Regardless of your career level, it’s important to be aware that many companies engage in unofficial reference checks to assess your character, past performance, and overall suitability for their organization. Despite the formal removal of these practices from official hiring processes—which traditionally required your consent and involved providing 2-3 professional references—many companies still conduct these checks behind the scenes.
These unofficial references can offer insights into your professionalism, work ethic, and other qualities, influencing hiring decisions without your direct knowledge or consent. It’s crucial to understand this reality, regardless of the career sector you choose. This is one of many untold practices that can work either for or against you when seeking new job opportunities.
Although the world contains over 8 billion people, the narrowness of professional circles can be surprising. Often, someone within an organization may have connections to your past, such as attending the same school or having mutual acquaintances. They might confidentially seek unofficial references from professors, counselors, or former colleagues. The professional networking circle is smaller than you might think. As someone who has worked in People and Talent, I’ve seen countless candidates either gain an edge or lose out on opportunities due to these backdoor references. It can be baffling for candidates who make it to the final rounds of interviews but fail to secure the position, not knowing the true reason.
The key lesson here is not to take your day-to-day actions lightly. Strive to be professional, collaborate well with others, and go the extra mile for your team. Your current actions can significantly impact your future job prospects due to potential backdoor reference checks. I’ve witnessed candidates miss out on job opportunities because of negative feedback from someone they worked with over a decade ago.
While these unofficial tools, like backdoor references, aren’t perfect, believe me when I say that every organization, I’ve been a part of conducts them.
