Checking a referee

mel123

When people ring up someone as a reference, is it just a quick check on you, ur not an axe murder, u actually did work there, u havnt been on sick leave since u started type thing?? Or is it more detailed in the way they go into your job description, what u did, when u did it kind of thing?? Am trying to glorify my jobs a little, butter them up, tell a few fibs, will i be caught out??

Raiser

MelsBoss wrote:

"Ya, ya - no Mels a sound guy, borderline cleptomaniac, enjoys a good grope by the coffee machine & he's a compulsive arse pincher by the way"

Only joking - HR people are the Baboons of the corporate machine - put your brother in law, sister, auntie or whoevers phone number down and tell them to say whatever the HR Baboons like to hear - ie. buzzwords and US corporate flim-flam.

- Its a dumb game so go play

leeroybrown

Quite a lot of the time they don't bother checking. When the do check I would say that very few calls would go into that kind of intricate detail and more often than not the person answering the phone won't know anyway. Quite a few larger companies will officially only give an "A worked here as a B between C and D" answer.

Unless you are telling pretty big fibs it's unlikely it'll be shown up in a reference.

mel123

Thanks guys. We dont have a HR department in our company, so my referee will be my manager, so I am not going to lie too much - just incase. I just want to spice things up and make myself look capable for the job I am applying for.

[Jackass]

Apperantly I was general manager of a global exporting franchise and have a masters degree in astro-physics. Havn't been caught out yet and have a job where I'm high enough up the ladder to not really need to know what I'm doing.

Strokesfan

Leeroy Brown is totally right in that sometimes they will only verify you worked there for a certain period - I think by law when checking references potential employers can only ask Yes/ No answer questions... it's illegal to give a bad reference - i.e. a slating so I'd say questions have to be carefully worded.
An employer once told us that he only ever asks one question "Would you employ this person again?" I think that I haven't embellished my cv enough