In this era of market volatility, people up and down the corporate ladder are being laid off. It is not uncommon to reach out to a former supervisor for a reference, only to find they are no longer there. Now what?
In this era of market volatility, people up and down the corporate ladder are being laid off. It is not uncommon to reach out to a former supervisor for a reference, only to find they are no longer there. Now what?
Your references don’t still need to be at the company to provide a reference for your work there. Use LinkedIn, Facebook, an overall Google search, or offline networking through mutual former colleagues to find a lost reference. If you do find him or her and s/he agrees to speak about your work at the former company, give your prospective employer his/ her new information but also his/ her past title and your exact relationship at the company where you both worked.
Use someone else at that company. If you can’t find your past boss and the prospective employer really wants to hear about your work at this company, find someone else who knew your work. This can be a colleague who worked on a project with you. This might be your boss’ boss, who can at least verify what type of work you did. This also might be clients or vendors for this past company. For example, if you were an asset manager, find an institutional investor who might have interacted with you. If you were an IT specialist, find someone at a software vendor that you worked with closely. LinkedIn is great for collecting these types of testimonials.
Use another supervisor. People falling off your radar is why you always want to have at least three supervisors for your reference list. Collect and confirm your references now, not just when you get an offer and need to scramble for names, titles and current contact info the same day.
Remember, too, that you need other types of references in addition to supervisors. Recruiters may ask for colleagues and for people that you managed. References at different levels provide different vantage points, and the most thorough reference checks will encompass all of these.
Is Your Job Search Flexible or Just Unfocused?
As a recruiter, I’ve seen lack of flexibility on the recruiting side with employers clinging to every last detail in their ideal spec while perfectly good candidates get overlooked. As a career coach, I see jobseekers prematurely dismissing possible targets waiting for that perfect job. It’s true that you want to be focused in your job search (otherwise you dilute your efforts and come across as scattered and possibly desperate).
5 Questions to Test If Your Resume Is Recruiter-Proof
After recruiting in search and in-house for over ten years, I have read thousands of resumes. Due to sheer volume of resumes received and all the other things that vie for the recruiter’s attention in the hiring process – scheduling, interviewing, networking, reference checks, client debriefs, and more – the resume review process is ruthlessly quick.
Why Conventional Wisdom On Work Flexibility Is Always Wrong
In a previous post, I wrote about why employment statistics are always wrong. In a similar way, conventional wisdom on work flexibility is always wrong. It is impossible to generalize something that is inherently case-by-individual case. Therefore, any boilerplate advice or conventional wisdom is bound to omit a key consideration, underweight or overemphasize other considerations, or take too long-term or short-term of a view.
