Reference from a politician?

ahal

Hi all,

I've been out of the game for a while now, going back through my references many are quite old and my last employer, while a complete t*t to work for, gave me a blindingly good reference ... hmm. To use or not to use? My fear with this dude is that he'll bad mouth me by phone.

Anyway, to get to the point (ie: title of post) I know a senior politician the past 21 years, a real bigshot. Would it be appropriate or weird to get a character reference off of him, as in, in writing? Obviously there are people on here who are much further along the line in jobseeking than I, so any opinions and / or suggestions most welcomed.

Cheers,

Tony.

edellc

ahal wrote: »

Hi all,

I've been out of the game for a while now, going back through my references many are quite old and my last employer, while a complete t*t to work for, gave me a blindingly good reference ... hmm. To use or not to use? My fear with this dude is that he'll bad mouth me by phone.

Anyway, to get to the point (ie: title of post) I know a senior politician the past 21 years, a real bigshot. Would it be appropriate or weird to get a character reference off of him, as in, in writing? Obviously there are people on here who are much further along the line in jobseeking than I, so any opinions and / or suggestions most welcomed.

Cheers,

Tony.

Firstly an employer can not bad mouth you when giving a reference they can say very little but can not say anything bad about you
as for a politician i wouldnt touch that with a barge pole tbh not worth the paper its written on regardless of being a bigshot or not makes no difference everyone of them has a price

ahal

edellc wrote: »

Firstly an employer can not bad mouth you when giving a reference they can say very little but can not say anything bad about you

Interesting ... never knew that

edellc wrote: »

as for a politician i wouldnt touch that with a barge pole tbh not worth the paper its written on regardless of being a bigshot or not makes no difference everyone of them has a price

Ha ha ... well put ... I guess that was kind of at the back of my mind alright!

Wolfe Tone

Yes get the politician to give you a character reference, it is a good idea.

mikemac

For my very first job , the local parish priest gave me a reference.
It's how a lot of teenagers got their first job

Yes, use the politicians reference.

seamus

edellc wrote: »

Firstly an employer can not bad mouth you when giving a reference they can say very little but can not say anything bad about you

Of course they can. They just need to be able to back up anything that they say and it needs to be relevant to the reference.

Legally they can say whatever the hell they like, but if something cannot be proven, then the company is wide open for a defamation action against them.

I would use your discretion on the politician thing. Some people might be impressed by it. Other people might have a personal problem with the politician or be otherwise biased (i.e. don't get a reference from Ray Burke). And other employers might see it as a pretentious name-dropping exercise.

If you actually know him on a personal level and he can write a good personal reference, then it may be worth it. On the other hand, if he's an acquaintance of the family and all he can say is, "X is a fine young man from an honourable family", then you may be wasting your time. Small town employers would probably be more swayed by this kind of thing than a multinational or city employer.