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Resume Reference Selection - A Process That Can Help or Hurt

Your resume reference is a double edged sword. Wise selection and use can lend credibility to your claims and provide independent supplementary evidence that your claims are valid. How much better does it get?

Yet, just like so many things, a poor choice can destroy your chance of even getting your job. With so much at stake, this part of your resume submission also needs your utmost attention.

Who knows how many times a carefully wordsmithed resume, and a superb interview have been trashed because a reference could not back up claims that seemed otherwise convincing, and wound up destroying an otherwise flawless process.

On this page, my goal is to help you understand some of the important factors in selecting and working with your references in your employment process.

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Resume Reference - Finding References Who Will Be Effective

There are generally two categories of references important to resume writers - Professional references and Personal or Character references. In some industries, business references are also required, including credit checks.

Personal references are usually the easiest to obtain. Try to find a person who is well-known and respected who knows you well enough to serve as a character reference.

While it is good to choose someone well known to you, the reference may have more weight to it if the person writing your reference also either carries some highly respected credential or is well known and respected by the person reviewing your resume.

Sometimes this is a difficult thing to determine, but the way to think about this is to think in terms of a believability or credibility quotient. It's not just about getting someone well known in your own circle of friends, but someone to whom the potential employer is likely to lend credence.

While this is an easy concept to understand, it is sometimes more difficult to accomplish. One of the ways to do this is by networking and/or doing some basic research.

Go to places where the decision maker you seek to influence is known, and get acquainted. Find out what groups the person has joined. See if people you know are also members of that group. Try to establish links between your group of supporters and your potential boss's group of partners, acquaintances, associates, friends and/or family.

The point is to try to find a back door connection with someone respected by your potential employer who can legitimately say some good things about you. Check out professional associations first, because that is the most important kind of reference you will need. Look for

• business associates
• civic organizations
• fraternities
• sororities, or
• other types of groups

your potential employer may endorse.

If you are unable to establish connections with professional peers of your potential employer, try to establish connections with the most well respected persons in your industry who know you well enough to speak for you.

Think in terms of degree of influence the person is likely to exert if they said something about you. You want the most influential persons and the most influential comments from your references you can get. The factors that affect influence have to do with source credibility, and content.

What establishes source credibility?

• The degree of knowledge the person has about the industry
• the degree of knowledge the person has about the factors that apply to your job performance, skills, accomplishments, job knowledge, work ethic, character, etc.
• the sort of reputation the person has
• how articulate your reference is
• the intensity of your resume reference's support for you

- all this goes to source credibility and degree of impact the reference is likely to exert on your behalf.

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