references

sammy1984

Im going for a few interviews next week for various banks etc. i've been with my current employer 4 years , the job before that i was in 4.5 years and left on very bad terms. I therefore only have one hope of a reference and thats from my current employer. im wondering therefore if employers will accept a character reference from a professional or a second reference from someone in my current company.?????

AARRRGH

Using your current employer as a reference is a bad idea. What will happen if you don't get the job?

Regarding the second reference, is there anyone in the old company you could use as a referee? When you say you left on very bad terms, did you still do a good job there?

It's a tricky situation. Certainly try the reference from a professional. Whether they'll accept it or not, who knows...

Eoin

sammy1984 wrote: »

Im going for a few interviews next week for various banks etc. i've been with my current employer 4 years , the job before that i was in 4.5 years and left on very bad terms. I therefore only have one hope of a reference and thats from my current employer. im wondering therefore if employers will accept a character reference from a professional or a second reference from someone in my current company.?????

OK - firstly you have 4 years in your current company, which I think should be sufficient. Think about it this way; someone in a company for 10 years could only give a meaningful reference from their current company.

Secondly - if you can find someone in your company who is willing to give a reference, and is in a position that would lend credibility / authority to the reference (e.g. a manager you have reported to / worked for regularly), then that sounds good to me. This is exactly what I did leaving my last place, and it was fine.

Just concentrate on the interviews themselves and worry about the logistics of the references if you get a job offer (I wouldn't give reference details until I got a firm offer).

Best of luck.

ambro25

Don't let a potential lack of references undermine you self confidence for the new position, as you've been with your current employe 4 years: if there was a problem with you, they may not have kept you that long, would they? Or given you increased responsabilities/work/etc.?

+1 @ dublindude and eoin_s
_ ideally, try and get someone in particular + who you can trust at earlier employer
_otherwise, use current employer if you must supply a ref, and gloss over earlier employer

My €0,02 on top: let the interviewers query the previous job (they may well do, as you're not suppl ref from it). If they do, be honest. High-risk, but high-reward (in my exp.) and conductive of mutual respect from the onset. If they don't ask, so be it.