pat@u1100a.UUCP (Pat M. Iurilli) (12/21/84)
Beware being used as a technical reference on somebody elses applications!
Apparently, even though I think it is unethical, employment agencies,
executive recruiting firms, consulting firms, head hunters, etc., ask for
technical references in most cases, not to check on the technical ability
of the applicant, but to acquire potential persons for recruitment.
A friend of mine sent out resumes to several firms offering jobs in the
NY-NJ area about 6 months ago and used my name as a reference when these
firms contacted him about the jobs and he filled out an application.
Since then, I've been getting letters, post cards, telephone calls,
even electronic mail, asking me if I was interested in "bettering myself"
or "improving my career" or the like. Basically they had gotten my name
as a reference (a fact that they freely admitted) and were just checking out
of the goodness of their heart to see if they could possibly help me out.
I am outraged (but not surprised) at such a practice. So my advice is:
Be careful and very selective when agreeing to let someone use your name as
a reference or you might get beseiged by well wishing head hunters. By no
means am I trying to say that is happens all th time, but it happened a lot
of times, and then the persons who got my name gave it to others and so on...
Pat Iurilli Bell Communications Research, Piscataway, NJ
{allegra,ihnp4}!pyuxqq!pat