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It is worth checking. Have Allyson Taylor or one of the other services check his references. They can even notarize what was said. Then if a previous employer is badmouthing them I would send a cease and desist letter (templates available online) to that boss and HR dept. That usually puts a stop to it as why risk being sued over something that has no benefit to the company.
I nearly went through that but had a former colleague warn me. The PI from grad school was all nice and smiley but after a string of failed interviews she hired a service to check. He was saying awful things about her for no good reason and wasn't overly kind about me either.
He is professional & friendly. Never had this issue in earlier jobs. If he was interviewed on site, he would get the offer.
Thanks for everyones suggestions. I will pass it on to him. I will definitely ask him to have someone call his references & see what they say. Its a competitive market & there must be better qualified candidates. Since the rejections are happening after very positive feedback, i am concerned about his references. At some places he was given assurance at end of the interview that they are going to proceed to the next step but he never heard back or got a rejection email. Some places he applied through a job recruiter & even the recruiter did not contact him again. This has never happened before. That makes me think something went wrong during the hiring process. He left his earlier jobs with proper 2-week notice & was never laid off or fired for his performance. This is someone close so i know nothing will come up in his background check so that leaves references or someone better qualified & cheaper.
If he's getting to the stage where he's getting face-to-face interviews, and then doesn't get the job, that indicates his resume is good enough to get him in the door for an in-person interview, but there may be something else going on in-person, OR someone else is just edging him out.
If he only gets phone interviews and not in-person interviews, he needs to work on his phone interviewing skills.
I would suggest he meet with some local group looking for work. He can look for one on meetup.com or see if your chamber of commerce has anything going like that. These are people you can do mock interviews with and they'll give feedback we cannot give because we're not hearing and seeing this person.
And not related to anything you've posted - but a general statement - there are a lot of people who complain they never get hired - but some people are, unbeknownst to them, WEIRD. Weird people don't know they're weird. People who speak with a vocal fry deny they're doing it. People who seem 'off' don't realize they seem 'off'. So for all the suggestions we can give here, and as much as we try to help, sometimes there's nothing we can recommend that will get someone a job.
If they interviewed with a number of people, even though one shared positive comments, one of the others could have had a negative impression of the candidate. Sometimes a joke or edgy humor can be misunderstood by the interviewer and preclude the candidate from further consideration and bump them from 1st place. Sadly I have seen this happen. I think in this instance the person should be given a 2nd chance at interviewing as often nerves is the issue. But, generally they don't get called back a 2nd time.
Also agree with poster who said that interviewees can be weird and not know it. I've seen my share over the years.
Today every job, may have a lot of applicants. They get weeded out till there are say 5 applicants. Those are given interviews. Three may be called back for additional interviews, and seem equally qualified and have equal education. They are all told, they fit the companies needs, and they will get back to them. Problem, one of them will stand out above the others, and that person will get the job. It may be strictly due to personality, alone. One has a very standoff type personality. One is really nice, but not over friendly. One comes off the type of person that you would like for a friend, or go out for a drink with. The HM feels this person is the one that fits into the work group he/she is hiring for. That person gets the job.
I keep reading how some applicants refuse to answer certain questions, and only answer questions pertaining to their abilities to do the job. How they don't take simple tests like the old 'Sell me this pen' which is a often used test to see how quick a person can think and react. How they think they should be asking all the questions, not the interviewer. Then they wonder why someone else that does as asked, answers any question, is friendly and cooperative, gets the job.
When you go to an interview, you have to be a salesperson. You have to sell the HM, etc., that you are the perfect person for the job. Friendly, but businesslike. Show you know your stuff to handle the job. I hired hundreds of people over the years, and I saw more people that you may have liked to hire, just blow off their chance to get the job. No one is going to tell you why you were not the one hired. The reason you were not hired, is someone else did a better sales job selling themselves as the best candidate.
if you think your reference is being negative then just have a friend/family call them pretending to be an employer checking references. Or, if you're bold, call from a different phone number/fake cell yourself pretending to an employer. Finding out if a reference is shafting you is easy. But like others have suggested maybe that is really not the real reason.Employers reject people for a myriad of reasons. Some don't like people with piercing, tatoos or weird hair color. Others don't like redheads, older people, "fat" people, etc. Bad teeth or no teeth is another issue someone was having on a thread here. Vocal fry or some other personal detail.I knew someone who had a car accident and had voice damage. He had a F500 accounting/finance background and was a good looking man, but his voice sounded like a gangster's. His voice was hoarse, raspy and with his New York Brooklyn accent he sounded like someone from the Sopranos. This would work in comedy or in the movies for an "extras" role, but not in F500 corporate America. So it could be anything at all. We can't see and hear the interview so we can't really assess.
Thanks for everyones inputs. I will convey your suggestions to him. He is a professional in a technical field who has almost a decade of experience. He has shared good rapport with his previous employers & left them after working for atleast a year or more. It concerns me because he never had such cold rejections in his earlier job hunts. Nothing much has changed in his appearance during these years. No tattoos, piercings or bad sense of humor. He is courteous & presentable. Very good at his work & gets along fine with his colleagues. I will ask him to check on his references through Allyson Taylor or have someone call them. 2 of his references are HR of his previous companies & one is a previous team mate. He left his previous jobs for valid reasons like relocation so not sure why any of the HR would have any hard feelings for him. I have interviewed people before for my company & have scrutinized his presentation skills & resume. Nothing stands out to me as a red flag so I am surprised. He shines during phone & in-person interviews. Usually gets an offer within a week of the interview. He is sharing the same vibe with the people interviewing him but they dont contact him back.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Never give a reference without asking the person ahead of time and getting a feel for whether it will be helpful to you in getting the position. I have been asked and said "Sorry, but I'd rather not" so I would not have to lie to help someone that was a really poor employee.
Every day thousands of people are turned down without a good reason. Employers do not have to give a reason, and if they are at all sensible, will say only something like "we have decided to go with someone else." When there is one opening and 100 candidates, or for that matter 30 or 10 being interviewed, you can have the best interview of your life and impress them so much that they are ready to hand you the job, but the next hour or next day someone else comes in that's just a little better.
Funny how they always feel they deserve a reason when an employee quits with an exit interview.
I always lie at exit interviews, just as I always lie on the BS employee engagement surveys I get every year. Blahh.. I just invest as much as I can, live well below my means and plan on retiring as soon as possible. I do my best to ignore the crap.
I've generally found that if someone is willing to take the time to write a LOR/reference for you, they generally have good things to say. Either this, or you were so terrible working for/with them that they will take the time out to write about that. But I've seen that most people, myself included, don't get any pleasure about writing about the pitfalls of mediocre employees. In my personal practice, I won't write references for people who ask if I have nothing but bad experiences with them; I'll make something up like I don't quite have time to do so by the deadline, etc.
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