No job offer after reference check
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inglorius
Posts: 158 Forumite
I was looking for some advice please, I recently was invited back for 2nd interview by a large American organisation for a managerial role. At the end of the interview with the European Operations Director he said he was going to instruct his deputy to seek job references from my previous employers.
A week later and the HR function chased me to say that none of my referees had responded yet; when I contacted my referees again they all said no one had been in touch but they would be expecting contact. A week later HR phoned again to say that my application was not going to be progressed as they had decided that I didn't have as much experience as they wanted in an aspect of the role as the job requirements had now changed.
Am I right to be deeply suspicious about this; I asked HR why they had asked to contact my references after 2 interviews knowing my job experience from the beginning and why suddenly my experience was deemed to be invalid. HR stated that the decision wasn't based on the feedback from my references and that they hadn't ultimately been able to make contact with them; they couldn't explain why they would ask for references and then not bother to use them.
Any thoughts on this please would be gratefully appreciated
A week later and the HR function chased me to say that none of my referees had responded yet; when I contacted my referees again they all said no one had been in touch but they would be expecting contact. A week later HR phoned again to say that my application was not going to be progressed as they had decided that I didn't have as much experience as they wanted in an aspect of the role as the job requirements had now changed.
Am I right to be deeply suspicious about this; I asked HR why they had asked to contact my references after 2 interviews knowing my job experience from the beginning and why suddenly my experience was deemed to be invalid. HR stated that the decision wasn't based on the feedback from my references and that they hadn't ultimately been able to make contact with them; they couldn't explain why they would ask for references and then not bother to use them.
Any thoughts on this please would be gratefully appreciated
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I'm job-hunting at the moment and have found that some employers don't seem to have liaised between departments to decide what they really want from an applicant.
Sometimes and ad will ask for skills x and y, plus a bit of z, but when you get to interview, it turns out the job will be mostly z with occasional if any x and y, so anyone who applied thinking the ad reflected the job on offer now doesn't fit the employer's requirements.
I do wish those who will be the job holder's actual bosses would talk to HR about what they want, that HR would tell the bosses the requirements HR have and that whoever writes the advertisement is someone who actually understands the role and makes sure the ad accurately describes the role and requirements.
Although your scenario could be viewed as suspicious, if you have a good relationship with your referees and have no reason to believe they'd say anything unfavourable, I'd be more likely to believe the potential employer was just disorganised in its recruitment process and that yes, they did change the job spec at the last minute. Maybe they missed something from the original job spec or maybe another candidate had a skill they hadn't originally considered, but they realised they could add it to the job spec?
SWSWSWN!0 -
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Deleted_User wrote: »No. Requirements change. Plans change. Additional thoughts enter the mix.
They may have pursued two or three candidates and then made a final decision.
You didn't make the cut this time, but there will be another time.
It was fedback that I was the only person in the process. What makes me suspicious is that I was interviewed against the same job profile I was subsequently told had now changed. My belief is that they received negative feedback from a referee but is less messy to admit that and proffer another reason.0 -
Maybe it was just one person playing bad cop and haltering plans. Could you SAR them or least find a 'professional mate' to contact your previous employers?
I'm finding an awful lot of jobs sadly re-advertised myself (proper jobs, we're not talking min wage types or the quick start varieties here either but ones that involved some thought) that I know I only saw end of June/July time. It's all very bizarre.
1 job advertised in June with it's '3 week panel sift' alone now appears to be 2k more even now with same job description what just 4 months on!0 -
It was fedback that I was the only person in the process. What makes me suspicious is that I was interviewed against the same job profile I was subsequently told had now changed. My belief is that they received negative feedback from a referee but is less messy to admit that and proffer another reason.
Your belief is nothing without proof, even with proof there's little you can do. A SAR won't help you, if anything negative has been put forward you can bet it will not be included in their response.
You've nothing to gain by pursuing this. Time to let it go.0 -
BorisThomson wrote: »Your belief is nothing without proof, even with proof there's little you can do. A SAR won't help you, if anything negative has been put forward you can bet it will not be included in their response.
You've nothing to gain by pursuing this. Time to let it go.
Fair comment. My only concern going forward would be that if references were an issue this time then they will be an issue next time, not sure how I can circumnavigate this problem?0 -
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You assume it was a referee playing bad cop, however, if(!) they heard anything negative (do you have reasons to believe they may have, i.e. is there anything truthful that has happened?) it may not have been a referee but someone else they spoke to.
Depending on the town/industry it's a small world sometimes - I worked in a city, in three different towns and in different industries but found that, at my last three jobs, someone senior or the hiring manager informally spoke to someone we both knew either before or after the interview. So easy these days0 -
Fair comment. My only concern going forward would be that if references were an issue this time then they will be an issue next time, not sure how I can circumnavigate this problem?
Their HR dept say they didn't manage to contact your referees and your two referees say they weren't contacted. So you must conclude there was no contact and references weren't the problem.:)0 -
Fair comment. My only concern going forward would be that if references were an issue this time then they will be an issue next time, not sure how I can circumnavigate this problem?
It's thunderously unlikely that you would have got a bad comment from any referee without having any inkling who it was or what it was about.
So, do you have reason to suspect any of the referees likely to have been contacted (not people you named, anyone likely to have been contacted from your last few years of work history) would have given you a bad reference?0
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