{"id":24601,"date":"2024-02-15T03:59:30","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T03:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/?p=24601"},"modified":"2024-02-15T04:19:10","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T04:19:10","slug":"how-to-pick-a-fantastic-referee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/how-to-pick-a-fantastic-referee\/","title":{"rendered":"How to pick a fantastic referee"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Traditional reference checking is still an important component of a recruitment process.<\/span><\/h3>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #bccd30;\"><br \/>\nWhy are references conducted?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Candidates during an interview process are naturally keen to present the best version of themselves to a potential employer. A reference provided by a third party helps to provide context and further insight. Just as you are likely to do your due diligence regarding a new employer, they will be keen to do the same when it comes to their new employee. A reference is simply another tool utilised in conjunction with the interview and any additional testing, to assess whether you are likely to be a good fit for each other.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #bccd30;\"><br \/>\nProfessional references serve to:<\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Verify your employment history such as dates of employment; position title; responsibilities; reasons for leaving<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Give information on how well you meet the requirements of the new role\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Explore softer skills like being able to work autonomously or in teams and handle times of pressure<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Help the new employer understand areas for technical or personal development<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enable a new employer to predict future behaviour by focusing on a candidate&#8217;s actions and the outcomes achieved in a specific situation<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In my experience, many candidates struggle when it comes to selecting appropriate people to act as referees for them during the recruitment process. Here are a few thoughts from Lawson Delaney on selecting your referees:<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span style=\"color: #bccd30;\"><br \/>\nWho should you use as a referee?<\/span><\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unless your potential employer has requested a \u2018character reference\u2019, <strong>your referees should be those who have supervised you or who have held more senior positions than you<\/strong>, within a professional capacity. The exception to this may be when you are moving to a role requiring leadership of others and a reference from someone you have been responsible for or coached may be relevant.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes a peer reference may be requested, for example, if you have worked in teams or on a project together, however <strong>they must have had significant interaction with you to be able to answer specific questions regarding your work history, performance, communication, and work ethic<\/strong>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ideally, <strong>your referees should be people who you worked with recently<\/strong> &#8211; your last place of employment is the most appropriate but this is not essential. For example, if you worked in another field most recently but a role prior to this was more similar to the prospective role, providing a referee from each may be a good idea.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #bccd30;\"><br \/>\nA few other points of note<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Keep relationships current<\/strong> &#8211; many candidates advise that they have fallen out of touch with their potential referees.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you embark upon a job search process, make sure you have given prior thought about who you will be able to use as a referee.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make sure you <strong>ask the permission of someone before you list them as a referee<\/strong> and ensure you have their current contact details. Both an email and a telephone number are ideal. If possible, give your referee a little information about the role you are applying for and some background on why you are looking for a new role so it is not a surprise to them.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You are unlikely to be asked to provide a referee from your current workplace unless you have already resigned from the position or you can find someone appropriate to whom you have disclosed your job search on a confidential basis.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some employers have a policy where they will not allow a verbal or a written reference to be provided but will provide a statement verifying the dates of your employment and position title. In this situation, <strong>you may be able to request a \u2018character reference\u2019<\/strong> from someone from within the company as an alternative.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>You do not need to provide the names and contact details of referees on your resume<\/strong>. Feel free to state that you have referees available upon request. You can also ask that referees are not contacted without your knowledge\/permission. This is a reasonable request which helps to protect your confidentiality until necessary.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Try and leave employers on good terms &#8211; you never know when you will need to call on them for a reference in the future!<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For more information how put your best foot forward or to discuss the market and roles that are currently available, please contact us on\u00a0<a href=\"tel:0399467300\"><strong>03 9946 7300<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<strong><a href=\"mailto:support@lawsondelaney.com.au?subject=Accountant%Networking\">support@lawsondelaney.com.au<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Lawson Delaney is a leading executive search and professional recruitment firm based in Melbourne. We specialise in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/services\/executive-search\/\">recruiting CEOs and leadership teams<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/services\/accounting-firm-recruitment\/\">accountants of all seniorities for Accounting firms<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Traditional reference checking is still an important component of a recruitment process. Why are references conducted? Candidates during an interview process are naturally keen to present the best version of themselves to a potential employer. A reference provided by a third party helps to provide context and further insight. Just as you are likely to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":24604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[92,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-candidate","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24601"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24606,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24601\/revisions\/24606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/24604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}