Employer’s ‘insane’ ask during recruitment process slammed: ‘Beyond unreasonable’

An Aussie recruitment expert has hit out at a “beyond unreasonable” hurdle some employers are asking job seekers to jump through. Reference checks are an important part of the recruitment process and can help to confirm whether a candidate is right for the job.

Tammie Christofis Ballis, a recruiter and career coach at Realistic Careers, told Yahoo Finance two reference checks were generally the norm. So, she was shocked when one Aussie worker told her they were asked for five references when applying for a job.

“That’s insane. I can only think of one reason why they would want five reference checks and that’s maybe if the person has job hopped a lot,” Ballis said.

“You can’t be asking for that. How long do they want people to go back? Like 10 years?”

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She urged jobseekers to “absolutely” question the requirement and ask why they had to provide so many references.

“You don’t have to go through with the recruitment process if there’s anything that you don’t agree with. I know we’re in a tight job market,” she said.

“For some reason, younger people have this misconception that work is like school and you have to agree with everything. You don’t.

“If you don’t agree with what they’re doing in the recruitment process, you can pull out. You don’t owe anybody anything. If they ask for five references that is beyond unreasonable.”

Ballis noted it was “not uncommon” for recruiters to ask for a third reference if one of your references wasn’t up to scratch.

Are you a job seeker with a story to share? Contact tamika.seeto@yahooinc.com

‘Red flag’ for job applications

Ballis shared a video about the reference requirement online and said she was shocked to see other workers had applied for jobs where they were asked to provide as many as six references.

“I recently got asked for four references - it was a 12 month contract and they were paying minimum 10k less than the industry standard. I turned it down,” one wrote.

“I was asked for 6 references for an ADMIN INTERNSHIP job,” another added.

“I applied for a job that wanted six and when I provided two they emailed and said due to not enough references we are unable to process your application further,” a third said.

Another former recruiter agreed the ask was unreasonable, calling it “outrageous and a red flag”.

Aussies told not to put references on resumes

Ballis recommended job seekers don’t include their references on their resume when applying for private sector jobs.

“If you put your references on your resume, you’re giving permission for the reader or interviewer to prematurely call them,” Ballis told Yahoo Finance.

“People will have off-the-record conversations with references before you’ve even interviewed for a job. That’s very dangerous.”

Ballis said some recruiters would also “reverse-market” to reference checks and try to sell them their recruitment services.

She recommended people include a short sentence on their resume advising that references were “available upon request”.

“[This] lets them know that you do have them but you’re not willing to give that information over until you’re the preferred candidate, or until you’ve done the interview and they’ve asked,” she said.

Who do I put as references on my resume?

Resume references are the people that will advocate for you and speak to your performance and who you are in the workplace. They are typically your managers and sometimes colleagues.

Ballis said it was usually best to not include your current manager unless you had an “amazing relationship with them” and they were supportive of you leaving the company.

“You can use people that have left the business, you can use people from previous jobs as long as they’ve managed you, supervised you and you’ve taken instructions from them and they’ve watched your career progression,” she said.

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