By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Putting the phrase, “References are available upon request,” does nothing to help you or your candidacy. Here, I offer another possibility.
Accumulating References
Hi! I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. I’m the head coach for JobSearchCoachingHQ.com and NoBSCoachingAdvice.com. This is Job Search Radio, done in video form.
Someone wrote to me with a question. “How can I put my references in my resume?”
Most people use this ridiculous thing that is little more than a space filler.–“References Are Available Upon Request.” It is a waste of time and space . They can be better used in more effective in a different way. Here is what I want to suggest that you do. This is where LinkedIn comes into play, particularly the recommendations.
We will go into an alternate strategy but here’s the best one. There are people who know your work that I want you to ask for recommendations from. For example, if you visit my page, ww.linkedin.com/in/thebiggamehunter, scroll down and you will see recommendations as well as an area that refers to endorsements.
Recommendations the written out text version where people in effect write a testimonial for you and your work. It is a great thing to have on your profile
What you do is reach out to people who can attest for your work, as well as for your character, and have the right a recommendation for you that is specific. We don’t want them saying general things like, “Jeff is a good American and a fine citizen. He will be a credit to any organization.” No. That is a nonsense recommendation. No more think anything of it except that your full for recommendations and they all read the same way.
From there, what I want you to do Is Estes people for recommendations and, if they are not specific enough, send it back to them asking them to rewrite it. From there, once you have recommendations, On your resume, where you want to have references, including number of references from people who have written these recommendations for you. 4-5 their specific and would help demonstrate your qualities and character to the next organization.
In addition, in the checkbox area which will continue to call endorsements, what I want you to do is, if you don’t have a lot of recommendations, I want you to include something like, “Endorsed by 57 people for such and such” that relates to the job that is trying to be filled. We don’t really care. When I did recruiting and you are people who wrote endorsements from me, who checked all things like SDLC (Why? I have no idea). Yet, I would never consider myself expert at that. As a matter of fact, I can spell SDLC and nothing more. I would never include that is something I’m capable ofTo anyone.
However, in areas that are relevant to the job, you can say, “Endorsed by 5 people, 15 people, by 175 people for such and such skill” and they are all skills that relate to the job.
Strong Interviews No Offer? Check Your References: How Senior Leaders Audit, Repar, and Align References Before a Search Goes Live
You can include the URL to your LinkedIn page underneath your name as part of your addressing. So you might list name, city/State/ZIP Code (please include city, state and ZIP Code because of a recruiter goes back into their system at a later date to find someone like you, without ZIP Code a recruiter can find you. ZIP Code is a search field that helps to narrow down the search), mobile number and then, underneath, including the URL to your LinkedIn profile. This way, people of a way of reaching out to you. They can think to themselves, “Hey! That’s interesting. , They are endorsed by 157 people for such and such. Wow!” That’s the way social proof can work for you.
I hope you found this helpful and I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. If you interested my coaching you, reach out to me and schedule a free discovery call at www.TheBigGameHunter.us. If you just want to get a sense of the services that I offer, visit www.TheBigGameHunter.us. There is a lot of great information my blog, too. Go exploring. Share it.
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I hope you have a great day. Take care!
References: At Least Do The Minimum
