hey guys ecrg here back with another episode today I've got a great great
episode for you one that I feel like isn't really talked about enough but a
lot of people have been putting on the bottom of their resumes when I'm
reviewing them is you know references available upon request and it finally
occurred to me that I should make an episode on how to best select your
references so these are my tips these are my criteria and I've got three of
them here for you today on how to best select your references for the best
outcome now references are usually called or checked at the end of the
interview process they're not checked in the beginning usually so this is after
they're preparing to offer you the job they probably already offered you the
job but it's contingent on a reference check just to make sure the things
you've said the experience you have checks out so what I like to do
basically is you know I have a few criteria here and well and we'll go
through them so basically you want to keep in mind that this is at the end of
the application process the end of the interview the interviewing is already
done and all that stuff so this is this happens at the end so
first what they're gonna ask for is about two to three references that they
can contact via email or phone and they're gonna ask them a few questions
now I'll make another episode on what those questions typically are that they
ask but they're the basic questions there's a few things that they cannot
ask you know like your salary and things like that but there are a few base
questions they basically just aren't asking the person you know what capacity
did you work with them or for them how are you as an employee where they hire
you again etc etc but that would be a different topic but my first criteria
for selecting references is and this may sound simple and kind of dumb but you
want to hire people that are gonna give you a good reference a really good
reference you don't want to have you don't want to tell people that you put
them down as references if they're gonna give you a bad reference and this is a
mistake that a lot of people actually make
where they get they just you know they a the employee the upcoming employer wants
some references so they just put down some people and they don't really stop
to think that okay I need to actually put someone down as a reference who can
give me a good reference or you can tell what to say about you and the reference
conversation that they have with the hiring manager so that's number one
you want to make sure that they can give you a good reference and although it
sounds simple it is it has cost people jobs so you want to make sure it's
actually done the second thing that I like to keep in mind when giving when
selecting references is you want to put down people that can offer different
sides of how you worked so one good rule of thumb is you want to give a boss
someone who has managed you worked with you as has their employee and then a
colleague because your dynamic is gonna be different someone who's on the same
who's on the same level as you versus someone who is technically over you and
that you report to so those are gonna offer different sides of you and there's
gonna be good for the recruiter or hiring manager whoever is reaching out
to them to you know basically give a more complete picture of what you're
like to work with so that's one of the things I like to do is a boss and a
colleague and one good thing about the colleague that I like is typically
you're gonna be friends with them or you're gonna be a little bit closer to
them then you are with your past boss you know all things considered so you
can kind of tell them you know what to say or you know they're pretty gonna be
pretty much gonna be really really kind and you're they're definitely gonna be
in your corner so that's gonna be something easy that you that you can
think about and one of the reasons why I like the colleague because they offer a
unique perspective when it cut as opposed to the boss and they're gonna
pretty much give you a good review the next thing that I like to you know for
my tips are you want to make sure that the people that are giving references
are have have pertinent skills and positions to what you're up
for so if you had a number of jobs in the past let's say you worked at
McDonald's let's say you worked as a nurse after that let's say you worked in
a laboratory and let's say you know you were an aircraft mechanic just all
random jobs and you're applying for clinical research of course
so naturally you'd want to select people that were that you worked with while you
were nurse and maybe that worked for you work with you while you were working in
a laboratory doing research because those are most pertinent now even though
the people you work with at McDonald's and the people you worked with an
airplane those are you know those are perfectly fine references also if the
other if the other ones weren't there but the fact that the other two are
science-based and kind of related / correlated to clinical research
definitely helps out and I think would definitely give the employer deployer or
whoever's doing the reference check a vote of confidence that your skills are
what they say they are and you definitely want to make sure that you're
choosing more of the recent references too you don't want to call give
references from like 20 years ago or something like that
or references from your like summer job when you're in middle school or
something like that you definitely want to on the side of more recent and
definitely more pertinent if possible like I said if you're trying to get into
clinical research definitely any of the science positions you've had in the past
are great and we're great as references so those aren't those are my three tips
for selecting references that I like to kind of use and you know after a few
years in the job market you may end up using the same references over and over
again and that's fine if the people are willing to give you good references and
clearly if you get the job they're giving you good references that's
something to think about so I think people tend to use the same
references over and over because they're comfortable referring you so why
wouldn't you why would you fix fix what's not
broken so those are my tips for selecting references when it comes to
the clinical research industry hope that was helpful I know a lot of people may
have questions about this and you know some people that haven't had much job
experience you don't really have much choice and you know that that makes
sense but if after you're a few years maybe you've had a couple jobs in the
industry it should be a little bit easier to select your references and
then eventually you know 5 10 years in the industry you're basically just gonna
be using your friends for references because you're gonna have built up such
a network and have worked in the industry so long you're basically just
gonna be using your friends references you know bosses colleagues after you've
moved on from John to job you're gonna be using they're gonna
become your friends colleagues and connections so it'll be kind of like a
you scratch my back I'll scratch yours you may even end up as a reference for
them especially once you get to a manager level it can be very very cool
to list one of your former employees as a reference so they can comment on how
you were as a manager and vice versa so those are my tips guys as always if
you're interested in getting your resume reviewed elite clinical group at
gmail.com for any inquiries you may have interview prep same email address guys
take care