Three calls. Six questions. Enlightenment.
Whether or not you might be signing up an enormous provider, hiring an worker or pondering of investing, reference calls are completely essential. Earlier than I discovered find out how to do them correctly, they have been purely factual in nature, “Hey, did Jim work with you from 2011 to 2013? What was his job title?” For a really very long time, I believed that was all reference calls have been good for. Oh, how flawed I used to be. Through the years, I discovered that there are six superior questions you may ask to get the solutions you might be searching for.
On this instance, I’ll assume that I’m hiring somebody, however the identical logic applies to all different conditions the place you might have to name references.
Why do reference calls?
I initially assumed {that a} reference name exists to examine whether or not a job candidate is bending the reality or straight-up mendacity to you. That, it seems, isn’t the case. I imply, it’s that, additionally, but it surely isn’t what the reference calls are for. The primary function is to get a deeper understanding of the individual you might be about to do enterprise with. Decide what drives them, work out whether or not and the way they match into your group, and — maybe most significantly — work out what to speak with them about in subsequent conversations.
There are two components to reference calls: Who do you name and what do you ask? This text will cowl each. Lately, I’d not even take into account investing, hiring a employees member or taking a job (or a severe, multimonth consulting engagement) with out doing three reference calls.
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