.
Self-Reflect
Before you start asking random people to be references for you, take a moment and pause to reflect on YOUR unique circumstances. Some of you reading this may be recent graduates, some may be applying for internships, and some of you may be adults rejoining the workforce or making career changes. Not everyone will have the same type of experiences to apply a cookie cutter answer here. This blog is meant to serve as a guide. What works for some might not work for others. Take a moment to think about your work history, your experience, and the types of jobs/internships you are looking to apply for. Certain types of individuals make better references than others. For example, both a former instructor and a current supervisor are appropriate professional references. Let’s say you are applying for a senior management position after working five years in the field after graduation. Even if you stay in touch with the former instructor from time to time, your relationship and the feedback from your current supervisor will be more impactful than the feedback from the professor. Using the same two individuals, former instructor and current supervisor, let’s change the scenario. Let’s pretend you are a current student seeking an internship in the healthcare field and you have been working your way through college in the restaurant industry. Having a reference from a former (or current) instructor who has seen your capabilities in the classroom and can speak to your potential for this internship is more impactful than your supervisor in the restaurant business. Again, both are appropriate types of references, but you can’t use a one size fits all approach.
Outreach
After you’ve thought for a moment about the types of individuals that would be most appropriate for you, you will want to reach out to them ahead of time and confirm they are comfortable being a reference for you. This is VERY important. The biggest reason you want to do this is because you want to ensure you each of you view the relationship in a positive way. I have had students utilize instructors or other administrative staff for references without checking in advance, and unfortunately the individual they listed did not feel they were a good advocate for them. This could be for a variety of reasons. The other reason you want to ask in advance is so that you don’t catch anyone off guard and you can give your reference a chance to ask YOU questions so they are prepared. You might want to let them know the types of jobs you’ll be applying for and when you plan to start applying so they can be prepared. If there is anything specific you’d like the reference to say on your behalf (if they agree to advocate for you), you can let them know once they agree.
I had a graduate utilize me as a reference several years after graduating from the college. They were an average student, no major issues or concerns, but I didn’t really know them very well. One day, out of the blue, I received a call from a local correctional facility stating that this individual utilized me for a reference. I felt terrible, but I really couldn’t answer the caller’s questions and I had to state that I hadn’t talked to this individual in several years. I did my best to say the positive things from when I knew the student, but I couldn’t say much more, in all honesty. Especially because this was a correctional facility, I didn’t know if the student hadn’t been in trouble, changed career paths, or anything! It was a very uncomfortable situation for both me and the person calling for the reference.
How many references do I need?
My professional advice to you as a Career Coach is to have a solid five to seven references. Here is my rationale for that range. The employer that is going to call to verify or check your references is going to go from the top down. Meaning, they are going to call the reference you have listed first, first, and so on and so forth. What if your first two people are unavailable? What if they are on vacation or they changed their phone number or got locked out of their email? The employer is going to go down the list until they get SOMEONE. They want to hire you if they are calling references. Again, let’s make this easy for the employer. If you have at least five, the likelihood that they will reach at least two or three of them is much better than if you only provide three references.
Side note: What I am referencing above applies to creating your list of references, NOT to what certain electronic job applications will have listed. Most job applications that you complete online will ask for only three references. However, if you are asked to upload supplemental documents or send over a list of references, having five to seven is the way to go.
My reasoning for up to seven (if you only have five that is fine) is because you don’t know what type of reference the employer or hiring manager is most interested in speaking to. They may want to talk to your direct supervisor, or a colleague, or someone in a position lateral to yours in the company. On my list of references, I have past supervisors, current supervisor, former subordinates (that can speak to my management skills), former instructors, and coworkers. This gives the employer lots of options when deciding who they’d like to speak to.
What information do I need to collect?
Luckily, building a references page is pretty straight forward. Below is a list of things you will need to collect from the individual that is willing to be your reference.
- Their full name (Example: Mr. John Smith)
- Their title (Example: Director of Operations)
- The company they work for (Example: ABC Company, Inc.)
- The company’s address
- Their phone number (you can use their work phone number or their cell phone, but you need to ask them what their preference is in advance)
- Their email (again, work or personal, but ask in advance
- Their relationship to you (This is optional, but it is helpful for someone that doesn’t know you to understand what the relationship is. Example: Former Supervisor)
- Length of time known (Again, this is optional, but helpful. Example: Known for 10 years)
- You can combine the relationship and length of time known in one line. Example: Director Supervisor at ABC Company, 10 years)
How do I organize it?
The MOST important thing I want to say about your list of references: They DO NOT go on your resume. If you have your references on your resume, PLEASE remove them and create a new, fresh, blank document. I can’t stress enough the importance of NOT listing your reference on your resume. Not only are you going to trip up the ATS systems, but it doesn’t make any sense to list them there. Your resume is a summary of YOUR professional skills and qualifications. No other information should be listed except what is applicable to your work experience and educational background/skillset.
Your references can have two primary heading styles. The first one mimics the header on your resume. This allows for a clean and concise (as well as organized) look to your professional documents. Essentially, you would copy and paste your heading (name, city/state/zip, phone number, email) into a new document. You would then type the word “References” underneath, left aligned, and then begin listing your references. The other option is to center align your contact/header information, type the word “References” underneath, and follow the same process as listed above. The only difference is the heading.
The amount of time it takes to physically create your references document is minimal. If you are savvy in Microsoft Word or Google Docs, you can have it done in less than 15 minutes. However, this assumes you have done the pre-work in collecting the information and the approval from those that you will be listing on your references list.Pro-Tip? List your strongest reference first! They will be the first person that the hiring manager/HR/employer calls.
Best of luck!
