Since starting this blog I’ve kept a few subjects out of play. One of those subjects is what happens at work. In the internet age companies can find out so many things about a person by doing a google search that can come back to haunt you. The thing is, right now I’m not currently employed full time, but have recently started working with a recruiters to fill that void. I’m thinking it’ll be ok to discuss the job search process a little bit here without getting into trouble.

The first recruiter I contacted didn’t listen during our initial discussion and referred me to a company I didn’t want to work for. As a result, I’ve stopped working with him. So I contacted another recruiter here in the Denver area last week. Our initial discussion went well except for one topic. She asked me to provide references. I was very skeptical about doing this for a few reasons. First, have you ever received a phone call from a recruiter at your place of employment? The recruiter asks if you’re aware of any peers looking to move on. Well, I have. And I always wonder where the recruiter got my information from. Then, I started thinking about the references themselves. Say I work with a couple of recruiters. Are they all going to contact my references? Are potential employers going to contact my references? In most cases, my references are people I’ve developed good working relationships with and, in some cases, have become good friends with. Well, except for Joker . My preference is to keep these references on my good side, not have them inundated from recruiters and employers during my job search. Oh, and that doesn’t include what happens after I’m employed. Does this list go into a central repository for future cold calls. I’m sure they’d love that!

After talking to a few people and getting varied opinions, I decided to only provide references directly to employers. Hopefully this doesn’t hurt me during the job search process. I guess we’ll see.