references – Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter's Blog

Preparing to Job Search: Line Up Your References | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

January 25, 2018 by Jeff

EP 995 On today’s show, I encourage you to be proactive with setting up references.

[spp-transcript]

ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, all as well as executive job search coaching and life coaching. He is the host of “Job Search Radio,” “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice” and a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.

Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? Visit www.TheBigGameHunter.us and click the relevant tab on the top of the page.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn. Like me on Facebook.

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle on Amazon and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.” If you are starting your search, order, “Get Ready for the Job Jungle.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.

Would you like to talk through a salary negotiation or potential negotiation you’re involved with? Order and schedule time with me.

Do you have questions or would like advice about networking or any aspect of your search. Order and schedule time with me.

Would you like me to critique your resume. Order a critique from me

For more about LinkedIn, order “Stacked: Double Your Job Interviews, Leverage Recruiters and Unlock LinkedIn.”

Jeff’s Kindle book, “You Can Fix Stupid: No BS Hiring Advice,” is available on Amazon.

Why Don’t Employers Ask for Letters of Recommendation? | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

January 6, 2018December 28, 2017 by Jeff

EP 969 I offer a suggestion for how you could create one that could be a very powerful advocate on your behalf.

[spp-transcript]

ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, all as well as executive job search coaching and business life coaching. He is the host of “Job Search Radio,” “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice.”

Connect with me on LinkedIn. Like me on Facebook.

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle on Amazon and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.

Would you like to talk through a salary negotiation or potential negotiation you’re involved with? Order and schedule time with me.

Do you have questions or would like advice about networking or any aspect of your search. Order and schedule time with me.

Would you like me to critique your resume. Order a critique from me

For more about LinkedIn, order “Stacked: Double Your Job Interviews, Leverage Recruiters and Unlock LinkedIn.”

Jeff’s Kindle book, “You Can Fix Stupid: No BS Hiring Advice,” is available on Amazon.

Do Employers Really Check References? (VIDEO)

August 1, 2017 by Jeff

[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG_2SaLHY0c[/svp]
Follow Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter on Facebook
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Jeff answers a question for someone about whether employers really check references.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves life coaching, as well as executive job search coaching and business life coaching. He is the host of “Job Search Radio” and “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” both available through iTunes and Stitcher.

Are you interested in 1:1 coaching from me? Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us
and put the word, “Coaching” in the subject line.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I on function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Do you have a quick question you would like me to answer? Pay $50 via PayPal to TheBigGameHunter@gmail.com

Do you have a question you would like me to answer? Pay $25 via PayPal to TheBigGameHunter@gmail.com
and then forward your question to the same address.

Connect with me on LinkedIn http://bit.ly/thebiggamehunter

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

I received the question from someone more junior than I normally do 1:1 coaching with that I want to speak to. The question is, “Do employers really check references?” References take a variety of different forms.

Yes, a lot of employers call up your former employer to check a reference. If they go the HR route, ofte what they will try to do is try to verify dates and salary. Behind the scenes, someone may be calling former manager to talk with them about your work.

Why do they do this? It’s really simple. This may be a shock to you but people lie. You may be a liar.

I know when I worked in recruiting, there were any number of circumstances where people had lied on applications for jobs that I had referred them to. They went to work; they were fired within a week when the truth came out.

I remember two awful situations where I warned someone before hand that a firm would do a copious background check. The person held to their lie and wound up being fired at the end of the 1st week. I will tell you some firms don’t; most firms do. They don’t want to be found in a situation where they’ve hired someone who is a liar, has lied about the credentials, you lied about the dates of employment . . . is just a problem
individual and is trying to cover it up.

There are signals that people send out that they could be, shall we say, “exaggerating the truth.” One signal is there is no managerial reference that is offered. Instead, it’s a peer level reference at the most recent employer or maybe one employer back.

Often they’ll only check the reference of the current employer after you’ve gone. So just recognize that it’s not just simply the most recent job; it can be a few jobs back so when you’re only offering peer level references, there’s a signal there.

Yes, employers really check references. They do it if they’re smart because there’s a lot that’s revealed through what is said and what isn’t said in the course of the reference that they can explore by sharp questioning that will help them determine whether or not you were a problem person at your previous pos and whether you have been lying to them.

How Do I Get a New Job When My Manager is Giving Bad Reference? (VIDEO)

July 13, 2017 by Jeff

[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zM8cyAMMHI[/svp]
A job hunter who is learning that references matter asks what s/he can do When his manager is getting a bad reference.

[spp-transcript]

Are you interested in 1:1 coaching from me? Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us and put the word, “Coaching” in the subject line.

Do you have a quick question you would like me to answer? Pay $50 via PayPal to TheBigGameHunter@gmail.com

Connect with me on LinkedIn. Like me on Facebook.

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.

Can I Get Away with Using a Fake Reference? (VIDEO)

November 24, 2016 by Jeff

[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THcBElp12QQ[/svp]
I answer a question for someone about whether they can use a fake reference and get away with it.

[spp-transcript]

I was asked the question:

Can I get away with using the fake reference?

I’m not going to give you the morality speech. I will simply say that it is absolutely wrong and it is possible to get away with it, but harder than you think it is.

It’s possible to get away with it. If your “reference” has been properly briefed, speaks with confidence, understands the field of work that you are in, can talk in detail, not just simply about the simple work that you’ve done, but about the more nuanced work that you did for your organization. Most people can’t pull that off.

This is 1 of the ways that people get caught. These days there is LinkedIn. Someone says that they work for your firm and they don’t work there. Lo and behold, you are exposed as a liar.

They can’t speak in detail about you – – what you did and how you went about doing it. Any follow-up question other than name, rank, and serial number questions receives very thin answers and lo and behold, you are a liar.

Is that how you want to lose an opportunity? By faking it?

Let me also going one extra layer. If you have to think the reference to get the job, you’re probably not qualified to do the job will probably be fired.

Do you want to put all your blood and guts into getting a job and then, because you’re not really qualified, get fired?

Is it possible? Yes. Is it likely? No.

A quick story. In days of old, someone told me about how they went so far as to send someone in for their medical exam before they were hired! When it came time to do the drug test, because the real person look different and had a different handwriting than the person who is actually taking the test for them, they put a splint on the hand of this person. They got away with it, except when the person was on board, the person was fired for drug use.

Invariably, the chickens come home to roost. You really don’t want to do this but recognize, if you do, you are putting your career at risk yet again. There is something you are not qualified for in this job and need to have a liar life for you.

Don’t do it.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you really think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

How Do I Get a New Job When My Manager is Giving Bad Reference? (VIDEO)

July 13, 2017November 12, 2016 by Jeff

A job hunter who is learning that references matter asks what s/he can do When his manager is getting a bad reference.

[spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Checking References That Were Not Provided

November 7, 2016 by Jeff

[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3urDT7lyAg[/svp]
Is it normal and ethical for a potential employer to contact my ex-coworkers to ask about my work even though they are not the references that I had provided?

[spp-transcript]

This is a question I received about checking references that were not provided.

“Is it normal and ethical for an employer to check the reference with my ex-coworkers, even though they are not the references I provided?“

Understand, most employers know that the reference you gave them is “canned.” If you give them a bad one, you are a moron. They or assuming you are not a moron so they want to get something real. So who should they call? They might call someone they already know who works in the organization to check your reference.

For example, there was this 1 consulting firm that I did work with for years. They did business development and consulting work with organizations worldwide for many years. If this was affirmed. There was no longer client and they were interviewing someone from this firm, they might contact someone that they already knew and ask if they knew the person and what they thought.

If they heard something critical or something. He gave them, “cause for pause,” they might dig a little deeper before hiring the person. If they heard something positive, that was the reference and they brought someone on board. This was someone that they knew and trusted.

If they are doing what is nicknamed, “secondary sourcing (asking your reference. If there is someone else that they know who can attest or comment about your work),” that is considered smart because speaking to your primary reference is never going to go anywhere beyond a prepared answer from the reference and will get something unrehearsed from the secondary individual that is much closer to the truth.

I can debate the use of the term, “ethical.” Who decides ethics? What is unethical about what they are doing?

“But I didn’t give the reference to them?“

I am not aware of any ethics organization that will consider that a violation.

Is it normal? No! Employers, like people, are lazy. They often take the path of least resistance.

Is it smart? You bet it is! What they are able to do is find out more of the truth that you will ever give them, then the references will never give them, so there are no surprises.

These people can also be a tiebreaker when there are references that might be lukewarm.

I also want to remind you that if an adverse reference result in you not being hired, you are entitled to, a copy of a receive a report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act of the references so that you can respond to the allegations or statements that were made. That will be sent to the employer.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

How Are Recommendations Viewed on LinkedIn?

November 2, 2016 by Jeff

[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY4nVlIkF48[/svp]
How are recommendations on Linkedin viewed by recruiters/prospective employers?

Given that there is no way to determine the authenticity or sincerity of a recommendation what trust value is assigned to the various recommendations while sourcing profiles?

[spp-transcript]

How are recommendations on LinkedIn viewed by recruiters and prospective employers? Given that there is no way to determine the authenticity or validity of the recommendation, what trust value is assigned to the various recommendations that appear on profiles?

Great question!

I want to start by pointing out references are really no different and how are references looked at? They are looked at like a final verification. References have the same issue that’s being questioned about LinkedIn recommendations. I have had people try to pass off bogus references to me and you can just smell them a mile away.

So how are recommendations viewed? They may be looked at at several times during the process.

They can be looked at when people are sourcing on LinkedIn. Personally, I will read some and know pretty quickly whether or not the person really knows them. It’s pretty easy to spot. 1 of those, “Hey endorse me and I will endorse you” references that were prevalent a while back. I get those requests all the time from India and, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not in India so I have no way of judging someone who is working there. I don’t comply with those requests because, what am I going to say? She’s a really great person? He’s a really good guy? Those are really useless recommendations so why bother? What good is it going to do? Why would they believe me, in the US? You can look at the recommendations and break them down to one’s work, whether someone really knows the person, whether what is said is very thin , or whether there is substance there

We ignore thin references. The substantial ones provide a story in them about how you were the hero gets a higher weight in my mind.

Another way that they are look that is for quantity, as well as quality. For example, I have hundreds of recommendations from people who had been kind enough to write about my work, whether as a headhunter, or now as a coach, videographer, podcast or and the like. When you see hundreds of recommendations for someone verses 4, doesn’t that have a meaning for you? They look at it for quantity and, when they are pleasantly surprised by how many they find there, they will like that more.

How are LinkedIn recommendations look that? The same is references.

I mentioned that we would look at a couple of ways that they are look that. They are also look that when a company and its hiring manager are not sure. Maybe they have done an interview and the just not sure about something , they will go back into the work recommendations and see if there is something that speaks to them to confirm the bias or opinion that they have.

Lastly, they may use them as a reference substitute. I don’t expect to have that happen very often.

Clearly, during the sourcing process, they are looking at the quality of your recommendations, as well as quantity. During the process, to a lesser degree, they will look at them to confirm something or some opinion that they have about you and your work.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

How Do I Stay I Contact With My References During A Long Job Search

August 12, 2016 by Jeff

Q. References are important. How do you stay in contact with them?

[spp-transcript]

So the question is, “My job search is going to be a long one. How do I stay in contact with my references?”

This is an interesting question. So much of it reveals a lack of confidence on the part of the job hunter.

Now we don’t know what a long job search is to this job hunter but let’s accept this on face value. They know is going to be a long job search because they are a beginner or perhaps have antiquated skills that make them less marketable.

So first of all you’re going to need to do work to prevent this from being a long job search. There are skills you will need to learn or relearn in order to avoid it from taking as long as you fear. After all, you don’t want to be like a feather in the wind blowing from place to place. You want to be someone who is desirable marketable and is in command of your situation.

The next step is to stay in contact with your references on a limited basis, not an abusive basis. You write what seems to be a personal note instead of a BCC or bulk copy to a lot of people. Instead, copy and paste an individual message to individual people. It can be the same message but give the illusion that it is a personal individual message.

The subject line can read something like, “status update.”

The body of the message could read something like, “I’m not at a point in my search where I feel like I’m close to anything. I thought I would just ask you to keep this in your mind and if you hear about something that makes sense for me, reach out and let me know about it or give the recruiter my contact information to reach out to me directly.”

Send a note to them every 4 to 6 weeks – – that’s fine. You have to mention who your interviewing with of the number of firms you spoken with unless, of course, the person you’re writing to has contacts there or is a former employee.

Tell them you’re not at the point where you think you’re getting an offer but just wanted to stay in touch with them so that in case they do their of something they should feel free to reach out to you

[/spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Should I Ask My Boss For a Reference?

July 16, 2016July 14, 2016 by Jeff

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter answers a question from a viewer who wants to know whether he should ask his current boss for a reference given that he has worked for the same firm for 10 years.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Have a question you want me to answer? Contact me through PrestoExperts