Examples of questions to ask someone’s references during an interview process?

Anonymous

March 7,2024 at 5:26AM UTC

My team recently just terminated our admin assistant for many reasons. One was compulsive lying that we were able to prove. After she was terminated, we saw she lied on her resume she posted on LinkedIn by making up responsibilities we never remotely gave her under her former position with us. We were already suspicious that she had made some of her experience up due to her not being able to perform tasks she claimed to do all the time, like edit PowerPoints. Seeing her lie about what she did for us really made me wonder about what else on her resume is made up. In hiring her replacement, we are going to do PowerPoint and excel assessments this time. However, I was also wondering about calling references this time around? For those who have done that, are there specific types of references that are red or green flags? Any questions good to ask references to evaluate the honesty of previous experience in a way that isn’t just a yes or no answer?

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9 Comments

Anonymous

03/07/24 at 7:18PM UTC (Edited)

Yes, ask the applicant/recruit for samples of the work they did for the other companies they worked with. Or do a live powerpoint/excel exercise with them using a simple scenario of a project you would ask them to do. Make it a part of the interview process so that you don't get too far down the path before you find out they are an impostor. If they balk at doing it move on. This exercise will also show you how they would work with you and how they take basic direction during the process. Don't outsource it to anyone else do it with them as their direct manager. Don't expect perfection and give allowances for pretty but make sure fundamentally they know some basics that only a true user would know. For example if a pivot table is something you do always add that in for excel. If you want slides made from scratch with a logo do that. When you check professional references at the offer stage, you want to ask about how they check their work and how much did they come back to you after you gave them direction. Then you will know. As for the impostor that you terminated, let it go, they are no longer your problem. If someone calls you for a reference on them give dates and then decline to endorse their skills but don't say anything else. Leave it be.

Anonymous

03/12/24 at 4:34PM UTC

The vast majority of us cannot share samples of work done for other companies without violating our NDAs.

I once sanitized a document I did for a nonprofit job, but doing that means you're asking for unpaid work.

Anonymous

03/12/24 at 5:02PM UTC

You can redact the things that cannot be shared. It gets done all the time. Use whiteout or blacken it with a sharpie and never send anything electronically, only in print and do not leave it with the company.

Anonymous

03/12/24 at 6:06PM UTC (Edited)

That does not work if you need to submit a work sample when applying for a job online--before they even decide who to interview. I used the nonprofit's doc to have a generic sample because what I wrote instructions for was too generic to matter, and I blacked out or put in placeholders for things like IP addresses and configs.My point though is that doing that kind of thing takes time and not everyone has that stuff to work with when they leave or has something generic enough.

Anonymous

03/07/24 at 7:38PM UTC

Great advice, thank you!! She was only with us for a couple of months, so I would be shocked if she even listed us as a reference and didn’t remove us from the resume eventually once she’s able to find work again

Anonymous

03/07/24 at 4:31PM UTC

Make sure that the phone number is a business number, not a home or cell number and verify that the number matches the company (once burned/twice shy mentality). Also verify that the email address is a company address and not personal (like Gmail, etc.) This keeps them from giving you the number/email of a friend that will lie for them. OR, you can trust them to be honest. Not everyone will go to these lengths, but I understand your skepticism. I terminated an employee once for the same reasons, and we later found out by going through her browser history that she was getting through college buying papers from someone off the internet and using the company computers to do it.

Anonymous

03/07/24 at 7:40PM UTC

Wow!! That is wild…I’ve never been involved in hiring someone before so it was a great learning experience about recognizing red flags on a resume and remembering that people can say yes to anything in an interview but demonstrating those things is a completely different story!

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