What will the people you worked with REALLY say about you?

"...it's all good and besides, my reason for termination wasn't performance-related, they even said so."  Or maybe this, "...they can't say anything bad about me because that's defamation.  All they can legally do is confirm my title and dates of employment."

Well, in my experience very rarely are things "all good" and that absolutely applies to employment reference checks.  As for the second statement,  depending on the laws of the state in which you are/were employed, your previous employer may safely be able to say anything about you that is true as long as it meets the following criteria:

• Job related
• Based upon credible evidence, and
• Made without malice

So it's completely realistic, again depending on state law,  to expect a former employer to say that a former employee "had a history of being late which negatively impacted the project", or that "they were verbally abusive to co-workers as documented in their employee file", or anything else that meets the above criteria.

While many companies, especially those with structured HR departments, will refrain from giving detailed reference checks opting instead for Employment Verification, that may not prevent Steve in Marketing (at your prospective employer) from calling his friend Janice in Marketing (at your former employer) to see what she "thinks" about you and if she knows why you're available.  Social Media/Networking is so pervasive it's only realistic to assume that people will leverage their social networks for professional purposes too.   

Now try answering my original question, "What will the PEOPLE you worked with REALLY say about you?" Don't know or don't like but want to change, see me at www.otbcoaching.com and we can talk.

BTW and just so you know, people in HR usually don't even bring up the phrase "performance-related" unless on some level it was...vinny