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Chris Scanlon is a recruiter at Digital Artist Management (DAM), the largest agency dedicated to the career advancement of artistic and technical professionals in the video game and interactive entertainment space. For more information, please visit www.digitalartistmanagement.com.

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In today’s information age, it is not uncommon for companies to run background checks prior to extending an offer. Even more common (and almost the rule), hiring managers will want to speak with your previous supervisors and co-workers to assess your suitability for their position. Since a formal offer will most likely hinge on a successful reference check, keep the following points in mind so you don’t let that opportunity for career progression pass you by.

Who do you ask to be a reference?

The ideal set of references should include at least one current or former superior, one peer, and one subordinate. The objective of reference checking is to provide the prospective employer with more than one perspective on your job performance. How one interacts with a superior may or may not be the same as the way one interacts with a co-worker or a subordinate.

Once individuals have been identified, it’s equally important to ask each of them, directly, if they will serve as a reference for you. There’s no point in providing the names of appropriate references who don’t know they’re likely to receive a call from a prospective employer. Implicit in the exercise of asking is making sure that those who you’ve asked to be a reference will, in fact, be willing to respond to the prospective employer’s questions when they’re called (within one business day).

Lastly, do not pick close friends or relatives. Employers want information on how you perform in the workplace. If the only people who can vouch for you are your close friends and immediate family, you may need to take a long hard look in the mirror.

Is there a time frame for reference selection?

One of the most common misconceptions is that …references can only include current co-workers. That’s not true at all. Moreover, there will be many instances where you don’t necessarily want a superior to know that you’re involved in a job search. References, therefore, should be individuals with whom you’ve worked in the last five to seven years. Going back much farther than that really begins to become a test of memory when it comes to specifics about job performance. While your list can include current references, it’s also important to remember that appropriate references can include retired individuals with whom you’ve worked in the past, as well as those who have taken other jobs or who have moved to other areas within an organization. The ultimate point is their willingness to serve as a reference for you.

What do reference checks tend to cover?

While it may seem obvious, job performance-based reference checking tends to focus more on “soft” skills than technical expertise. Being able to identify specific job responsibilities and the ability to carry them out is fundamental, but qualities like management style, interpersonal relations, the ability to lead, the ability to work effectively as a member of a team, problem-solving skills, and the ability to think critically tend to be more important in the employee-selection process than one’s technical prowess or artistic flair.

How do you prepare references to speak on your behalf?

The most fundamental principle involved in serving as a reference is the clear understanding that only questions relating to actual job performance should be answered. If a prospective employer asks any questions that have no bearing on overall job performance, references should be asked to politely decline to respond to them. What you do on your own time is none of the prospective employer’s business unless it impacts your job performance. It would also be wise to remind references to limit their responses to the questions asked and not to editorialize about peripheral subjects not related to your job performance. In other words, references should be advised to answer appropriate questions candidly and completely, but not to stray too far from the subject of each question.

The following list is fairly comprehensive and provides a good foundation for the types of questions your reference might expect to encounter:

• “Can you describe your work relationship with this candidate?”
• “How would you describe him/her?”
• “What was he/she like to manage/work with?”
• “In what areas did he/she excel? What was his/her strongest attribute?”
• “How was he/she perceived by clients/peers/management/team?”
• “What excited him/her most about his/her job?”
• “How about his/her problem-solving ability?”
• “How was his/her work ethic?”
• “Given the opportunity, would you rehire him/her?”
• “If you had to choose one weakness, what would it be?”

Honest references vs. good references?

Many job seekers (especially a more junior candidate) might think it’s important for their references to only say great things about them. That’s simply wrong. The far better approach is to encourage references to provide honest answers about past job performance. Why? In the same way that you would not want your references to lie and say you performed poorly when, in fact, you did well, you should not want them to say you did a great job at something about which you really know very little. The result of overstating job performance could easily lead to being offered a job for which you’re really not qualified and at which you very well could fail — which is not a good career move. The idea behind reference checking is to make sure you’re right for the job and that the job is right for you.

More importantly, none of us is perfect! For a reference to suggest that you were perfect in all situations casts doubt on the honesty of the reference and can actually hurt your candidacy rather than help it. Honesty, in the final analysis, is always the best policy when providing reference information.

While this is not intended to be an exhaustive list of tips for your references, it does cover the basics of who to ask, the time-frame within which they should have known you, general types of questions your references should expect, how to be an effective reference, and why being honest is better than just saying “good” things about you.

If you have stories or advice on this topic that you’d like to share based on your experience, I’d enjoy hearing from you!

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