The Truth About Employment References

I recently got a text message from a job seeker who was agonizing over what to put down under "references". The job application asked for the names and contact info of 2 people not related to him who also didn't work for the employer. 

He couldn't think of 2 people not related to him who would say nothing but good things about him if an employer asked. 

Employers don't ask you for personal references because they expect to get truthful, objective information about your potential value as an employee. Employers know that, unless you are a total moron, any reference provided by the applicant is going to say that the applicant walks on water and gives the workplace the pleasant smell of cookies. Employers ask for references for several reasons:
1. As a starting point for the REAL reference check. Employers use the references you provide to lead them to other people who may not tell them you smell like cookies and walk on water.  If you list a guy who worked with you at Theory X Management Corp a skilled reference checker knows how to get the applicant-provided reference talking and mentioning co-workers and others who may not have good things to say about you. The references you provide are a hunting license. 
2. Employers use the references you provide as a way of seeing if you have the judgment to provide references who might actually have knowledge of your work. If, for example, you list your pastor or your hairdresser you just demonstrated that you lack judgment to provide pertinent, relevant information when asked. 
3. Employers use your references to see if you know any business contacts that might benefit them if they hire you. 
4. Employers use your references to confirm or contradict items on your resume. 

There's a chance that some employers won't check your references at all because, as I said above, they know that if you're not a moron you won't list people who say bad things about you. Such employers just move on to finding references you don't know about; people connected to you on Linkedin, for example. 

This is the point where some so-called employment experts tell you to coach your references to say exactly what you want them to say and to stay "on script" and offer no information beyond what you coach them to say. This didn't even work before there was social media but nowadays it's impossible to coach all the people an employer may find who are willing to answer questions about you.

But I've buried the lead. Here's what you really need to know about references: if your candidacy for a job really hangs on what your references say about you or what your enemies say about you then you're probably not sufficiently well-connected to the employer to get the job. If an employer is actually contacting people to ask them questions about you there's a good chance you are still in the stranger category with that employer and, as I have written here before, in decades of headhunting work I never once saw an employer hire somebody to whom they weren't already networked through a mutual friend or trusted colleague or other trusted professional. 

Don't agonize over the references but do figure out who you and your potential boss know in common and ask that person to introduce you to the employer. Flattered that you consider them to be so influential, you'll be amazed at how many people are happy to introduce you to somebody they know who can hire you. 

Remember: you don't want to be in the position of playing the low percentage game of filling out applications, sending resumes to strangers and then sitting in a room or hallway waiting for an interview. You want to be in the high percentage game of being introduced to your new boss over coffee at Starbucks while the suckers send resumes to strangers.  if you're sufficiently well-connected to the employer you'll leap-frog over better qualified candidates and you may not even be asked for a resume until you already have the job.

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Where Does An Information Junkie Go To Get "Hyper Local" News And Information?

As my regular readers know, I've been calling the Charleston radio market a "talk radio desert" because, with the dismantling of John Raese's Rick Johnson-Mike Agnello conservative talk show from 3-6 on WCHS, Charleston no longer has live, local talk radio. I've been saying that the live local talk format is an opportunity for some enterprising radio cluster to convert one of their underperforming stations (I'm looking at you, Dotsy Klei at LM Communications) to a format they can have all to themselves. I've reminded local radio executives of the Second Immutable Law of Marketing: if you can't be first or second in a category, create a new category you can have all to yourselves. 

I've said here in my blog that the new Executive Director at West Virginia Public Radio, Scott Finn,  has a chance to go live local talk on a statewide basis. 

I was partly wrong.  Instead of promoting live local talk I should have been promoting what some call "hyper local" communications of which live local talk is but one example.  Before all the small town newspapers died and all the radio stations became the personal iPods for programing people who don't even listen to the stations they program, people could get lots of hyper local news and information. But now most of the news and information options are national and world news. You can't get any local news and info on Sirius XM. The Big Cluster radio companies that control Charleston (Bristol Broadcasting, LM Communications, West Virginia Radio Corporation) mostly give you world and national news if any. One Big Cluster radio executive told me over coffee that the cluster he/she runs doesn't have news at all. 

How does an information junkie in Dunbar get news about his city council? He's lucky if he gets a few column inches once a week in the Charleston Gazette or Daily Mail. How does a news and info junkie in St. Albans get information and news about neighborhood watch if he doesn't know about the St. Albans Neighborhood Watch email lists or text blasts or the Public Group For St. Albans Neighborhood Watch? Once in a while a TV crew shows up at a neighborhood watch meeting and there's 8 seconds of neighborhood watch coverage on the 11PM news.

I've started using Twitter to get as live and local as possible. I no longer follow people who tweet about politics or their new TV show, I only follow interesting local people who may tweet something hyper local, something the TV reporters won't cover. For instance, I follow the handful  of local city council members and mayors and WV House and Senate members who tweet. I follow local people who are thought leaders or "tribal" leaders on subjects of interest. And, yes, I follow all the non-sports and non-weather journalists because sometimes they tweet stuff hours before it goes on the air or on their website.

I subscribe to several text messaging services where I can get local news before it's on TV or internet.

And there's the opportunity for an enterprising terrestrial radio executive like Dotsy Klei, Mike Robinson or Scott Finn. People who don't have internet or don't know how to get texts on their phones will listen to live, locally-originating call-in radio. And right now, none of the Big Clusters in Charleston offer it. 

Back  in the 90s I was walking down the street with a radio station GM in Lexington, KY, who predicted that "in ten years" there would be no humans in the radio studios of any Lexington. His prediction was overly pessimistic but he was a lost right, There are still humans in the studios but there is no live, local news on the air in many radio markets including ours. 

One Big Box radio exec told me there is no budget to hire an on-air "personality". I told her/him that the lack of a paid talent provides the station a chance to put hyper-local volunteers on the air. You can't tell me there are people all over the Kanawha Valley who would gladly volunteer to be radio hosts on your live, local, call-in shows. 


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Jobless Despite Doing Everything The Employment Experts Told You To Do? Perhaps They Didn't Tell You The Most Important Thing.

If you're still jobless or underemployed despite doing everything the experts have told you  to do to get a job, it's time you consider the possibility that the experts haven't told you the whole story. Let me show you what I mean then let me pick up where employment experts leave off.

One employment expert begins his workshop with triage. 

"By show of hands, who has sent hundreds or even thousands of resumes without getting an interview?"

When people raise their hands the expert declares that there is something wrong with their resumes and asks them to get up out of their seats and cluster together and await further instruction.

"By show of hands, who has gotten lots of first interviews but no second interviews?"

When they raise their hands the expert declares that they need help with their interviewing skills. He asks these people to cluster together and await further instruction.

"By show of hands, who gets second and third interviews but no job offers?"

When these people raise their hands the expert declares that these people have something in their backgrounds that keeps them from getting offers and he asks them to cluster together and await further instruction.

So, according to this employment expert, the attendees who couldn't get a job offer had bad resumes, bad interviewing skills or bad backgrounds. 

After the event I asked the employment expert how he got his job as an employment expert for the worldwide organization that pays his salary and travel expenses. 

He told me the most important fact he could have but chose not to tell is audience; that he got his job because somebody who knew him recommended him for the job. He confessed to me that he wasn't particularly well-qualified for the job and that he didn't become an expert in employment matters until after he was offered the job.

I've often said that competence gets job seekers into a game that relationships win but here was a case where even the lack of competence did not hinder a man with the right relationship, the right co-signer. 

Your logic professor may say it this way: "Most of the time competence is necessary but not sufficient to get the job offer, but not in the case of the employment expert who leapfrogged over competent candidates to get a job for which his only qualification was that he had an internal promoter who made sure he got a job at which he was not yet competent."

Why didn't this employment expert tell his audience the single most important thing he could have told them about how jobs really get filled? Did he not think it important? Was he embarrassed? 

Sometimes so-called employment experts don't tell their audiences the whole truth because they want to sell resume-writing services or interviewing tips. I've known job seekers who paid as much as five thousand dollars to get a better resume, interviewing tips and even job leads all to no avail. 

But in my workshops, my newspaper articles, my magazine articles and in my blog I have already told you the truth, free of charge,  about how people really get jobs. Look through my archives. 

If your job search efforts aren't working, don't double down and do even more of the same things that haven't worked for you. It's time to trade the low percentage game of sending resumes and going too interviews for the high percentage game of getting somebody you already know to recommend you to your next boss. 

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How St. Albans Fills Vacant Council Seats

Dan Cain has resigned from his 5th ward council seat.

Here is what St. Albans' codified ordinances says about filling a vacant council seat:

	SECTION 8.  FILLING VACANCY IN OFFICE.

		A vacancy in the office of Mayor or Councilman, resulting from any cause, shall be filled by the Council within three months thereafter; such Mayor and Councilman, so chosen by the Council, shall hold office for the unexpired portion of the original term.

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Dan Cain's Resignation

St. Albans Mayor Dick Callaway emailed me a copy of Councilman Dan Cain's resignation letter. Here is the text of the letter:

"Dick,
 
 
     After much introspection and soul searching I have decided to resign from my position on the Saint Albans City Council.  Truly I have enjoyed serving and doing my small part in attempting to improve the community.  I wish everyone on the Council the very best in the future and, for practical purposes, I will make my resignation effective and the end of December, 31st to be exact.
 
 
                                                                                    Sincerely,
 
                                                                                    Dan Cain, Sr."

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Keywords: Nitro, WV, West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, 

I've just been informed by an employee at St. Albans city hall that a city councilman's resignation is imminent.

I've just been informed by an employee at St. Albans city hall that a city councilman's resignation is imminent.
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What The St. Albans Codified Ordinances Document Says About Removal of Officers And Employees

By now, most St. Albans City Council members, the mayor and my regular readers know that on Monday I published a racist and offensive email that a St. Albans City Council member sent to me, the mayor and to others.

I have not yet publicly identified the City Councilman who sent the offensive email.  As you can see from the passage from the city code below, the racist city councilman will save himself a lot of humiliation - assuming he is capable of being humiliated - and the city a lot of controversy and embarrassment if he simply resigns. 

The decision to send offensive emails was a test of the man's character and judgment. He failed that test.

The decision about whether to resign is a test of his love for the city. If he gives a damn about St. Albans he will spare St. Albans the from the procedures described in the code below.

Now, to answer a few questions I've received, here are some verifiable facts that are not in dispute:

1. The offender admitted to me via email that he sent me offensive emails. 

2. The mayor and others were on the recipient list for the racist email I published.

3. The mayor acknowledges to me via email that he received this and other offensive emails.

4. At no time have I identified either orally or in writing the identity of the city council member who sent the racist email and other offensive emails to me and the mayor among others.

Below is the section of the city code that deals with removal of appointed officers and employees.

Chapter 5 Administrative

ARTICLE 167
Personnel Rules

SECTION 9.  REMOVAL OF APPOINTED OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES.

		Any appointed officer or any employee of the City may be removed from office for official misconduct, incompetence, neglect of duty, or gross immorality. After receiving charges or grounds, filed in writing by any person, the Council may forthwith suspend such officer or employee for a period of thirty days. A copy of such charges or grounds shall be forthwith served upon the individual concerned in the manner provided by the statutes of West Virginia, for the service of notices. Such person shall have ten days from the date of such service in which to file a reply in writing with the Clerk.  Such person may, in the reply, request a public or private hearing by the Council. The date for such hearing shall be set by the Clerk at any reasonable time, not less than twenty nor more than forty days after the date of service above referred to, at which hearing, such person may be represented by counsel. All persons testifying at such hearing shall do so under oath, administered by the Mayor, Clerk or any Councilman. Such hearing may be continued for not more than a total of thirty days, by the Mayor, for due cause, at the request of any interested person or any City official. After such hearing, which shall be constituted a special meeting of the Council, the said Council, by a two-thirds vote of all of its members, may adopt a final resolution of removal, whereupon such person shall be deemed removed from office or employment, whether his successor be appointed and qualify, or not. If such officer or employee be suspended by the Council and be removed, he shall receive no compensation from the date of such suspension; if suspended and not removed, he shall receive his usual compensation from the date of such suspension; if not suspended, but removed, he shall receive his usual compensation up to the date of the vote by the Council to remove, and not thereafter. When paid in full, as hereinabove provided, the liability of the City to such person under his contract of employment shall be terminated. The City shall not be subject to any suit for libel or other damage, nor shall any officer or employee of the City be subject to any suit for libel, slander or other damage, as a result of any charges or grounds filed in writing, or any testimony given in such proceeding, whether the person is removed or not. Nothing herein contained or elsewhere contained in this Charter, is intended to restrict or prevent any office of the City or of the Council, to lay off, furlough or otherwise remove from employment, any employee of the City because of shortage of funds, reduction in work, seasonal or otherwise, or because of the abolishment of a job.

This document is available at the city website.
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Keywords: Nitro, WV, West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, 

Here's An Example of The Racist Emails Sent To Me And Others By A St. Albans City Council Member

Here's an example of the racist emails a St. Albans City Council member sent to me and others including Mayor Callaway:

Snow White... 
Disney is in an uproar...... 
Walt Disney's new film called "Jet Black," the African-American version of "Snow White," has been put on hold. 
All of the 7 dwarfs: Dealer, Stealer, Mugger, Forger, Drive By, Pimp, andSkank, have refused to sing "Hi Ho" because they say it offends black prostitutes. 
They also say they have no intention of singing, "It's off to work we go".

To all you lurkers out there who try to comment anonymously or don't comment at all, I'd really like your comments on this. 
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Keywords: Nitro, WV, West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, 

A St. Albans City Councilman Has Been Sending Me (and others) Obscene and Racist Emails

St. Albans has its very own Carl Paladino.

A St. Albans city councilman has been sending me (and others) obscene and racist emails. 

I have asked him to forget my email address and my name. He is dead to me. He is an embarrassment to his office. 

Have you received racist and obscene emails from a St. Albans city council member? If you have, please let him  know that you expect your elected officials to be exemplars of decency, inclusiveness, decorum and professionalism and that you do not expect them to behave like 8th graders who  just learned new words that make their parents ashamed of them.

If this city councilman does not stop sending me these emails I will expose him by releasing some of these offensive emails via Facebook, Twitter and my blog.

And if there is any appetite on St. Albans city council to have this man removed from office, let me know how I can help.

Higginbotham At Large reads all submitted comments but only publishes comments from clearly identified submitters. No Ring of Gyges for you.

Keywords: Nitro, WV, West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive,