Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Frame of Reference
Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.
Typically, the bigger the job and the more responsibility it carries, the more extensive the reference-checking process. Companies filling jobs carrying enormous responsibility and that require high-demand special skills are likely to invest time in carefully checking job candidates’ references.
Many IT and engineering companies, and especially government contractors, spend millions of dollars a year on reference-checking firms. References of border-crossing PMs running massive international projects are likely to be checked all the way back to grade school.
Many staffing companies routinely check references for their client companies, says Julie Middlemiss, regional director of Syracuse, NY-based HR Staffing Solutions, Inc. “But many companies also check references as well,” she says.
A job reference can be a deal-clincher or a deal-breaker, says Middlemiss. “For that reason alone, job candidates ought to take them very seriously,” she says. “I’m surprised that so many job-changers give short-shrift to their value.” They naively place the obligatory phrase, “References available upon request,” at the bottom of their resume, never considering that a prospective employer will follow through and call each one.
And many job seekers are not quite sure about the reference-checking …
Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.
ADVERTISEMENTS
|
"Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." - Mark Twain |