Hi all,
When you have been for an interview in the USA, when does the company apply for references? Is it:
Before they offer the position
After they offer the position
Or no referencing at all

Also is it expected that you give your last employer as a work reference or can you give previous employers?

Thanks for any replies

Depending on the company and the position being applied for it could be any of the above, although the most common is probably to check references after an offer has been made and accepted.

I would certainly think that they would want a reference from your last employer.

Are you speaking from experience of the USA market. Did your USA employer reference you when offered a position and was this after you accepted the position? Thanks

My UK employer (which happens to be the MoD) was contacted and asked for a reference before I was offered the job.

Hi, thanks for the info. I wasn't sure whether they checked before or after a position offer. I have always offered positions with a subject to reference clause, so it may be that some companies in the USA do it the other way around.

Well here they most likely cannot 'offer' you the job before completion of criminal background and drug testing, the referencing forms part of that (at least in healthcare, where I work)

So the company applies for references? You don't take references from your previous company to your interview? I'll be doing a load of interviews in October I just presumed I'd take my references with me.

My experience has been (in California) not being asked for references. The companies have always done background and criminal reference checks, and never asked for specific contact info from previous employers.

When the background checks was government required, it was fingerprint based vs name/DOB based for private checks not mandated by government but required by the company.

All the companies I have worked for all had a no-reference policy so they wouldn't provide one anyhow. Closest was HR just providing basic employment info.

Date of hire, date of departure, last wage, and eligible for re-hire but no details of performance or opinions from previous managers.

Yeah I work for TNT and they do exactly the same kind of thing but I believe they grade punctuality and things like that, maybe. But I was going to get a personal reference from my boss himself just so that it actually says something good about me and he has agreed to do that. Oh well, I will probably just take them both to my interviews anyway, if they want to see them they can and if they don't then no harm done.

The companies I worked for in and around Silicon Valley would only give information on job title and beginning and end dates. Companies usually check before making an offer.

That is my understanding of how references generally work in the US - any degree of recommendation is avoided lest the hiring company is "disappointed" with their new recruit, and any degree of discouragement is avoided lest either (i) they pi$$ off their employee, and/or (ii) they get left with an employee the employer wishes had departed.

As a hiring manager I paid very little attention to "personal" references I was given, and AFAIK only HR checked (no more than) the basic "dates of employment" references for people I hired.

Before they offer the position
Yes, I have experienced that
After they offer the position
Yes, I have experienced that
Or no referencing at all
No, I have never experienced that

Bottom line is there is no 'Norm". I have taken to specifying exactly when and where I expect references to be contacted as part of the post-interview HR follow-up where this question typically arises. It has worked so far....

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated

So just to clarify something, when I get offered a job the company will most likely contact the company I work for here in the UK themselves?

I have worked for the same company my whole life so have never had to do any of this before.

Thanks.