References: who to use

Who should you use for references?

Ideally you should have 3 former employers/ managers or supervisors as your references.

You can have more than one person from any one job. You could have your immediate supervisor, the manager, and a coworker, for example.

Or you can have one person from each of 3 different jobs.

Employers usually like a reference from your most recent employer. If you are still working, however, they don't usually expect a reference from your present employer as they realize you may not want the people at your current job to know you are job hunting.

If there is some reason the obvious person at your previous job would not be a good reference, try to think of someone else at that place of work who would have good things to say about you.

If you have been out of the workforce for a while, or for some reason cannot use previous employers/ coworkers, you can use personal references. These are not as good, but if you need to use them, then do.

A good personal reference could be someone in any kind of professional position: a doctor, lawyer, minister, counsellor etc.

Failing that, just anyone you know who would be able to tell the employer good things about you.

If you have been volunteering, someone you worked beside as a volunteer would be good. You may not get paid for volunteering, but work is work and you were working as a volunteer so the reference is just as valid.

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