employment reference question

[jojo2910]

Having done a lot of job hunting in the last year I can offer this for financial services.

If you send a CV there is no need to put that references are available as it is taken as given. Most job offers will be on the basis that you pass any checks/tests. including credit checks etc.

In my experience references are sought after the offer has been made and it is one of the conditions of offer.

The references shouldn't be personal e.g. person a is a layabout and you'd be silly to employ them, but should be factual. E.g. person a worked here between x and y, this was their job title and this was their salary. The new employer may ask some questions about disciplinary and how sick leave has been taken. If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to worry about. They are often completed by admin people in HR or often other offices, but they'll only be taking info off a central system.

You can apply and not tell anyone at work, I did and resigned a week before my 3 week annual leave so only worked a week's notice. Hope this helps.

[buzzingtalk]

Jojo - nice one for info, I can confirm I will not be entering financial services however as I'm maths dyslexic haha. But wicked info

T_S yeah moved to narrrfolk from London, I love it up here. I have my OH, his family are local so see them quite a bit, live with friends. Haven't really made any of my 'own' freinds locally but I'm so busy usually I wouldn't have time I don't think. I'd love to do voluntary work again but its all money dependent. And of course I have my freinds & family down in London and across the UK

Sheepish - I haven't really looked at anything in particular, I looked on county council, jobcentre and city council websites but there was no relevant jobs (either army, skilled or same stuff I'm doing now which I would like a break from if I were to switch career) so going on memory of previous job applications - for current job, i had to provide full employment history which for me is easy - I have had 3 jobs, all of which would give me amazing references.

Incy & FF - Cheers for info!

[Bagpuss]

I generally say references are available upon request

Good luck !

[Two_Sheds]

I looked on county council, jobcentre and city council websites but there was no relevant jobs

No, there won't be. All the good jobs are filled internally. Even if they get advertised (as they have to by law) they are still filled internally

Can you network? Do you have any favours you can pull in to get you a foot in a door?

I don't know if it's even possible in your line of work, but can you go self-employed? I often see vacancies for "personal assistance" kind of work, where a person wants a helper they can trust to do their shopping, cleaning, help with dressing etc ... agencies tend to send different faces every week and a lot of elderly esp. don't like that.

One old lady I know pays £9 an hour or more to an agency and the carers only get £6 of that.

Best of luck anyway

[zebedee]

Another point to consider is that it is actually illegal to give someone a bad reference, the only thing a previous employer can do is refuse a reference completely, and also, if you get an interview, but dont get the job you have the right to ask why.