No Call Back After An Interview?

There are any number of reasons you might not be getting a call back after an interview, and some of them have nothing to do with you or the person who interviewed you and if they want to hire you.

My spouse, who until recently was one of the long term unemployed, recently applied for a job at XYZ Company (OK, OK, so it wasn't really XYZ Company, but keeping it confidential). He'd found a hot lead, the interview went well, the company liked him...and he was REJECTED!

Why? For a reason you might never suspect. No one would provide a reference for him. I don't mean a specific person, I mean the companies he worked for.

His old companies were just not answering when the company he interviewed with called for references. They were just ignoring phone calls. Or it had been more than five years since he worked there and after that amount of time they'd archived their previous employee files and would not even verify that he'd been an employee at their company.

Wow! Who would have thought? I mean he knew they all had policies of not giving references other than dates of employment but to not answer when a potential employer of a former employee called for a reference? Call me naïve, but yes, I thought they'd at least verify dates of employment.

So take the time to find someone who will write you a personal letter of reference from your old company. Or if you know someone at the company who has knowledge of your former employers and can verify where you worked even if they can't verify exact dates, be sure to provide the employer with their name, address, and current phone number and email address. Have you taken the tech route and posted your prior employers on LinkedIn? Have people write a recommendation on LinkedIn. It will remain there where employers can view it.

Provide a list of personal contacts who can verify where you have worked. It's not optimal, but in a pinch it just might be enough for the potential employer.

So just in case it's been awhile since you were employed, and especially if you worked for a company that went out of business or was taken over by another company, be sure to have a backup for your references. And good luck!

(Oh yes, in case you are interested, he got the job! One of his personal references who also happened to work for the company verified his employment.) That was a close call!