references

porshe911

hi all,

The last place I worked (sales job)was shocking- terrible managment, poor conditions, etc. The owners son (younger than me) was manager, totally unapproachable. the sales manager was worse, and set up me and another employee. I stuck it out, but eventually quit after few months.They let my colleague (who also had been set up) go after I had left. Anyway, I have put all that behind me. I was going to take them to court, but decided no good would come of it. Anyway, my question is I am now looking for another job- do I have to put the last company down as a reference? is there any law that requires me to do this? and what can I use as an excuse to new employer for not using the last place I worked as a reference? any advice welcome, thanks

Dave!

No you don't have to mention them at all; you can completely leave them out of your CV if you like. You could explain the gap in any way that you want: illness, travelling, sabbatical, etc.

As for if you want to include the experience but not give a reference... that depends really on how much other experience you have. You'll usually give 2 or 3 references to a new job (in my experience anyway). If it's a related job they might be interested in getting a reference from them though. Not sure what excuse you could use... maybe just say it's their policy not to give references at all? Sounds a bit dodgey though, most places give either verbal or written references.

The Machine

I think references are becoming less important. Many companies have been sued by previous employees because they gave bad or unfair references. So what a lot of places do now is just a one liner like:

"From January 2005 to February 2008 Joe Blogs from worked here as xxx (insert job title). He performed all his tasks as required."

I'm sure your last employer can at least give you this?

Dave!

Indeed. They're often just to confirm that you did actually work in the place in question.