Welcome to the Job References Hub! Struggling to find a solid reference? You’re in the right place. Post your request, and others in the community can step in to be your reference.
This is a space to share, support, and help each other succeed in the job search. Let’s get started—post your request and let the community help!
Huh.
So Imma ask what I hope others would agree is as obvious a question as my bran thinks it is.
Lemmy is the sort of place where lots of people who don’t know each other at all go, right? And generally when asking for a reference, you’re asking people who know you and preferably have something to say about your character or past work to be your reference, right? And the reference is expected to either write a letter of recommendation or be ready during a certain period of time to receive a call and speak about the potential employee’s character or past work, right?
So, for this community are you envisioning people giving references for folks who they know IRL? Or for people they know pretty well as fellow users of Lemmy go? Or not at all? Are you envisioning references spending time getting to know the potential employee so they can give a reasonable reference? Or maybe are you envisioning the reference being honest about barely even knowing the potential employee’s name? Or is this community more like “hey, if anyone would be willing to lie to help me get a job, that’d be great”?
Honestly, I’ve never been asked to be a reference and I haven’t often needed one. So full disclosure, I kinda don’t know much about how these things work.
I have the same questions/concerns. I have been a reference for a few friends both for jobs and for personal things (pet adoptions, apartment applications, etc). While some job references are literally “did this person work with you at xyz company during these dates” most are looking for more. They want a somewhat more in depth feel for if the person is trustworthy, has experience they say they do, and if they will fit into the team that is looking at hiring them. Personal references often want an even deeper understanding. These are not things anyone could honestly give about a stranger on the internet they don’t know. At best this would go unquestioned by a hitting manger, but for anything other than a true entry level job (and even many of those), it’s likely a fake reference like this would lead to more questions by the manger or would lead to someone getting a job they aren’t actually qualified for or don’t actually vibe with the team they are working with. At the least this is clearly dishonest. It shouldn’t be that hard to find a coworker or friend to be a reference for you. If you really, truly cannot find a single soul you actually know that would be willing to spend 5-10 minutes on a call to help you out you ships probably work on that instead of asking random internet strangers to “do you a solid”. Shoot, you can even use folks you are friends with through online services. Maybe you play a game with the same few people all the time, or you are super active on a forum somewhere, or even super active here on Lemmy. Reaching out to users you know and discussing in private the details would be better than just hoping someone will lie for you.
Hey, thx for the great points. I’m in the IT field and have given and requested refs many dozens of times legitimately. I would say from all those calls the same questions come up over and over. More recently, due to legal reasons, I’d say the calls have become very basic and short. Every so often, there will be an inquisitive HR/recruiter, but after 20 years of IT, it’s never a problem. As for giving refs via communities like Lemmy, Reddit, etc., I did that myself the 1st time due to not wanting my current employer to know and being 1 short of the typical 3 refs requested because of last-minute ghosting. I ended up finding someone on Reddit, did a quid pro quo, and it went great. After that, I continued to participate, giving another 6 refs or so successfully. One guy has reached out to me about once a year, which is typical for IT. I eventually switched to gig work and at one point needed 9 refs total for 3 bids. I ended up using a combo of legit, old, and new Reddit refs, and a website service. I never heard anything negative from anyone and got 2 of the 3 bids. Anyway, I think you raised some great points, and skepticism is the best approach when connecting with someone. I also think my perspective is distorted because my world is corporate IT. However, due to observation over 4 years in various communities, it appears people have been successful in other fields as well. You also had a great point when you said, “Reaching out to users you know and discussing in private the details would be better than just hoping someone will lie for you.” Typically, these communities are for doing exactly that, meeting new people, getting to know them via communication, skills, bio exchanges, and then helping each other out. Thx for your input, take care!
My experiences are all in IT as well, but are likely skewed as the security requirements for my current position require a lot deeper investigation that strangers on the internet not only couldn’t fulfill, but going that route would confidently cause me to lose my job due to not being able to pass the extensive background investigation. I’ve mostly writhed in federal government positions as a contractor so this experience is normal to me, when working in a position of trust, being paid out of tax dollars and with access/cognizance over sensitive systems that must be kept secure for the security of everyone, intrusive and through investigations are par for the course.
Glad you mentioned this. I need to do a post on the topic. Certain positions or fields don’t align with this community. I’ve seen positions like yours posted in certain threads, which makes me question the sanity of the poster. Fortunately, they are usually ignored or deleted. And from what I’ve seen, no service handles these positions as they are excluded in the terms. This type of community is geared towards entry and mid level positions. Most users, like you, understand this. I’ll post on this and ensure such requests are removed from the thread. Thanks for the input!
Hey, great question. First off, I’d like to say this community’s main purpose is to offer an alternative to the functionality found on Reddit r/JobReferences and other threads or social media that are similar. More directly to your question, based on my observations and experience of that thread and others, I believe it is a combination of everything you asked about. In some cases, you have people in the same fields building quick relationships and helping each other quid pro quo. Some are entry-level jobs where young people need a name and number. Many have gaps due to their health or a family members, pregnancy, mental health break, or other legitimate reasons and need a hand in a competitive market. Some are looking to help others. As for my experience, I’m an IT gig worker and constantly need references. From a combination of my refs not answering to feeling bad for badgering my refs, I started seeking alternatives and have used them successfully. And personally, over 20 years, I’ve grown to dislike the barriers corporations add to get a job and enjoyed seeing communities help each other with those issues. Hopefully, that answered your question. Take care!
There are people out there who genuinely try to help others out with providing a reference - probably something that gets discussed outside of a general post like this (saw something similar mentioned on Reddit or maybe it was twitter years ago?), however there are also those who seem to take either take a payment for it or provide a half-assed reference.
I had an experience with requesting a reference for a hire we needed to urgently get onboard. Took it upon myself to keep chasing them for response (HR was useless in the company). And despite being seemingly provided three different people to contact (different names, numbers in different parts of country), this clown had one and the same person giving a very simple repetitive answer. Now you can expect references to sound similar, but if you’re not gonna bother changing your voice (or asking different people to provide ref) at least make sure not to use the exact same uncommon phrase like an idiot.
I myself provided a reference to former colleagues before, written being easier as you get to think about what you want to say. Over the phone being but of a PITA, especially if they have specific questions and you don’t necessarily have a good answer.
Regarding your points, you’re correct in pointing out communities like this have existed on Reddit, X, other social media platforms, and services on the web for a while. I also agree that everyone must be very skeptical when connecting. Any normal person should be thinking, “Is it a good idea to get a ref from the internet?” I certainly did. In all my cases using these communities, I spoke with the people I ended up using via chat, VoIP, and exchanged info after feeling confident. I had some ghosting, but the peeps I did talk with, it quickly became obvious they were solid IT, after which we’d declare what we needed and exchange info. The last person I helped was a woman with a 4-year gap and was in IT data entry. She posted she wasn’t getting any calls because of the gap. I reached out and we came up with a way to resolve that. However, I’m very aware my positive experiences are tiny compared to all the activity that has taken place in all the communities. It must be assumed people have had bad experiences. I also assume that since these communities have existed for quite some time, with much positive feedback from many, the good outweighs the bad. I’ll do my best to monitor for suspicious activity in this community and act accordingly. Thx for the post, take care!
