References Recommendations, Referrals – allies in your Job Search?

References, Recommendations, Referrals – allies in your job
Search?

1. References are about your Past, what you did and how you faced challenges in the Past. These would include your network, college professors ex Colleagues, even your boss, other senior people with whom you have worked closely, your Alumni network.

They are vouching for your previous achievements, awards, voluntary work, internship, any positions you held in professional or co-curricular activities eg President of club in College, etc

2.Recommendations refer to your Present work.  They are generally written more formally, by clients, colleagues, happy customers. It’s the feedback on the work you do and how it impacts lives.

Recommendations give credibility to you as a professional. Often lead potential customers to assess your professional services and evaluate outcomes.

They may even vouch for your character traits, personality and culture fit.

3.Referrals are about your Future potential. There is a third party sponsoring and vouching for your future potential – what you could be doing in the future, your potential for growth. What would you be doing in say the next 3-5 years.

How you would perform if you were to selected, what you bring to the table. What value can you add to the Company, what pain points and challenges the Company is facing, which you can help to ameliorate.

Many companies have an internal referral system. This has many benefits.

It saves the Company valuable time and resources spent in the recruitment process. This is a great way of not disclosing a job posting, in case there are some sensitivities around acquisitions and mergers etc.

It also has immense benefits to the candidate. It assures an interview and a chance to showcase your candidature.

An internal referral has a 10x chance of being called for interview and 15 times better chance of being selected.

The person referring also stands to gain – usually a sort of ‘incentive’ which is equal to one month’s salary of the joinee.

References, Recommendations, Referrals are not just flattery. They can change the trajectory of your job search.

The caveat is: the importance of being intentional about Who to Ask, When to Ask and How to Ask.

How to follow-up on a request, without sounding pesky. Be professional and polite, but don’t sound desperate.

We tend to use the words References, Recommendations and Referrals synonymously.
The fact is that there are distinct differences.

Use references, recommendations and referrals judiciously to your advantage.

The 3 Rs come with a 4th R – Relevance. Ask for refernces, recommendations, and referrals from relevant people, whose words would carry weight, and who are experts in the industry.