What Does a Solid Referral Candidate Look Like in Business and at Work?

What does a solid referral candidate look like? Here’s a recent example:

Good evening, all:

I hope this finds you all well.

Candidate comes highly recommended by my Colleague – Colleague and I worked together as peer Directors for nearly 10 years, and Colleague in turn supervised Candidate at Colleague’s current company.

Candidate was part of the divestiture of their business division to a venture capital firm, and was subsequently offered a job which would require them to relocate to to another state – however, they need to stay in our local area. They are particularly interested in a similar role to their current role. In the interim, Candidate continues to work for the divested business as a contractor.

If you hear of any relevant positions that match Candidate’s capabilities, please feel free to reach out to Candidate directly.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and have a great night,

Deb.

Here’s what made the above referral candidate solid / reliable:

• The candidate’s most recent supervisor reached out directly to me to recommend the candidate;
  • The supervisor is one of the best professional colleagues I know; and we worked together as peer Directors for 10 years;
• I have no personal agenda in forwarding this candidate’s CV to the trusted hiring authorities – as a vocational matchmaker, it’s always satisfying to connect a solid candidate with an equally solid employer;
• Before forwarding Candidate’s CV to the trusted hiring authorities, I spoke to Candidate myself on the phone, essentially performing a phone interview, to confirm Candidate’s background and also to make an informed presentation of a referral candidate.

Here are several attributes of an unreliable candidate reference:

• The referral candidate is the relative of the hiring authority’s best friend (and that’s the sole basis upon which the referral candidate is hired);
• The hiring authority feels most comfortable hiring referral candidates from their personal friends, as they trust their personal friends the most (which is how new hires tend to resemble the hiring authority, e.g. if the hiring authority is a white male in their 20’s, they’re basically only hiring white males in their 20’s);
• The hiring authority hires a candidate from a referral source with whom the hiring authority wants to curry favor (rather than checking the referral candidate’s supervisory references).

What does a solid referral candidate look like in your organization, in business and at work?