Rate Your References

Leveraging Personal Semiotics and LinkedIn to Ensure Your References Come Through.

It’s down to the final three candidates for the job you want, and really need. You’re still in the running. It’s the moment you’ve waited for and feared. You’re asked to provide three references who can speak to the quality of your work and on-the-job relationships.

You look at the names you planned to use and hesitate for a minute. Do you really know what they’ll say and how they’ll say it? And did you choose the best people to stand up for you? Because there’s a lot riding on their input.

For many people, the default strategy is to offer your most recent boss(es) and your best friend or two in the workplace. However, this approach may not be in your best interest – particularly if you’re not sure what they’re going to say.

Personal Semiotics can be your decision-making lifeline in this situation. It helps you categorize and evaluate your prospective references in a way that illuminates their differences. Social networking then enables you to test their feedback in advance. Here’s how.

1) Create a Personal Semiotics Paradox Map that measures the following positive attributes: High influence (potential employers would place greater value on references from these sources) and high trust (you’re confident these references would say very positive things about you while not inadvertently revealing shortcomings).

2) Plot all the people you identified as potential references within the map. Now write the names or initials of other people who you did not initially consider. These may include the boss of your former boss, the owner of the company, a former client, a former supplier, people who worked for you, people who worked alongside you and perhaps even a competitor. Also consider adding a mentor, teacher, fellow volunteer or someone who knows you outside of work on a personal level.

Please see the Paradox Map example below and assess what you learned from this exercise.

Were you surprised by the results? If you labeled the top of the map as high influence and the left as high trust, then Quadrant 1 reveals your most valuable potential references. At the same time, it should be easy to eliminate anyone in Q4 – those categorized as having low influence and low trust.

3) If you have at least three to five people in Q1 that you feel good about, then you can now create your second Personal Semiotics Paradox Map with the labels articulate at the top and strong personal knowledge on the left. (Their opposite descriptions go at the bottom and on the right.)

4) For your second Paradox Map, plot just the people from your first map who fell in Q1. (See the example below.)

This provides a deeper examination of the criteria by which you want to pick your references. You already believe that these people have high influence and high trust. Now you’ll segment this potential support team further by rating them on how articulate they are (in communicating your advantages) and how well they know you. Those who fall in Q1 on this second map should be ideal – but there’s a way you can test this in advance.

Make Sure Your Friends Pass the Social Test.

Anyone searching for a job is probably already familiar with LinkedIn – a social network where your profile serves as your visual resume. One of Linked In’s powerful features is the ability to have colleagues or friends submit a recommendation for you online. If you approve of what was written (and you always have this option), then any visitors to your profile will be able to see the recommendations you’ve accumulated.

5) Send a LinkedIn Recommendation Request to any of the people in your Q1 spaces.

By doing this before companies start asking you for your list, you’ll find out what your references think of you, how willing they are to say good things and how articulate they are in expressing them. If the recommendation is not what you’d hoped for, then don’t risk using them with a potential employer (and maybe not on your LinkedIn profile either).

On your first Paradox Map, if key people from your overall potential references fell in Q2 (high influence and low trust), you also may want to test what these people would say about you via a LinkedIn recommendation as well. You may find they thought more of you than you knew, and they’re very articulate at expressing it. This added trust can help you add new people to your list of potential references.

So get going! Combine the evaluation and categorization power of Personal Semiotics with the immediacy of social networking to give yourself every advantage in landing your next job.

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