References and Linkedin

[dspsyssts]

Best not step out of your house without your tin-foil hat then.

I generally dress as a Jedi knight to avoid detection...but thats got me thinking now, could there possibly be a correlation between that and my recent lack of interview success?...hmmmm...I never get a straight answer from HR when I ask "where can I store my sword?"

[NotAllThere]

...
Paranoid?....I need to be to survive.

Best not step out of your house without your tin-foil hat then.

[BolshieBastard]

You can easily search on a company on Linkedin and get a good list of employees, not difficult to get hold of someone who knew you.

Paranoid?....I need to be to survive.

You can search for an employee list but the company wont know who your manager at the other company was. Even if they fire off emails to every employee, they wont get the info you seem to think they could.

The manager could even have moved on.

[dspsyssts]

Bloody hell, paranoid or what!?

If its a new employer, they cant see your LinkedIn contacts until they link with you. I dont know anyone who'd link with someone at a company they are thinking of joining so I dont see how the scenario you describe can happen.

Dont see how they can go and ask anyone you've worked with as they wont know whether they were a manager or not etc.

You can easily search on a company on Linkedin and get a good list of employees, not difficult to get hold of someone who knew you.

Paranoid?....I need to be to survive.

[BolshieBastard]

Standard company references are quite basic, I understand because they are concerned about being sued if they say something bad about you.

Though how would you know they had said anything negative?...do you have the right to tell your prospective new employer to reveal what was said?

Anyway aren't potential employers now using Linkedin to find someone at your previous and ask them what you were 'really' like?....

Anyone experience this?

I'm concerned about Linkedin being used against us.

Bloody hell, paranoid or what!?

If its a new employer, they cant see your LinkedIn contacts until they link with you. I dont know anyone who'd link with someone at a company they are thinking of joining so I dont see how the scenario you describe can happen.

Dont see how they can go and ask anyone you've worked with as they wont know whether they were a manager or not etc.

[NotAllThere]

As a manager, if I received calls out of the blue asking me about a specific contractor, even if they had worked directly for me, I'd tell the caller to go away. Probably not all that politely. Most managers would.

What I have done is had an informal chat with people who I already know who may have worked with the candidate. At least when I first was in a hiring position. I don't do it now - it doesn't add value.

[dspsyssts]

If you don't link to someone who'd say bad things about you, then what's the problem? nd if they contact some guy on your linked in, then chances are, he'll inform you.

Normally permie route for going for a job. 1) Go for interview 2) Get offered job subject to references. 3) company take up references.

If at that point, you get turned down, you know it's because of bad references. Then you go legal, and it all is revealed in court, that your manager in the company you worked for 8 years ago said that you were a dimwitted smeghead, with the social graces of a mangy hyena, or suchlike. You get healthy damages, and retire to Iceland to enjoy the dust, ash and lavaflows.

No as this is a contractor forum I am thinking from a contractor perspective:

You go for int, manager seems to like you, goes to Linkedin (not to your conected references of course) but just searches for anyone on Linkedin from your previous company, preferably managerial, ideally your line manager! and has an 'informal' chat with them.

Hay its what I'd do as a potential hiring manager! lol!...

[The Wikir Man]

Then you go legal, and it all is revealed in court, that your manager in the company you worked for 8 years ago said that you were a dimwitted smeghead, with the social graces of a mangy hyena, or suchlike. You get healthy damages, and retire to Iceland to enjoy the dust, ash and lavaflows.

Alternatively, they prove that you are a dimwitted smeghead, you get no damages and end up working in Iceland until you retire.

[Fred Bloggs]

Another reason to hide your connections, then.

[cojak]

You don't have to put any employer on who you had problems with or you send invites to people who you got on with (unless you teed them all off, of course).

You don't have to put every little detail into your profile.

Mind you, I've done nothing that could be 'turned against me'.

[NotAllThere]

If you don't link to someone who'd say bad things about you, then what's the problem? nd if they contact some guy on your linked in, then chances are, he'll inform you.

Normally permie route for going for a job. 1) Go for interview 2) Get offered job subject to references. 3) company take up references.

If at that point, you get turned down, you know it's because of bad references. Then you go legal, and it all is revealed in court, that your manager in the company you worked for 8 years ago said that you were a dimwitted smeghead, with the social graces of a mangy hyena, or suchlike. You get healthy damages, and retire to Iceland to enjoy the dust, ash and lavaflows.

[dspsyssts]

Standard company references are quite basic, I understand because they are concerned about being sued if they say something bad about you.

Though how would you know they had said anything negative?...do you have the right to tell your prospective new employer to reveal what was said?

Anyway aren't potential employers now using Linkedin to find someone at your previous and ask them what you were 'really' like?....

Anyone experience this?

I'm concerned about Linkedin being used against us.