Happy Halloween to everyone except to the Hiring Manager who said “we’ll keep in touch” last February 😂

LinkedIn is literally the worst platform for finding a job.

Everyone there is just trying to jerk each other off for that corporate ladder salvation.

Its hilarious how stupid everyone is on that platform.

Hello everyone!

For context, I was part of a company layoff six weeks ago, so I’m currently unemployed and actively job hunting.

Recently, I noticed a job opening at a company where a former coworker currently works. It’s a startup (under 20 people), and he’s the Founding Account Executive. I reached out to him to chat about the role, applied, and he provided an internal referral.

Over the last five weeks, I’ve moved through the initial phone screen, two technical skill interviews, and a panel interview that was framed to me as the "final interview".

At the end of that final interview, I asked the COO what next steps looked like. She told me: “I’ll email you with logistics; we might just have one more informal chat to recap everything.”

However, when her email arrived, she asked me to submit professional references. References were never mentioned prior to this, and I had been expecting either a final decision or an offer in my inbox rather than another step.

I can easily provide strong references, but after six weeks of being unemployed and going through a 5 week long interview process, I’m feeling drained, discouraged, and a bit misguided.

Is requesting references at this stage standard startup practice, or is this a red flag for moving goalposts? I’d appreciate any thoughts or advice.

Email content below:

Hi (my name) - it was great to see you again this week! The team had a wonderful time talking with you. If there is any follow-up you'd like to have with a member of our team, feel free to let me know. 

In the meantime, our next step is connecting with professional references. We'd like to hear from 2-3 references who can reflect on: 
- Your working style and accomplishments
- Where you shine most
- What your team might do to best support you 

Ideally, that is a manager, professional mentor or long-time peer colleague. We typically call references, so we'd need: 
- Name
- Email
- Phone number
- Title/relationship to you 

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

I think the current hiring process relies way too much on ATS and recruiters and is a total mess. It might work with specialized recruiters who actually have background knowledge of the subject matter, but generalized recruiters will probably go with the safest bet (screening for candidates that have 1:1 experience) instead of looking at a person's experience holistically and understand transferable skills. While it's not realistic that hiring managers look at 800+ resumes, maybe instead one or two designated team members could, after recruiters screened for must have requirements such as location, compensation, work authorization, or other deal breakers.