My Support Forums - View Single Post - How do you apply for jobs without references?

seesaw · May 16, 2019 at 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StreetcarBlanche

Good points. However, my former substitute teaching placement agency has broken the law then, by going into specific details with even my temp agency recruiters about assignments I was on, where students assaulted me, citing to the recruiter that is an example of my poor classroom management. So, the human resources people at my former substitute teaching placement agency can't be trusted to act as a professional reference for me b/c they are divulging protected information to prospective employers (my temp agency recruiters) about examples of my negative encounters with students.

So, my only recourse is to contact teachers I subbed for, whose classroom I had a positive experience in. I have zero administrative references except for maybe one; but that was from 5 years ago and is not current. So, is 5 years too old?

I did not realize professional references had an expiration date on them. I thought that was only for dairy products and organic produce you buy at the grocery store. I didn't think people's opinions had expiration dates. That is disappointing to learn.

I am not sure the exact laws about disclosing anything about incidents like "assaults" but if an HR manager who was not listed as a reference was contacted simply to verify employment and they said you had poor classroom management skills then yes, you could actually sue them. In fact, that example is distinctly why HR managers will not say more. They have liability.

You can use a reference that you haven't worked with in over 5 years if they are willing. I have one on my resume that hasn't worked with me in over 5 years but she still knows me. They would only be able to speak to their experience working with you, which is fine. But some people are uncomfortable providing a reference if they haven't worked directly with you in a while. I had a direct supervisor, after it had only been like 2 years since I left, say she wouldn't give me a reference, which was quite shocking, considering how close we had been, she cried when I left, etc., but I did find that she was quite two-faced, so, in the end it kind of added up.