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Talent Market's mission is to promote liberty by providing talent for critical roles within the free-market nonprofit sector

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Talent Tip #42: Recommendation Investigations, Your Reputation, Kiss Cams, and My Dream World

February 19, 2013

I know what you’re thinking. How in the Sam Hill is she going to tie all these things together? Well, stay with me.

In the last few weeks, I’ve seen some interesting things transpire related to recommendations, referrals, and references.  It occurs to me that there are three issues we should discuss. Here goes.
1. Recommendation Investigation: Is a Referral Necessarily a Recommendation?  Hiring managers often receive applications that start with lines like this, “My friend John Doe suggested I apply for this role.” At first glance, you’re inclined to think that John has offered his tacit recommendation for the candidate. And, of course, that’s exactly what the applicantwants you to believe. Not so fast, my friend!

When this happened recently, I went straight to the source. It turns out the candidate had reached out to John Doe for his thoughts on the role, and all John Does had done was direct the candidate to the official application instructions. Furthermore, when I asked the source for his honest assessment of the candidate, it was far from a glowing endorsement.

Moral of the story? Be sure to investigate cases such as this to determine what the referrer really thinks of the candidate.

2. Your Recommendation, Your Reputation. Have you ever had a less-than-stellar former employee or co-worker ask you to serve as a reference? Talk about awkward. It reminds me of that time I was on a (sub-par) first date at a hockey game and ended up on the Kiss Cam.Ugh. But I digress.

Serving as a reference for someone with questionable talent or ethics isn’t just awkward – it’s dangerous. If an organization makes a hire based on your recommendation, it could come back to negatively affect your reputation.  My advice is to politely decline reference requests unless you can enthusiastically endorse the candidate.

3. My Recommendation Dream World. In my dream world, people would be honest when they receive reference calls (official or not). They would provide glowing recommendations only when warranted, and they would share important information to inform the organization’s hiring decision.

Sadly, we don’t live in my dream utopia. We live in a lawyer’s Shangri-La: a litigious society in which giving a negative reference may expose one to legal liability.  So, what’s a person to do if he has less-than-positive feedback and a concern about liability? My non-lawyer advice is to provide a neutral reference or simply refuse to provide one at all. It’s not ideal; but, at least, you can sleep at night knowing you didn’t provide a load of horse fertilizer to an unsuspecting employer.

Oh, and in my dream world, I’d never end up on the Kiss Cam on a bad first date. Sigh.

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About Us

Claire Kittle Dixon
Executive Director

Claire runs the day-to-day operations of Talent Market, manages searches for clients, and oversees the organization’s fundraising communications, technology, administration, and cat-herding efforts…
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Katy Gambella
Director of Outreach

Katy oversees Talent Market’s outreach to young professionals and manages the outreach team. She also manages searches and executes outreach directly herself…
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Stephanie Keaveney
Senior Manager of Outreach
Stephanie splits her time between managing talent searches for free-market nonprofits, maintaing Talent Market’s social media presence, and engaging in outreach to young professionals interested in liberty-oriented careers…
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Bailey Drouant
Project Manager
Bailey assists free-market nonprofits with their hiring needs by helping them manage the search process from start to finish…
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Savannah Rupp
Project Manager
Savannah channels her expertise to manage searches for free-market nonprofits, ensuring they find the perfect match to drive their missions forward. She also supports Talent Market’s…
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Wait, You’re a Nonprofit?

Talent Market is a nonprofit. We’ll wait here while that sinks in. We know it’s a crazy concept, but it’s been working like a charm since 2009.

Talent Market’s mission is to promote liberty by providing talent for critical roles within the free-market nonprofit sector.

We provide consulting and recruiting services at no cost to 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations that clearly and directly focus on advancing the principles of economic freedom, free enterprise, free trade, free speech, property rights, rule of law, and limited regulation. (We do not work with political organizations, organizations with mission statements that do not clearly advance free-market principles, organizations that focus on social issues, or organizations that have a focus outside of the United States. We are not a job board. ) 

Talent Market believes that the road to prosperity is paved with freedom and that the success of our movement hinges on the talent that will take us there.

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