Requiring Technical References...

[HugeWhale]

Any reputable agent(oxymoron?) will understand you can only give your last agent as a reference. Anything else is fishing.

Not my experience.
If an organisation wants you to project manage, say, a ERP implementation they want to hear from other organisations you've done this for before. Clients will sometimes want to know that you have a verifiable track record before they interview you. Not always, but sometimes.

[GreenMirror]

Not my experience.
If an organisation wants you to project manage, say, a ERP implementation they want to hear from other organisations you've done this for before. Clients will sometimes want to know that you have a verifiable track record before they interview you. Not always, but sometimes.

Any organization that gives a reference can be sued.

If I really had to give a technical reference, I would never involve the agent. I would only give it to the client.

[LondonManc]

Not my experience.
If an organisation wants you to project manage, say, a ERP implementation they want to hear from other organisations you've done this for before. Clients will sometimes want to know that you have a verifiable track record before they interview you. Not always, but sometimes.

Never heard of that it my life. Did an agent tell you that?

[HugeWhale]

Did an agent tell you that?

That's it.

[FIERCE TANK BATTLE]

Any organization that gives a reference can be sued.

If I really had to give a technical reference, I would never involve the agent. I would only give it to the client.

I agree in principle but the dilemma is, what if you are 50/50 sure a job is genuine based on the lengths they went to explain it, but that they will not put you forward without a reference?

That is where I found myself and after losing a couple of potential gigs to this I caved.

I would much prefer to have money and vaguely possibly piss off some people, so I figured calculated risk.

[LondonManc]

I agree in principle but the dilemma is, what if you are 50/50 sure a job is genuine based on the lengths they went to explain it, but that they will not put you forward without a reference?

That is where I found myself and after losing a couple of potential gigs to this I caved.

I would much prefer to have money and vaguely possibly piss off some people, so I figured calculated risk.

I think you'll find the probabilities are the reverse of what you've suggested.

[man]

I've had this asked of me before and I simply invite them to get in touch with people who have recommended me on LinkedIn as the way I look at it, this information is already publically out there so I'm not giving anything away. Have also previously had an end client do exactly this (ask a LI recommender) without asking permission (fortunately the recommender was happy to back up their recommendation so I got the gig - and I don't blame the client for checking).

I've yet to provide an agency with anything else in relation to 'technical references'. It's all a load of rubbish anyway, as people who like you will (hopefully) say you know plenty about the technologies and those who don't will probably say you're rubbish irrespective.

If anyone does feel like giving away more, don't give them your hiring manager details otherwise you really have fallen into the 'just 2 references' trap.