You’re changing jobs. You know you’ll need references for your next career move. You’ve done a great job so you shouldn’t worry about getting a reference – right?

Wrong.

References can sabotage even the most sophisticated, well-executed job search. Sometimes you can lose an opportunity when your reference thinks he’s helping you out 100%.

Here are 5 ways to make your references work for you, not against you.

(1)Skip the ‘To Whom It May Concern’ letters.

Clients often tell me their well-meaning bosses offered to write a ‘To Whom It May Concern’ letter on your behalf. These letters used to be common 20 or 30 years ago.

Today, corporate employers rarely pay attention to these letters. In fact, often hiring managers will be skeptical about any written correspondence.

Let’s face it: employers tend to be conscious of lawsuits. They prefer phone calls that are not recorded. When they need a letter, they supply their own forms and they prefer letters sent directly to them.

You will find exceptions in some industries. For example, university professors and administrators typically submit three letters of reference with each application. Often these references will be mailed directly to the hiring department.

(2) Research the way your present boss answers a request: “Can you supply a reference for John?”

Ask fellow employees about their experiences. You might even get a friend to call on your behalf or hire a reference checking service. Expect surprises.

Some well-meaning managers avoid giving anyone a glowing recommendation. ‘Nobody is that great,’ they say. ‘I want to be honest.’

But of course everybody else exaggerates and your reference’s well-intended honesty will place you at a disadvantage.

Other references are just clueless. My colleague ‘Nick’ genuinely wanted me to get a great opportunity when he wrote a letter for me. But he added a line suggesting I might be ’somewhat eccentric.’ I was applying for administrative positions in universities, which tend to be fairly conservative.

I had no idea what was going on and wondered why I wasn’t getting more invitations to interview. One day an interview committee member asked me, ‘What on earth does he mean?’

‘We are friends,’ I said, truthfully, and reached for the phone.

Nick was completely baffled (’I meant it as a compliment’) but he agreed to revise his letters so I would sound like the well qualified, experienced, and highly professional candidate I was.

(2) Before supplying names, get permission (and be sure they are still available).

You come to the moment of truth in your job search. Your future boss says, ‘I am impressed with what I’ve seen. May I call a few references?’

To prepare for this moment, get permission to give out names. And take the extra step: Find out what happens next.

Your boss may be required to refer all calls to Human Resources. Or she may be moving to a new career and you are part of the past she wants to forget.

When I taught at a university, students often asked if they could list me as a reference for jobs and graduate programs. But sometimes I would get a surprise request from someone I barely remembered, creating awkward moments for all of us.

After I left the university, I was not always available to serve as a reference. While traveling or moving, I couldn’t respond to requests, even when I wanted to. If I’d known my name would be brought up as a reference, I would have warned the students and encouraged them to find alternatives.

(3) Watch for red flags in the hiring process.

If your job prospects get derailed mysteriously, over and over again, consider hiring a professional service to check your references. The service will handle your request professionally and (if you’ve chosen wisely) ethically. They’ll call to say, “I’m checking references on Tim Toole.”

A quality service will not pretend to be an employer. They don’t have to. You’d be amazed how managers will respond to a simple request for a reference.

One reference-checking consultant told me, “The manager who answered the phone said, ‘Just a minute.’ Then, without covering the mouthpiece, he yelled, ‘What did the lawyers tell us to say about Tim?’”

And that’s how one job seeker solved the mystery of Who Killed Tim’s Career Change.

(4) Remember: the world looks different on the other side of the desk.

By the time you’ve gained some seniority in your field, you’re probably familiar with standard hiring processes. But when you need to change careers, you may be surprised to discover some recent changes, as well as some unspoken rules.

Your industry may be dominated by a club of insiders. You may never be asked for references: your future boss just calls someone he knows until he reaches a friend of a friend.

Or your field may be very structured, with all references checked minutely by a human resources department, even if you’re quite senior.

It’s important to understand common practice because any deviation should be viewed as a red flag. You may not turn a job down but you need to dig deeper before accepting a position in a company that comes across as “different.”

(5) Be proactive.

Let’s face it: writing reference letters adds hassle to somebody’s day, especially when your reference is not familiar with your target market. If appropriate, offer to follow up or draft a list of key points to emphasize in the letter.

Take charge of your references and manage the process. Nobody else will care more than you do.

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Do you wonder about how best to leverage and submit your references during your job search? Here are some tips to help you:

1. Never submit your references with the resume. You want to have a face-to-face meeting with the employer, or at the very least, a telephone interview, before providing references. The purpose of the resume, at least at this stage of the job search process, is to generate enough interest to get you called in for an interview. By listing references on your resume, you just give the recipient of your resume another opportunity to screen you out before you have a chance to sell yourself in person. Also, avoid the old and overused phrase “references provided on request.” It is taken for granted that you will provide references on request. There is no need to state on your resume that you will do so. Listing this on your resume just takes up valuable space that could be used for more important data.

2. Former or current direct supervisors make excellent references, but clients, your former employees, co-workers, and vendors you have interfaced with often make great references also. If you have people willing to endorse you whose names are recognizable in your industry or profession and who will add credibility to your job search, by all means include them–and do so prominently. But, don’t neglect to include references from people at all levels, particularly those in positions that represent the people you would have to interact with on a real-world, day-to-day basis in your next job.

3. As much as possible, you will want to maintain connections with “old” colleagues and other people that you worked with or associated with in past jobs. While the most current references will often hold the most weight, having no references from past employers can look suspect. Recruiters may wonder, for example, if you left your past employer on bad terms or if you had or have trouble establishing strong professional relationships. If you have lost touch with old colleagues, you might try looking for them on LinkedIn or other professional networking sites.

4. Contact each person that you intend to list as a reference and ask for their permission. Never provide someone as a reference unless you have discussed it with them first and briefed them on your current job search. Verify the contact information for each reference and ask for permission to list a telephone number and email address. When relevant, you will want to list the name of your reference, along with their current job title and the company at which they work. While mailing addresses are rarely necessary, you should include at least the city and state (or country, if the reference is an international one). You should also include the preferred telephone number and email address for the reference.

5. Bring a professionally typed and formatted list of references with you to the interview, preferably with a font and formatting style that is consistent with your resume. To really stand out from the competition, you can make your references list a powerful part of your overall marketing presentation by including a brief background of how the person knows you and for how many years, along with a summary of the qualifications and achievements that your reference can speak to. If you worked together on a key project, for example, this would be the place to mention it. Formatting your references in this way transforms a simple listing of references into a references dossier, and will give you true competitive advantage once the selection process begins, as very few (if any) of your competitors will provide references in this memorable and highly professional way.

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All too often, a abridgement of a fast, able arrangement after-effects in admonition breaking bottomward back it is bare the most. The result, balked parents who don’t apperceive whether or not academy is open. Agents accept to absorb ages on the buzz to arena annular or apologize to parents who angry up, blind that the academy was closed. Poor communications advance to annoyance and affliction for all concerned.

However, by afterward a simple adviser it is actually accessible to accumulate everybody happy, up to date with the best recent information, and in the appropriate abode at the appropriate time. Follow the simple accomplish beneath and you will be actually fine:

1. Don’t aloof await on the radio. Abounding parents won’t be alert to bounded radio and generally don’t alike apperceive how to acquisition it. Typical BBC bounded radio audiences are age-old 50 and up. If you are closing for snow for example, a ancestor adeptness anticipate to put the radio on, but they absolutely wouldn’t if it’s bottomward to a admission pipe.

2. Don’t await aloft the internet. In abounding areas, there are groups of parents who do not accept admission to the internet at home. Whilst abounding do, you accident alienating some parents who don’t accept the equipment, or conceivably the abilities to admission your website.

3. Email is acceptable but unpredictable. Email is abundant if you appetite to accelerate a newsletter out. However, commitment times alter abundantly amid internet account providers and so if your bulletin is urgent, there is no agreement it will be delivered in a appropriate fashion. Your bulletin additionally could end up in the clutter folder. Again, some parents may not accept the adeptness or accessories to admission their email at the appropriate time for your bulletin to be useful. Email is admitting abundant for your account providers such as bus companies as they will apperceive to check.

4. Buzz copse may fail. A buzz timberline is area one ancestor phones another, who in about-face phones addition and so on. In actual baby groups these can be able admitting apathetic at accepting a bulletin across. As the admeasurement of the accumulation grows admitting they become added capricious and impractical. Beyond a accumulation admeasurement of about 30 you charge to accept that some of your admirers won’t get your message.

5. Argument messaging is abundantly effective. This isn’t aloof a amount of opinion, it’s a amount of fact. With over 98% adaptable buzz buying in the beneath 40 age group, and the adeptness to bear letters to landlines, there is no adjustment added acceptable to ability parents and agents than a argument message. What’s more, argument letters are delivered bound and absolutely traceable so you apperceive if anybody hasn’t accustomed your message.

6. (bonus tip) Other technologies are coming. Admonition technology changes all the time and with fresh amusing accoutrement such as Twitter and Facebook, the methods by which you acquaint best finer will change.

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Remember, abundant admonition is not abandoned and actually appreciated. It is amazing to ascertain aloof how abundant absolute amicableness and acknowledgment you can get by communicating finer application simple, automatic processes.

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• Pell Grants will consistently be accessible, at present. In the past, Pell Grants could alone be activated during the accepted educational academy year, rather than appropriate through the summertime or acting sessions presented by several colleges and universities. But, the government has aerial this restriction.

• The aboriginal accolade bulk for the Pell Admission has been reversed. Before July 1st, the atomic bulk that a apprentice could be accustomed for a Pell Admission was account $400. Currently, the accolade bulk will be set at atomic ten percent of the anniversary best award. For instance, the best accolade bulk for the educational year of 2009-2010 is $4,860. Usually, acceptance who are accustomed the minimum would acquire a admission account $486. Acceptance accepting full-time appearance though, will booty advantage of the Academy Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRAA) and access a added $490 for the accessible academy year.

• Sex offenders who accept been confined will be disqualified for Pell Grants from now onwards. From July 1st, a being who is bedevilled of a animal breach for which the alone serves a aeon of antidotal incarceration will not be accustomed to participate in the Pell Admission Program.

• The greatest bulk of Pell Admission for the academy year of 2009-2010 will be $5,360. In the attendance of CCRAA, forth with the American Recovery and Investment Act (ARRA), the anniversary Pell Admission accolade best has been bigger by aloof over $600 from the antecedent academy year.

• Children whose parents were dead while assuming aggressive assignment in Afghanistan or Iraq afterwards September 11, 2001 will be able to acquire the best Pell Admission accolade annually. However, assertive altitude are applicable. Firstly, the apprentice charge accept been beneath than 24 years of age or accept antecedent acceptance in academy at the time of death. Additionally, the apprentice may accretion the Pell Admission alone while alive to access his or her aboriginal Bachelor Degree. Acceptance who anticipate they may be acceptable to administer should get in blow with the Administration of Veterans Affairs, back this administration will be alive with the Administration of Apprenticeship to accomplish out those acceptable individuals.

• Some acceptance who don’t authority US citizenship will be able to be accustomed SMART Grants for their degree. To be eligible, acceptance charge at atomic accept half-time acceptance at colleges or universities with accreditation. Moreover, brand level, instead of educational accomplishment, will adjudge whether or not a apprentice is able for an award. On May 1, 2009, the U.S. Administration of Apprenticeship appear the belief levels for non-citizens apropos the accessibility of a SMART Grant. For added information, the National Association of Apprentice Banking Aid Administrators (NAFSA) should be contacted.

This ample advance of the banking aid action has led to assorted changes in federal accommodation procedures, forth with aggressive admission accessibility.

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