PI in the Sky – Paul Irvine

We’ve all been there, right? You have an applicant for a job, and you are taking up references.  If the applicant has half a brain, then you will be given references that are the best they can summon.  If you do the usual “what can you tell me about Joe?” or even the more searching “How did Joe Engineer interact with the sales team?”, you still won’t get solid answers because those questions are easy to deflect with generic ‘really good’ responses.

Here’s how I get the answers I want…

Instead, ask the reference about the project team the applicant worked in, and drill to some specific other project roles, not just the applicants role.  “so Joe was the main project lead? What was your role?”.  The referee is now responding about their own role in relation to those projects success. This usually sheds a different light. Your goal here is for the referee to disclose their own project accomplishments, which your applicant may be taking credit for.

You can also lead off with a feint question which isn’t quite according to the applicant’s resume, but is close, such as “So Joe was the technical architect?”  “Oh no… he was the project lead, but Dennis was really the designer and architect”.  The only advantage you possibly have in getting to a real understanding of the applicants abilities, when discussing with an applicant provided reference, is that you have the applicant’s resume in front of you, and you know what has been claimed.  The reference usually does not!

It’s not entrapment, or trickery, you are just trying to elicit the facts from the claims.  The reference won’t even know whether he has confirmed or contradicted the resume, and you should not indicate either way.  Assess each reference’s responses in a balanced manner with other reference responses and make your judgment.

Calling references is never a ‘rubber stamp’ even if it is right at the end of the interview process.