What a Candidate’s Bad Reference Means

As a recruiter, finding a candidate who has a bad reference may seem like an automatic deal-breaker, however, a bad reference shouldn’t necessarily disqualify a candidate.  The difficulty for the recruiter is to understand when a bad reference should ruin a candidate’s chances, and when it should not.

Before automatically throwing a candidate out for having a bad reference, investigate if the bad reference is indicative of poor performance, or a poor fit between employer and employee.  If the latter, you need to discern why the position was a poor fit, and if you think the candidate would have similar problems in your company.  Not every qualified professional will be a good fit for every position or corporate culture.

Understanding what these bad references really mean requires you, as the recruiter, to ask the right questions.  Make sure to ask open-ended questions, so that the reference has to answer with more than just a “yes” or a “no”.  Asking detailed questions can also help you understand the bad reference is perhaps the result of personal conflict that has nothing to do with job performance.

Of course, sometimes a bad reference really does indicate a bad employee. Bad references should be a warning sign, and should prompt further investigation into a potential candidate, but should not necessarily be the final decision in whether to hire a candidate of not.