Ok, as so many others, I’m now one of the teeming job searchers. In my case, I’ve spent a bit over 10 years working in a family run business.
THE QUESTION:
How the heck do I provide references in this situation?
My google-fu skills are lacking and I’ve not been able to find examples for this, so can I trouble someone who might know?
I am totally at a loss as it just feels wrong to put family members as a professional reference and I worked as a service provider without a specifically personal customer base so can’t really use customers. I’m aiming away from the industry I’ve been in to boot. (Travel/tourism).
Any suggestions would be extremely appreciated.
Fist of all, references do not go into the resume.
Were there people you worked with professionally in your field like travel agents, cruise promotional people, airline representative that could give a reference for your professionalism, problem solving, etc.
For the real question, surely you interacted with someone as part of your job. If you arranged travel for businesses, a manager there might be good. If you had contacts at suppliers who know you and who you might have solved problems with, that would work.
Maybe if you tell us about your job it would help.
I do of course have “references on request” on the CV, the question arose now that I’ve been asked to provide them. On the first batch I’ve submitted, I’ve been using non family coworkers but that sounds wrong to me.
My background is not that complicated really - family run travel agency, started working there after high school and while I went to Uni, and when I came out with my degree (Political Science) I continued working there (it was passable money). Eventually started managing one of the offices. Ran the day to day as well as all the IT stuff, training, contract negotiations, etc. I didn’t do any direct hiring personally though.
I finally had enough of the industry and left. A friend of mine managed to get me a post with the company she was working for, so basically got that job with little trouble (they knew about my family in the prior job) so the reference issues was moot (as I was vetted by my friend and I interviewed well). That job was only for a temporary contract (no chance of extension unfortunately, though they did offer me something else in the same company but it required moving and I wasn’t able to at for personal reasons).
So now I’m applying “normally” by submitting resumes and I’m very concerned about what to put on my reference list.
For the last year (bit more) at the agency I didn’t really deal with clients focusing mostly on reworking the backoffice, technology, reorganization of all the office to try to streamline and maximize profit (they were being run very much “old school” with obsolete equip and even hand written invoicing in one of the branches).
Either way, there wasn’t any ‘one’ individual outside the agency that I developed any sort of connection with.
The turnaround for employees in the industry is actually pretty intense, no one I knew back then is still working in the industry at all. (Least not with the few I’ve kept in touch with).
I’ve been away from it for over a year now, so what few contacts I had outside the agency have for the most part been lost.
I do have good references from the company I worked with afterwards (and am using them) but that makes only one reference. I’d like to use those 10+ years to my benefit, but… not sure how.
I think in your situation it’d be kosher to use someone from your family business as a reference. Most employers only ask for pretty basic information from your reference – dates of employment, duties performed, etc. Obviously a random family member will just say “cptsquid is a great guy, hire him”, which will be discounted by any recruiter, so they’d rather not have such references in the first place. But in your situation, there’s presumably some family member who ran the business who will say “cptsquid is a great guy, he worked for me for 10 years, totally modernized the office, you should hire him”. As long as you disclose the relationship, it should be fine.
Also you’ll have another reference from your most recent job which should corroborate whatever your family business reference says.
Any chance you can get a reference from someone in the family business who isn’t related to you? That should round out your list of references pretty well.
I used a former coworker (who’s more family friend than anything) in the first batch of references. I’ve gotten a couple call backs, so hopefully it’s good enough.
I was just really unsure how to handle the family connection bit. I’ll play it by ear and hope for the best. I realize many employers would feel iffy about it, but as you say, hopefully the corroboration from the other company will suffice.
If they have a different last name, don’t lie but don’t reveal the connection. If it is the same last name then be honest. Perhaps they would use them just to confirm your duties, etc. My personal opinion is that they assume all reference will be great (otherwise why us that person) and that if they want you, they’ll hire you and the “three references” is just to check off a box on a form.
Of course on my last job hunt, a few school district grilled my references about me so YMMV (especially in these hard times).
Had any regular customers over the years? They could explain the great service they use to get from you and how helpful and friendly you are and your great communication skills.