Who am I to say you won't be successful?
If I think you suck, why should that have any bearing on your future?
:45 read | :60 video | Chime in on LinkedIn here
Mental exercise: think of one person you worked with in the past who wasn’t very good. But later had a solid career.
Can you picture them? Sweet. You just invalidated backdoor reference checks.
Here’s the thing about backdoor checks: they’re almost always a personal relationship the hiring manager has. A friend or former colleague. Someone they trust to give their full and honest opinion.
Which they do! Except all opinions are biased. And some are total garbage.
You don't actually agree with your friends all the time, do you?
Maybe they didn’t get along personally. Maybe your friend’s a jerk. (We all have those). Or not very good themselves.
Maybe the work environment sucked. Maybe they were set up to fail.
Or maybe they really did suck. But *gasp* maybe they've grown since then.
The real question is: why are you letting your buddies make or break your hiring decisions?
Full discussion of The 10 Minute Talent Rant, Episode 28: Reference Checks Are Stupid, here.
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