My performance is not really good, is reference check that important?

Hi there,

This is indeed an interesting question which is probably relevant for quite a lot of users, so I am happy to provide my perspective on it:

• First of all, it is unfortunately very hard to truly understand what you are talking about.
• Assuming that you mean that your performance in university is rather poor and you are wondering about getting a referral for the next step in your career, I would advise you to definitely focus on getting a referral from someone senior at your target employer. I would be more than happy to work with and help you identify suitable referees and prepare your application.

In case you want a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare your applications, please feel free to contact me directly.

I hope this helps,

Hagen

Hi there,

It depends on who's doing the asking! Some firms do indeed call your references and check on performance.

That said, most are happy to just confirm that you indeed worked at that employer during your stated dates and for your stated role.

There is a small chance that this plays out negatively, but, for the most part, you should be safe. (again, it depends on whether they actually do reference checks or not)

That depends on the country, but in the US and Europe, reference check confirms only whether you worked in a given place, not how good your performance was (actually HR will never share that information).

Hi! Reference check will have no visibility on your performance. In fact, reference checks rarely if ever happen, so I wouldn't be that worried about them in the first place. Instead, I'd invest my energy into preparing for the application process itself. Good luck!

Hi!

Usually, a reference check is not around performance, so you shouldn't be worried about it.

Good luck,

Anto

It is really not in your control - so there is no reason to worry about it.

You next employer will dig as deep as they want to. If they check only dates, then you are good. But if they want to check performance, you can not really get out of it.

The best strategy is to always prep some of your reference contacts that they may receive inquiries.

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