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No references for new job interview
I'm 23 years old. I've been looking for work for months now after leaving school due to medical issues in October. I finally got an interview, but I've run into a problem. I don't have references. Here's why:
Last job: Had a legal battle with the owners of the company. They were chronically disorganized and claimed to have paid me for my last month of work when they hadn't. I had to hire a lawyer to get them to pay me, and even then they refused to give me the overtime they owed me. So I didn't leave on the best of terms with them.
Previous job: Another small, family-owned business. The owner, I was warned, gives terrible references because she wants you to keep coming back to work for her. I can't rely on her for a good reference.
Before that: Nobody I worked with is still there.
I haven't done volunteer work in ages, I haven't done... well, much of anything over the last year other than school, and I didn't have any sort of relationship with my teachers where I could ask them for a reference.
What do I do? Is it strange to bring just character references? My interview is on Wednesday morning.
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Of course you've done volunteer work. You did some last weekend. You've even got a story about it, if they seem interested. You don't need to tell them "I haven't done it in ages" you just need to tell them "I enjoy doing this and here's why [anecdote]"
Job interviews are about convincing someone that you can do the job and that you can put the public face they require on for the duration of business hours.
Businesses want you to be able to lie. When you hate your boss, you have to be able to pretend that you don't. When you're bored, you have to be able to seem like you're not. When you get in a legal battle with the owners of a company, you have to seem like you worked somewhere else and none of those things ever happened to you.
Cut out the bad, take the good, and fill in the blanks with whatever you think they want to hear. Just make sure you have an answer and a story for every question they might ask you about what you decide to use to fill in those blanks.
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Hi, I'm old enough to be your grandfather and I hope the wisdom of my age can be helpful.
Have you ever heard the saying; "If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all. That applies to references from former employers. Legally all they can say about your employment should they not want to give you a reference is that yes you were employed there. They can not give a reason for your departure or say anything about the legal matters you two were involved in. To do so opens them up to more legal matters from you.
You are free to explain to your employer that they refused to pay you your last months wages and what you needed to do to collect them. I would recommend doing so as no recommendation can be a red flag.
I once left an employer for a new job and had to sue them for commissions they withheld as their cost to replace me. Totally illegal for them to do so and the courts sided with me forcing them to pay me what they withheld plus interest, attorneys fee's and costs. This was tens' of thousands of dollars and until I retired I had to explain this to future employers. I don't think it was ever held against me.
Being fresh out of college most employers are not looking at past work experience as much as there are looking at your college experience. Type up a resume showing your school history with grade point averages for high school and college. High grade point averages are just as good an indication of the type of person you are as former work experience at this point in your life.
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Well, you do have a bit of a problem, unfortunately. It will be a strike against you if you can produce no work-related references. However, 23 is fairly young, and a potential employer may not expect you to have many references to call.
I suggest that you be straight with the interviewer about your most recent employer. You don't have to give all the details, but DO provide the contact informations and explain the situations briefly, such as -
"There were some legal issues surrounding my leaving my last job, and regrettably I am no longer on good terms with the business owners. They can confirm that I worked there, but they made it clear that I shouldn't look to them for a reference."
Insofar as the job before that, I suggest you test the waters. Have a friend call and ask for a reference as if they are a potential employer, and see what she has to say. Maybe it'll be positive - and if it's not, then you should probably call her yourself and tell you that you don't appreciate the way she's trying to sabotage your career, and that you're prepared to take legal action if she does it again. It actually IS illegal for a referrer to be very negative about a previous employee, even if everything they say is true.
The one before that job: provide contact info even if no one there knows you. The record of your employment will still be on file.
Your teachers may not have known you very well, but they can vouch for the fact that you took their classes, and whether you passed them.
When employers call references, for the most part, all they expect to hear is confirmation of previous employment. Anything else is a bonus. It will count against you that you don't have any great references from previous employers, but it won't necessarily prevent you from getting the job. How you conduct yourself in the interview is of far greater importance.
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