Recently, a former client called to share an experience and ask what I thought. He was interviewing candidates for a newly created position in his division and called one of his top candidates to clarify some data as he prepared to check references on each candidate.
The candidate had only listed the LinkedIn Public Profile address for each of his references and when called for detailed contact information the candidate responded with “I suggest you go to LinkedIn read all my great recommendations, then if you feel you still need to talk to my references Send InMail and find out if they have time to talk to you, or check with your trusted connections and see you can introduce you to my references. I look forward to reviewing your offer soon …”, then the call ended was a pleasant good-bye.
Somewhat taken aback by the response from the candidate, my former client had paused to ask himself several questions. Was he behind the times in how LinkedIn was being used? Was this candidate just a poor match for the job and the organization with this approach? Should he invest time in checking the references of this candidate?
What do you think?
How does this differ from your approach?
no comment until now