Interesting dillema
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Background: I have a friend who works for IT at a store chain. In fact this has been his only job ever.. in high school he was a bagger/cashier, later a store manager, and then after college went into IT which is what he does now. He has been looking for new jobs for a while, and has pretty good prospects with one employer. Naturally, they want references. The only problem is that his company's policy is not to give references. It seems in the programming/IT world this is becomming more and more of an issue. I guess employers fear retaliation for bad references so they don't give references at all, aside from simply verifying employment and stuff like that. Anybody else around here been through anything like this and have any advice? What are the best ways of getting professional references these days when your employer won't give them? This situation might be a bit unique... I'd be hard-pressed to find anyone besides this guy who's only worked at one company their whole life. The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.
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Background: I have a friend who works for IT at a store chain. In fact this has been his only job ever.. in high school he was a bagger/cashier, later a store manager, and then after college went into IT which is what he does now. He has been looking for new jobs for a while, and has pretty good prospects with one employer. Naturally, they want references. The only problem is that his company's policy is not to give references. It seems in the programming/IT world this is becomming more and more of an issue. I guess employers fear retaliation for bad references so they don't give references at all, aside from simply verifying employment and stuff like that. Anybody else around here been through anything like this and have any advice? What are the best ways of getting professional references these days when your employer won't give them? This situation might be a bit unique... I'd be hard-pressed to find anyone besides this guy who's only worked at one company their whole life. The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.
He should be able to ask his co-workers to give a personal reference; if I'm not mistaken, there's nothing a company can "do" about that ... -or- Try to get a letter of recommendation written from another colleague that's in the industry and "knows the skills" of this friend of yours. My two cents.
:..::. Douglas H. Troy ::..
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Background: I have a friend who works for IT at a store chain. In fact this has been his only job ever.. in high school he was a bagger/cashier, later a store manager, and then after college went into IT which is what he does now. He has been looking for new jobs for a while, and has pretty good prospects with one employer. Naturally, they want references. The only problem is that his company's policy is not to give references. It seems in the programming/IT world this is becomming more and more of an issue. I guess employers fear retaliation for bad references so they don't give references at all, aside from simply verifying employment and stuff like that. Anybody else around here been through anything like this and have any advice? What are the best ways of getting professional references these days when your employer won't give them? This situation might be a bit unique... I'd be hard-pressed to find anyone besides this guy who's only worked at one company their whole life. The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.
At my old company, it was policy not to give references other than verification of employment. I want to say that it had something to do with liability and some law that was passed, but I wouldn't even begin to know which one. Anyhow, the two guys who managed me during my stint there were very cool about it. They said to give out their phone numbers to the prospective employer, and that when they received the phone call, they would politely say, "Our company policy is to not provide references beyond verification of employment. However, if you get in touch with me at <personal email address>, I will be more than happy to answer questions about <subject> on my personal time." Perhaps he can try something like that. Jon Sagara As you may presently yourself be fully made aware of, my grammar sucks. Sagara.org | Blog | My Articles
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Background: I have a friend who works for IT at a store chain. In fact this has been his only job ever.. in high school he was a bagger/cashier, later a store manager, and then after college went into IT which is what he does now. He has been looking for new jobs for a while, and has pretty good prospects with one employer. Naturally, they want references. The only problem is that his company's policy is not to give references. It seems in the programming/IT world this is becomming more and more of an issue. I guess employers fear retaliation for bad references so they don't give references at all, aside from simply verifying employment and stuff like that. Anybody else around here been through anything like this and have any advice? What are the best ways of getting professional references these days when your employer won't give them? This situation might be a bit unique... I'd be hard-pressed to find anyone besides this guy who's only worked at one company their whole life. The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.
Seems to me his trek through the company shows that they had a fair level of confidence in his abilities. Does he have any written evaluations from performance reviews? Not sure they'd accept that for much, but who knows. BW
Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking bookstore...
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Background: I have a friend who works for IT at a store chain. In fact this has been his only job ever.. in high school he was a bagger/cashier, later a store manager, and then after college went into IT which is what he does now. He has been looking for new jobs for a while, and has pretty good prospects with one employer. Naturally, they want references. The only problem is that his company's policy is not to give references. It seems in the programming/IT world this is becomming more and more of an issue. I guess employers fear retaliation for bad references so they don't give references at all, aside from simply verifying employment and stuff like that. Anybody else around here been through anything like this and have any advice? What are the best ways of getting professional references these days when your employer won't give them? This situation might be a bit unique... I'd be hard-pressed to find anyone besides this guy who's only worked at one company their whole life. The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.
In the united states he can request his entire employee file and they *have* to give it to him. If this is outside the U.S. then you need to ask someone who knows the human resource laws and policies of the country/state/province in question. References are actually not appropriate in any context and the fact a company is asking for references besides personal references shows they are way behind the times and may be creating a liability of their own. I just checked your profile and you are in the U.S. so I know the laws on this are very clear. He has a right to his entire employee file at any time he can request it. If he gets the run around he can get help very easily from well known agencies in the state in which he works. If his company screws with him at all he owns them and a good attorney will settle the matter with a letter. He just needs to work with Human Resources and it should be a painless process.
My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will finish this project, in this life or the next. Slightly modified " from Gladiator. Code-frog System Architects, Inc.