Search and Bad References

[Doctor]

I have a hypothetical.

I'm not sure if I'm being panned on references or not. I have two heads of school, current and previous, both saying they are giving me good references but I'm suspicious by nature and I want to be sure.

My first thought was to create a fictitious complete with website and request references from these two but that seems like a time consuming and expensive project.

If I signed up with Search and my references panned me, would Search let me know? Or would they refuse to represent me because of bad references?

[shadowjack]

Usually you can get an indicator from your associate, even though you will never see the reference. Ever.

[Heliotrope]

Yes, a friend of mine was told by her associate that her references weren't great, but of course didn't disclose any specifics. Not sure if all associates will do this, but you can always ask.

[PsyGuy]

It wouldnt or need not be time consuming or expensive. A domain name is pretty cheap, and you could host a basic site using Google Sites (you can just copy the code from another ISs landing page, and modify the name the text and substitute some generic images). You then use Google Mail for the email using the domain name and youre done. You wouldnt even have to go that far, plenty of ISs in lower tier ISs use recruiters or manage their email with free/generic emails and you could post a vacancy on a free regional jobs site if you wanted some supporting evidence.

SA may or may not let you know, at most an associate will do is suggest different references or that your references were not very strong. They might refuse to tell you anything and they might tell you nothing. if you had really poor references they would ask that you submit different ones or could potentially refuse to rep you, if you couldnt provide at least neutral references.

[eion_padraig]

This is a situation where having a friend who is an admin somewhere that uses SA can look over your references and tell you if one is bad. Obviously this person would have to trust you a lot because if you reveal to your Search Associate or a former reference that you know, it might reveal that your friend misused their database. I'm sure they can see which recruiters have looked up your file, and if an elementary vice principal is looking up the references of a high school math teacher it would probably look funny.

I've had friends who have had this done before for their piece of mind. This, of course, means you need to have a friend that has this kind of access.

Eion