If the reference gives you an answer that is a little cliché - say, “Pat works too hard” or “they care too much” - find out what’s underneath it. The question may also help you determine whether Pat is coachable.
#Couple pose reference how to#
As Pat’s prospective manager, you need to know how to make Pat successful in a new role. What are Pat’s biggest weaknesses? Is there any area where they would need additional support in their first 90 days? You’ll also have a chance to see how the response lines up with Pat’s self-assessment, which may offer a clue to Pat’s self-awareness and allow you to calibrate other answers. The answer to this question will allow you to calibrate your impressions - based on Pat’s resume, interviews, and work samples - with those of someone who has worked alongside Pat. Ask them to use a 1-to-10 scale and only allow them to give you a 10 on one of them in order to get a more realistic picture.
To understand which of these things would be Pat’s strength - and which would be a weakness - have your reference rate Pat on each of the competencies you list. “This is an opportunity for you to get a third party’s perspective on the candidate’s potential skill match for the position you are hiring,” says Sean Falconer, the former CTO and founder of Proven who is now staff developer advocate and developer relations manager at Google. For this position, we need someone who can _. They are a chance to better understand the qualities and skills Pat brings, particularly if Pat’s a humble or introverted person who may have struggled selling themselves during your interviews. It's also a reminder that reference checks are not simply a “gotcha” exercise to catch candidates in a fib or exaggeration.
To some extent, this is a softball question to further relax the reference and to validate, again, claims Pat made in interviews. Did Pat have any major accomplishments while working for you? Make sure you find out how closely and regularly Pat and the reference worked together. Find out when they worked together and for how long, and check on Pat’s title and responsibilities. To start things off, give Pat’s former manager a chance to get comfortable and to start verifying what Pat has already told you. Tell me about how you and Pat worked together Here are the questions you should consider asking: 1. None of your conversations will get back to the candidate (let’s call that person Pat). Once you have an ex-manager on the phone, make sure to tell them that all of their answers, no matter how glowing or how glaring, will be kept in absolute confidence. Once you have the right person on the phone, ask questions that will reveal truly useful information The candidate has well-established relationships with any references, who may be much more willing to chat if they believe they can help a former colleague by doing them a favor. In addition, your candidate may be the ideal person to set up your reference calls. This is a fair request, and the way your candidates respond - are they helpful or evasive? - may be a critical clue to what kind of employee they might be.
If that’s the case, ask to talk to a manager from a previous role. Understandably, they may not want you talking to their current boss if their new job search is a secret. Instead of having candidates give you a list of their reference choices, ask them to include the names and phone numbers of their former managers on their application. Talk to the right people: Have your candidates help you reach out to their former managers So to help you get more out of this process, we’ve done our research and laid out who are the best references to talk to and the best questions to ask when checking references to get the information you need. But when reference checks are done right, they can be hugely helpful and be the difference between hiring the right or wrong person.