Make sure the reference you provide is expecting a call.

Even more important....make sure they will say good things about you! It's unbelievable the number of references that tell me NOT to hire the applicant!

An acquaintance I went to high school with, Andy, once used me as a reference for those stupid pyramid scheme (you pay 100 bucks for our knives then go around trying to con other people into it / buying the knives). Since we were only acquaintances, I didn't know his last name, AND I didn't know his name was Andrew!

Heh

They called me and I was like ''who? Sorry never heard of them"

Then they tried to convince me to sell their Knives.

No thanks!

Needless to say, this reminds me of several incidents that I encountered with the nursing staff that I managed and had to let go on my previous facility. Having said that, one in particular comes to mind a nurse on the 7-3pm shift no matter how many times I had a chat with her regarding coming to work on time, she would always walked in around 9:am or 9:30am. However, she would leave on time. Therefore, I change her shift to accommodate her schedule, since she was a single mother of 3, but she still manage to come in late after that. Then she began to miss work all together, so I had to let her go. Consequently, a month later she gave my name as a reference to a clinic nearby that was hiring

I got a call from another DNS asking for a reference on someone who had worked for me. I didn't mean to but when she said I was given as a reference I burst out laughing and said "You're joking, right?!?". It was a very small area and all the directors were very honest with each other off the record about applicants.

helping a friend on 2nd grade motivated her in becoming a nurse..hehe nice!