"We'll be checking your References..."

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I have had 5 interviews in the last couple of weeks and 4 of them have told me they would be checking my references. My references have told me no one has called them. I have heard back from 1 that was a no. I am due to hear back from 2 by Monday and still none of my references have been contacted. What gives? I felt like the interviews went great. Is this the new polite way of saying No?

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

1. It could be they haven't checked your references yet. Often it's not the interviewer who checks references but someone in HR, so the process may not be very fast.

2. It could be they opted not to check your references for whatever reason. There's no law saying that they have to check them even if they decided to offer you the job. They just reserve the right to.

3. Or it could be that you're not in contention for the job and they either haven't told you No yet, or are stringing you along in case another applicant bails.

All you can do is wait and see. Best of luck.

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Meriwhen: Thanks for the feedback. I am not very good at the waiting game...obviously haha

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Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.

They may have more candidates to interview. The person(s) doing the interviews may have had to set them up so the schedule was staggered according to what was already scheduled. That happened to me once. I interviewed during the first week of the month. The interview went well and she told me she wanted to hire me but that she had one more interview.

I went home confident. FIVE long miserable weeks crawled by. No word at all. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. My mom happened to call just then and when I told her I was still waiting, she suggested I come home for the weekend and go back Monday morning. It was about 150 miles and I went. About 10:00 am Monday morning, my cellphone rang. I got the job! :up: The reason it took so %$ long? That final interview had been scheduled for the Friday I had gone home.:speechless::banghead:

Don't give up yet! All sorts of things can delay hearing or checking. One manager told me that if she likes candidate, she may not bother to check references. Don't give up or lose confidence.

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Thanks sharpeimom! I will try to stay positive. Waiting over a month would drive me completely crazy...definitely a pleasant surprise when they finally called, I bet.

I guess I just thought they checked every reference every time. I hadn't thought that they may not even call them. Thanks for the comments :)

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
Thanks sharpeimom! I will try to stay positive. Waiting over a month would drive me completely crazy...definitely a pleasant surprise when they finally called, I bet.

I guess I just thought they checked every reference every time. I hadn't thought that they may not even call them. Thanks for the comments :)

My first job, they didn't check references...granted, it helped that a classmate was a long-time employee there and I put her down as the person who referred me to the position.

My second job, they checked EVERY reference...or tried to. They contacted all three, but decided they were happy with the first two they got that they didn't try contacting #3 again...or so the HR rep told me.

Third job...nope, no references called AFAIK.

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