Another reference question..

Beetlebum

Hi All,

I went for a job interview today for a position that I really want and got offered the job on the spot. I was really happy until I came home and the woman who interviewed me asked me was it okay to check my references. I know this is standard practice and I have two good refs on my CV. I replied saying no problem. I then looked over my CV and realised I had actually put down 3 refs one of which is defo not gonna be a good one.

I don't even know why I still have the damn job on my CV, it was two jobs ago and only for 9 months so I should've said I was travelling. Anyway, my question is if I have two good refs and one bad, do you think I'll still get the job? Also, if they require a third good ref I can get it from my curreny job. Why the hell I put the bad ref down is beyond me, don't know what I was thinking but it's out of my hands now...hope I haven't blown it..

echosound

Ring them first thing in the morning, explain that you are willing for them to contact your current employer rather than the old one for a reference as it is far more relevant than the old job (ie the bad reference one). Might do the trick.

CuLT

echosound wrote: »

Ring them first thing in the morning, explain that you are willing for them to contact your current employer rather than the old one for a reference as it is far more relevant than the old job (ie the bad reference one). Might do the trick.

I would have thought that would be a poor idea myself? Just due to the possibility of it backfiring. They may not contact the third ref at all, whereas if you explicitly ask them not to...

Beetlebum

echosound wrote: »

Ring them first thing in the morning, explain that you are willing for them to contact your current employer rather than the old one for a reference as it is far more relevant than the old job (ie the bad reference one). Might do the trick.

Thanks for that! Gonna email her now and say that. Hopefully she won't question it too much...I'm such a moron for putting him down!!

board om

Beetlebum wrote: »

Hi All,

I went for a job interview today for a position that I really want and got offered the job on the spot. I was really happy until I came home and the woman who interviewed me asked me was it okay to check my references. I know this is standard practice and I have two good refs on my CV. I replied saying no problem. I then looked over my CV and realised I had actually put down 3 refs one of which is defo not gonna be a good one.

I don't even know why I still have the damn job on my CV, it was two jobs ago and only for 9 months so I should've said I was travelling. Anyway, my question is if I have two good refs and one bad, do you think I'll still get the job? Also, if they require a third good ref I can get it from my curreny job. Why the hell I put the bad ref down is beyond me, don't know what I was thinking but it's out of my hands now...hope I haven't blown it..

you could call them first thing in the morning and say you called your referees to let them know they would be receiving a call and you only got through to 2 of them, obviously say it was the 2 you want to give. say you have left a message for the 3rd reference and you are waiting for them to get back to you. its not unusal to call your referees to let them know, if anything it is the polite thing to do. you could even say you wanted to confirm that the referees were still working there. and because you listed all 3 on your CV it wont look strange as you didnt try hiding the 3rd reference or anything like that. they should be happy with 2 of references. if you dont say anything at all and they cant get through to one of the first 2 they will call the 3rd one and that wont be good.

good luck

Beetlebum

board om wrote: »

you could call them first thing in the morning and say you called your referees to let them know they would be receiving a call and you only got through to 2 of them, obviously say it was the 2 you want to give. say you have left a message for the 3rd reference and you are waiting for them to get back to you. its not unusal to call your referees to let them know, if anything it is the polite thing to do. you could even say you wanted to confirm that the referees were still working there. and because you listed all 3 on your CV it wont look strange as you didnt try hiding the 3rd reference or anything like that. they should be happy with 2 of references. if you dont say anything at all and they cant get through to one of the first 2 they will call the 3rd one and that wont be good.

good luck

Thank you, that's sound advice, **** I want this so badly and would hate to think that mistakes I made 2 years ago in a job that I didn't like and took the piss in would hold me back. I'll post tomorrow either elated or very upset!

board om

Beetlebum wrote: »

Thank you, that's sound advice, **** I want this so badly and would hate to think that mistakes I made 2 years ago in a job that I didn't like and took the piss in would hold me back. I'll post tomorrow either elated or very upset!

just get on the ball with it first thing in the morning before they have a chance to call anyone and you will be grand. when you are saying that the 3rd referee wasnt available and that you left them a message, say as soon the referee calls you to confirm you will send them the contact details. in other words, make it look like your eager to to get them the 3rd one as well and not that your trying to hide it, if you know what i mean. you could also add to it and say that you have also organised the reference from your current job. that way it looks like you have loads of available references and they will have no reason to suspect anything. as long as you act confident about it and kind of give the "no worries at all" vibe it will be grand. they will most likely say the 2 confirmed references are fine. and worst case scenario if they ask for a 3rd you will already have said about the one confirmed from your current job so you can offer them that.

2 references is standard these days and i havent seen many companies that would look for more than 2 so you should be fine. up until a year or 2 ago companies rarely checked references but now they seem to be starting to do it. there is no need to take the job off your CV if it leaves a gap, just dont give it as a reference anymore. in fact you shouldnt really put referees on your CV for this exact reason, just put references available on request.

good luck with it and let us know how you got on.

Beetlebum

Okay, first thing this morning I got in touch with one of my good references and she said that as company policy they don't actually give refs but if anyone calls she'll say that I worked there and was a lovely girl but that the company don't give refs to anyone...semi-result I suppose. Contacted my other good ref but he wasn't there. I'm confident that he'll say good thing though. I then emailed my new job and simply said:

Good Morning,

How are you? Just thought I'd send you a quick email giving you details of an additional and my most recent reference. Please feel free to contact blah blah at *****. Thank you.

Kind regards
Blah.

Now all I can do is wait and see what happens. Hopefully the bad reference will just be fairly neutral and my most receny one will be great. The most recent one is my current job and I called my manager last night and she said she'd be more than happy to give me a great ref. Jesus, I have to stop stressing about this and just accept the fact that I've done all I can to cover myself.

Board am - good advice about saying available on request. Everyone should take that on board and never put a name down unless you know it's gonna be glowing about you. Cheers anyway, gonna try put this outta my mind now, no news is good news...I hope..eeekk!!