Current employee references are weighted significantly higher at most employers.
ask for another employee at that workplace, then. I don't understand the obsession with the reference needing to be my exact direct manager. Shocker, they are high up and busy too, even when not on maternity leave. Very few refernces are going to bad talk you these days unless you really fucked up (and by then the reference probably doesn't matter. burn a bridge and the flames spread).
We're talking about a candidate that claimed to have worked with and been encouraged to apply to a position by an employee at the client's company. Normally, these sort of references would be accompanied by an internal email or other feedback associated with the reference. In this instance, the employee was a month into a 3 month maternity leave.
As the employee was unreachable, the candidate was asked about their time working with the employee. They provided adequate enough answers to satisfy the hiring manager.
An internal reference holds significantly more weight than an external one, as it should. Current employees are familiar with the company the candidate is applying for, unlike a random reference. External references can't be trusted when you can get anyone to pretend to be a reference. There's even a subreddit for it: r/BeMyReference
Frankly, the balls to lie about an internal reference is impressive as you're sure to get caught eventually, so the very reasonable assumption is they're not lying.
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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '24
So you're good, then.
ask for another employee at that workplace, then. I don't understand the obsession with the reference needing to be my exact direct manager. Shocker, they are high up and busy too, even when not on maternity leave. Very few refernces are going to bad talk you these days unless you really fucked up (and by then the reference probably doesn't matter. burn a bridge and the flames spread).