I found out the other day that our neighbor just interviewed for a new job. She has a job but is not sure if it will be around long, so she's keeping her options open. What makes the situation more interesting is that she recently interviewed with a good friend of ours (who lives a couple blocks away) that recruits for a local hospital.
While talking about these two people, how we know them both, and how they now know each other, my wife wondered if she should "put in a good word for our neighbor" to try and get her the job. This made me think about a couple of issues around giving out references including the following:
-
Do you ever give out "good" recommendations for someone when you don't really know anything about their work performance? We can certainly speak to our neighbor's performance at being a neighbor (she's a very nice lady, btw), but what do we really know about her work performance? Nothing. So what sort of "good word" can/should we put in for her?
-
Do you make work recommendations to friends? And what about our friend the hiring manager? Don't we owe it to her to make sure anyone we would send her way was someone we could recommend based on our knowledge of their work history? And even at that, there are all sorts of things that could go wrong once a person is hired (for example, personality conflicts) that could impact our friendship with the hiring manager if they went south. Should we make any recommendation at all, even if we think the worker is stellar?
The point is that recommending someone for a position is not a simple matter. And if it's a friend you're recommending to, it's even more complicated. (And I'm not even talking about the legal issues associated with giving/not giving recommendations -- something many companies don't allow because of past law troubles.)
I don't recommend anyone unless I have direct knowledge of their performance. Here are the general guidelines I use:
-
If someone asks me to be a reference for them and I can speak to their qualifications in a positive manner, I accept.
-
If they ask me to be a reference for them and I can't speak to their qualifications in a positive manner, I decline (saying I'm not comfortable being a reference source. FYI, this has only happened once in my career and the guy understood immediately what I was saying -- without me having to say it.)
-
If they ask me to be a reference for them and I can't speak to their qualifications in any way because I don't know about their work experience, I tell them I can offer a personal reference (that they are a good person), but not a professional one (that they are a good worker.)
-
As far as recommending to a friend, if I do this I am TOTALLY honest with the friend about what I know and what I don't know. I'm also clear that what I've seen is my experience only and they may have a different experience.
What do you think on this issue? Am I missing something? Do you have something to add to this issue?
I agree with your thoughts. Yes it is difficult to recommend for a person if we don't have any idea about her. If I was in the position, I will never recommend like you because of not having any knowledge about her job knowledge, but, I will convince my friend, the HR manager, about the situation she is facing and try to keep the position maximum flexible for selecting her.
This approach eliminate the direct requesting difficulties and also eliminate the difficulties if she is not getting the job later.
any thoughts on this, welcom
Sherin
The Money Maniac
Posted by: Sherin | April 27, 2009 at 12:20 PM
I think you should be an honest reference for her. I've been a reference for friends before. Sometimes more professional sometimes more personal.
I don't really have a problem with being a reference for people. When people have called me about the reference and asked me how I know such and such a person I told them what I knew. If I couldn't comment on someone's work life because I didn't work with them I made that clear. In the end, it's up to the hiring manager if they want or need more professional references.
Posted by: SaveBuyLive | April 27, 2009 at 01:50 PM
I think you should lie in your teeth to suit the particular needs of the applicant just like the politicians do. Forget honor, truthfulness and consequences. You can lie your way out of that too (just like the politicians do). Oh yeah - and forget about conscience. After a while it won't bother you anymore (just like the politicians).
Cynical? You bet, But what's the difference? It's a new world under our Glorious Leader!
Posted by: Thomas Deecy | April 27, 2009 at 04:38 PM
I think you're right on with your guidelines. That's how I handle references. The only thing you've left out is the answer to this question: What do you tell a person who asks you to be a reference for them, but you don't think you'd have much to say that would be helpful?
Posted by: Beth Bridges | April 27, 2009 at 10:36 PM
Beth --
I'd be honest with them about what I could and couldn't comment on and let them decide to keep me or not as a reference.
Posted by: FMF | April 28, 2009 at 08:21 AM