by Nicole Selley

Created on: November 04, 2011

Most employers will ask you for references at some stage of your application process. That’s not surprising as recruiting new staff is a costly and time consuming exercise and recruiting the wrong person is even costlier. Employers therefore want and need to know if the information you provided is correct, e.g. if your recent work experience you claimed is true and how your previous employers rated your performance.

Whilst previous employers cannot provide negative references by law it is still very insightful if previous employers refuse to give a reference or praise you.

The question if you should give your prospective new employer contacts who can provide references is therefore easily answered. There is no doubt that you will need to do so and refusing to provide contacts for references will result in you not getting the job. However, the more intricate question is “When?”.

Some employers will ask for references to be supplied with your initial job application. If references are clearly asked for you should always provide them. Of course you are worried that your current employer is contacted for a reference before you handed in your notice or told them that you are looking for a new job, but it would be very unusual and unprofessional for a recruiting company to do so prior to offering you the job subject to the references being obtained. If you are worried, you can always add a disclaimer that the references cannot be requested prior to discussing this with you.

If the recruiting company does not ask you for references it is completely up to you if you provide these. It is quite likely that the employer will ask you to complete some type of application form at some stage and will request references at that time. As a general guidance it is advisable to provide references if they have been requested. If they have not been asked for the employer will follow his own processes and will likely ask you for them when they are ready, no matter if you provided them beforehand or not. However, if you feel that you provide more complete information by providing the reference information straight away, there is no harm done in doing so.

In some countries, e.g. Germany it used to be common practise to include actual written references in your job application. However, this is now less common due to the increase of online applications and in most countries employers prefer obtaining fresh references using their own forms.

As a rule of thumb you can follow this advice: If the recruiter asks for reference details, you must provide them. If they don’t ask for them, it is a personal decision if you want to provide them at this stage of the application. You should always be aware though of the details of individuals you would like to be contacted for references so that you can react quickly if an employer asks you to provide these.

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