Allow potential employer to contact referees before interview?

wantsajob

Just had an interview offer :j and employer asked my permission to contact the referees prior to interview. ISTR the same question was on the application form, and I answered no. Reason being, I would hate my referees to end up have their phone turning into a hotline for people requesting my reference all the time, when they have better things to do. I would much prefer a reference was only taken if there was a more realistic chance of a job offer, than an interview alone. The job is in an academic environment, and the references are both academic.

Should I:
a) explain along these lines to employer?
b) just say I would prefer references were sought after interview if needed?
c) allow them anyway?

TIA

Dunroamin

Many organisations won't interview you without first gaining a reference, particularly in educational settings where it's normal to be offered the job immediately after the interviews.

ktothema

I would say never, but then I've never worked in the educational environment so this isn't the norm in the industries I've worked in. Would you be able to compromise somehow, have one that doesn't mind being badgered and then promise the rest after? Works both ways then. May not work in reality though I suppose.

marybelle01

C.

Unless you are likely to be attending an interview every day of the week I doubt there will be a hotline required to handle reference requests for you. If you say no, then they may wonder why, and impressions can be damaging even if they come back with no problems. It's a one off request - why make it difficult for them if this is the way they do things?

SueC_2

Compromise - tell them they can contact your previous employers before interview, but your current employer not until after job offer.

Nicki

I regularly interview for teaching posts and it is the norm to have the references before interview. If your referees are also in education, they will be aware of this and not bothered at all by it. Usually the references comprise a tick sheet and a short covering letter. The tick sheet will take maximum 1 minute to complete and the covering letter will be the same for each request, so it will take a maximum of 2 mins to complete each time and fax or email across after the first time when the cover letter needs to be drafted, so I wouldn't worry too much.

No point in not letting a reference be taken from your current employer either as if you are teaching, you'll need to ask for time off for interview anyway so they will know you are looking around. Again, completely normal and in 8 years I've never known it to cause a problem. The only time we ever had a problem in fact was when we wanted to appoint someone who didn't have a reference from the current employer and phoned for a telephone reference to discover the current employer had no idea she was applying for jobs and she had phoned in sick that day to get the time off for the interview. We rapidly changed our mind about appointing her and went with the second choice candidate as a result

PasturesNew

Maybe in education it's the norm .... but then I believe in a lot of education you even get time off for an interview .... but in most other jobs if your boss got a sniff of a clue you were looking for another job you'd be out the door quicker than you can say "Can I book an annual leave day?"

SueC_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

Maybe in education it's the norm .... but then I believe in a lot of education you even get time off for an interview .... but in most other jobs if your boss got a sniff of a clue you were looking for another job you'd be out the door quicker than you can say "Can I book an annual leave day?"

I agree. In the private sector it would be highly unusual for references to be taken up prior to job offer. I think the NHS works similarly to education though. Do what's accepted in your industry.

colino

No, don't agree to referees being contacted pre-interview. Firstly, unless your sailing straight into the first job your reference contacts are going to get bored by the repetition and might just fail to bother for that crucial one.
Secondly, if its just a simple matter of form, or the sector practice, then that sector have an issue and the references they get aren't worth the tick-list they're attached to.

Sambucus_Nigra

colino wrote: »

No, don't agree to referees being contacted pre-interview. Firstly, unless your sailing straight into the first job your reference contacts are going to get bored by the repetition and might just fail to bother for that crucial one.
Secondly, if its just a simple matter of form, or the sector practice, then that sector have an issue and the references they get aren't worth the tick-list they're attached to.

It's only 1 request.

I suppose it depends on whether 'wantsajob' wants a job. Or not....I suspect as they have called themselves 'wantsajob' that they want a job. So not allowing references to be taken prior to interview would somehow scupper the quest for a job.

Elvisia

When you say the references are both academic do you mean they are past profs perhaps rather than your current or past employer? If so that's not too much of a hassle, I was a professor and I'd always have students asking me for references, I would have a set letter on file and I would adjust the wording depending on the candidate so it was pretty quick to do. If the candidate had any outstanding achievements I would add those, or if the student particularly needed me to emphasis one area they were particularly good at. If it's old profs then it doesn't matter if they know you are going for jobs, and you're unlikely to go for so many jobs they are going to be inundated. One other thing I did was I would give students references in a sealed and signed envelope for interviews if they were going for a few, so I didn't have to keep doing them. I would add though this was only for students I thought were great, the bad ones were always referred to someone else! Or I suddenly got selective hearing.