Argh.

[jadecat]

As I may have mentioned before, the hubs and I are relocating in a couple months. Which brings up the hard part of trying to find a new job. I've spent not long enough, probably, revising my resume. Trying to make me sound fantabulous! Or at least someone a prospective employer should call. There's just one problem...

References.

I have none. This will be a problem I think. See, the current bosses don't do recommendations. They'll verify employment start and end dates, and a few other pieces of information, but they don't do recommendations. They have their reasons, and it kind of makes sense. This just puts me in a really bad spot. My co-workers are off site the majority of the time. I'm sure they can get recommendations from the site coordinators they interact with. Me? Not so much. Plus with my coworkers always off site- I don't actually work closely with any of them at all. I can't imagine asking any of them to be a reference for me because to be honest- they don't know my work. So they wouldn't be able to comment on it.

Not only that, but I've been there almost five years- the people I worked with before are no longer at those employers (I tried contacting them awhile ago), and I have no idea how to find them. My last long term job before this one also had a policy of no references- it was a temp job and the person I worked with at the temp company left a week before I did.

I have no idea what to do. I'm not sure how to explain that I really don't have anyone that can be called as a reference.

Ideas?


(ETA- okay, apparently I haven't mentioned it here before, as has been pointed out. Hubby and I are going to be moving to Ann Arbor, MI. Back for me, new for him. :) )

Comments

[brendan-dunbar.livejournal.com]

I used to work for a call centre, and the HR department only verified employment. They would not give out references that commented on how people performed. Fortunately, they did do evaluations every six months. I always asked my supervisor for a copy. When I left that job and started looking for another one, I would explain the reference situation to potential employers and provide them with the evaluations. Is this an option for you? If your company doesn't provide these, can you ask your current boss to do one and give you a copy of it?

[jadecat.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, no, it's not really an option. I work for a very small company, and I've never had any sort of official review. All the employees were supposed to have annual reviews, but they rarely if ever happened- and never for me. That's a great idea though, I'll have to keep that in mind for the future.