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I have never actually questioned this before, when employers ask for references to be submitted with the resume and salary history, do they check the references before they decide if they want to interview you or after.
It would seem to me that they could save lots of time if they check before they interview the ones they liked.
In the olden days when there were large HR staffs, sometimes candidates were culled to the top five and references were vetted before the interview.
Now, it seems like some hiring staffs begin by culling through complete vs. incomplete applications. That is, if you don't have three references, your application is kicked out at that point.
Also, if the employer or person doing the culling recognizes certain references, that may or may not work in your favor.
With limited staffs, the days of calling references before a candidate is interviewed are mostly over for all but top positions. There isn't enough staff or time for that.
Some probably do. I decline to provide references at this point. If everyone did this, references would be overburdened with inquiries and refuse to be contacted.
do they check the references before they decide if they want to interview you or after.
So far this has only happened to me once. I'm not a fan of it. I prefer them to contact references after they interview me and we feel there is mutual interest going forward.
I've always been asked to provide references on the application and, to the best of my knowledge, none was ever contacted until I'd been interviewed. As an employer I only checked references after interviewing an applicant and being interested in pursuing them as an employee.
I've had references contacted before the firm called me for an interview. I no longer provide them on my resume. Like sansthetime, I prefer a firm contact my references AFTER we've talked it appears we might be a good fit.
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Following directions is the first test of an applicant's suitability for the job, so if three references are required, they need to be there, or many will discard your application. We don't take the time to check them, however, until an offer is made and accepted. It takes way too much effort to call references when you get 100+ applicants. We make the offer contingent upon satisfactory references, then when accepted, call them. We require 3 but if we get two positive references that support the person, we don't call the 3rd. When I was hired each of the 2 references called was interviewed for close to 30 minutes.
Following directions is the first test of an applicant's suitability for the job, so if three references are required, they need to be there, or many will discard your application.
I chuckled over that, recalling the many times when I was hiring and the application clearly asked for three references to be listed. Some applicants would write in, "provided upon request". Since they apparently didn't understand that this WAS a request, their applications went into File 13.
I'm glad this question was posted because I was just about to post something similar.
I recently filled out an application that asked for four references "not family or employment related". I thought that was odd since it left out what I thought were better options (okay, I know not family...but co-workers?). I put in co-workers anyway since they would not be contacting them as supervisors.
Anyway, I've been getting a lot of calls and emails from recruiters and one today ticked me off. He asked a bunch of questions, and then asked for a word version of my resume (don't really like that, I prefer to send pdf's) AND three professional references. I'm sending him a reply that says I will provide references to legitimate employers but not some random recruiter who sent me an email.
Following directions is the first test of an applicant's suitability for the job, so if three references are required, they need to be there, or many will discard your application. We don't take the time to check them, however, until an offer is made and accepted. It takes way too much effort to call references when you get 100+ applicants. We make the offer contingent upon satisfactory references, then when accepted, call them. We require 3 but if we get two positive references that support the person, we don't call the 3rd. When I was hired each of the 2 references called was interviewed for close to 30 minutes.
I'm not giving my references with my resume even if they ask. 99% don't ask this kind of thing, and for the ones who ask I'm writing an explanation that I will give them only after an interview in which both of us will be interested to move forward. My references are IT directors and managers with extremely busy schedule and I'm not going to burn them. If the hiring company will add an explanation that they will call them only after a mutual successful interview - it's different game.
30 minutes? Unless it's a 200-250k position I don't see any reference talking so much time. I'm a reference also, and there is no way that I will spend 30 minutes for a 90-140k position.
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