I asked a job related question the other day on here and got some really helpful answers, so I was hoping you all could give me some further insight into this.
Basically, I have a chronic illness which means I spend most of my time at home and I’m largely disconnected from other people and don’t really have anything in the way of references. I’ve owned my own business for the last several years selling products online, but that business has been declining for awhile and I’m looking into customer service type jobs that I could do from home.
If a company asks for references, how would I work around that?
Use your friends.
If it doesn’t ask for a “professional reference,” that’s on them. Shit, use your mom.
This. Use friends, colleagues, people you know, that know you well and would be able to answer questions about your personality and work habits. The rest of the answers in the comments are not good advice.
What about in the absence or care of those due to being a more private person? It’s always felt somewhat strange to give a stranger some personal contacts simply to vouch for you…Or maybe that’s just me.
So much this! I think using references is bullshit so ask anyone you trust to have your back
Don’t lie, that’s bad advice. Instead, be honest just like you been here.
Tell them “I’ve owned my own business for the last several years, but covid hit me pretty hard. I haven’t had a manager that I’m still in contact with prior to those years”
Over on Reddit, there was a sub for people who would volunteer to write references and act as references. I don’t remember exactly what it was called, but there are helpful people out there.
Is your business rated on Google or Yelp? You could offer that to prospective employers because it reflects your customer service skills.
I’ve had to do hiring before, and I would not count a lack of references against you if you were upfront about being self employed. Heck, I’m trying to get my own business off the ground now. Being self employed for a decent length of time speaks volumes about your ability to be responsible.
Do you have any customers who could act as references? I’m not sure what you sell, but if you have a few people write statements that say ‘MossBear sold me a ____ and they were very helpful. They always have a great attitude and are very knowledgeable about ______’ or something like that.
References aren’t the end-all-be-all, but if you’ve done a job and you want to prove you did it well, finding anyone who can act as a witness to how you did that job is useful. It doesn’t have to be coworkers or a manager. Customers, suppliers, anyone: ‘MossBear has been buying office supplies from me for ____ and they always pay their invoices on time.’
Yeah, I do have a lot of positive emails from customers over the years. If that wouldn’t be weird, I could totally put that together.
As a person who has hired a lot of people, I think that’s completely fine, and way better advice than the people who suggested that you make stuff up.
That’s good to hear. I had one professional job before starting my own business and my boss from that job died several years ago, so my current and past customers is all I really have.
I’d put the dead boss as a reference. Even if they do try to call and find out what happened to him, they don’t know that YOU already know that.
There used to a be a reddit sub where you could post a a request for references and random people would offer to help. I don’t know if such a thing exists in lemmy land. Could you ask a neighbor?
I mean it’s just a customer service role, you know they need you. Your application will be supported simply because you are willing to work and a nice enough person showing enthusiasm.
Don’t lie, just tell the truth.
The American Dream: Unpaid Internship / volunteer To Gain References
Be honest. Say you don’t have references so that you intend to prove yourself from day one.
Most hiring we do is based on what we can find publicly and how the conversation goes. If you have more to show, that helps. We hire (developers) based on code and gut-feeling. We don’t do the roles you are looking for but if you have been looking for a longer time already, open an issue on an open source reository you care about and ask how you can help sort out tickets and ask follow-up questions.
Companies search for value (often money, but smaller copanies tend to search broader). For customer support I expect that to mean “low monetary investment (including training), high output”. Perhaps they need some flexible additional support. Ask them what they need, see if you can offer that, explain/convince how you will bring offer that and ask if they see improvements to the plan.
P: also what andrewgross said. Customers count, friends can count. And having ran a business that worked is a great reference to show you do what is necessary.
Claim you worked for twitter and was laid off. I doubt Twitter has a HR department to verify the claim but considering how public the layoff was they may just believe it.
You have to kind of hope though that your prospective employer does not use a company like HireRight to do a background investigation that includes references and may ask for W2s as proof. On another note, fuck HireRight. They’re fascists.
Ask some happy customers whether they’ll act as a reference.
I usually say “I’ve kept my work relationships exclusively professional and communication with references stayed within the scope of the project.”
Well… The thing is, employers are looking for professional references. What you describe doesn’t explain why you don’t have any references.
