Random Thoughts

It makes all the sense in the world for employers to do some research on job applicants before hiring them. One way to do this, of course, is to talk to people who know the applicants.

Some employers prefer to call people whose names have been provided by the potential employees. Others ask the people on the list of references to write letters of recommendation for applicants.

In the years that I have been employed at Northwestern Oklahoma State University (NWOSU) I have been on several search committees to hire new faculty members.

In the process, I have called references and I have read numerous letters of recommendation. I find the latter to be basically useless.

For one thing, people will lie in letters easier than they will in person. They will invariably tout applicants as being more qualified and easier to work with than turns out to be the case.

Moreover, the people writing the letters are those who were chosen by the applicants. What job applicants can’t find three people to say good things about them?

I’ve always thought that Jack the Ripper could submit a small list of people who would swear that he was a really nice guy who would fit in well with the organization looking to hire someone!

Another sneaky tactic that is used typically in higher education is for references to say something good about someone when they don’t mean a word of it!

If higher education administrators have an employee that they do not like, they will lie about the employee hoping that he or she gets a job at another institution.

Sometimes, however, applicants put on their list of references people who refuse to lie for them. A college administrator (who did not work at NWOSU) once told me that he had fired a teacher who then turned around and asked the administrator to write him a letter of recommendation.

So the administrator wrote the following: “John Smith has asked me to write him a letter of recommendation. This is it.”