Don't Be a Pest

While it's important to stay in touch, you also don't want to become a pest. If you haven't heard anything from one of High Probability recruiters as described above for a couple weeks, go ahead and shoot them an email to let them know you're still on market. In long-term though, you don't want job searching to be only reason you're in touch with a recruiter. Try to find out (in a phone conversation or in person) what some of their interests are. This gives you an opportunity to have something else to mention when you email them. For example, if you find out person is fanatical about college basketball, you can email them if there was a great game on TV night before.

Another way to keep up a relationship with a recruiter is to offer to be helpful to them. Networking expert Harvey MacKay has talked about how a friend of his, a former coach of Notre-Dame football team, would always end conversations by asking sincerely if there was anything he could do to be helpful. In a recruiters case, they may have hard to fill positions that you could help them with by asking your friends if they know anyone who could be a good fit. If you demonstrate your willingness to help them, they will be much more open to maintaining a relationship with you, even if they do have a hefty workload and work schedule.

Using Non-Employer References

If you don't have a lot of good references from former employers, non-employer references can be helpful too. Generally, a potential employer will want at least two references from former employers. But if they require three references, you may be able to provide two from former employers and one from someone else. Professors, former co-workers and customers can all be good references if they know you well. If you have a choice between providing three lukewarm references from former employers or two lukewarm references from former employers plus one glowing reference from someone you didn't work for, latter is probably better choice. A survey done by Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) found more than eight out of ten human resource professionals regularly check references, so don't count on an employer not contacting a lukewarm or bad reference.

Legal Issues

There are a lot of misconceptions about legal issues surrounding reference checks. Some job seekers mistakenly believe that former employers can only provide dates of employment, position titles and salary history. Even though many companies have established regulations specifying that managers are only to confirm dates of employment, position and salary history, many managers are either unaware of these regulations or simply ignore them. Legally, an employer can provide as much information as they want about your tenure with their organization.

As long as a former employer does not knowingly provide false information in a reference check, it is fair game. An employer can legally say or write negative things about you if they are just opinions. For example, employer could say "John was a horrible manager." What is not legal would be for an employer to knowingly provide false information. For example, if a former manager didn't like you, they could not say "John started a fire in our office building that caused thousands of dollars in damage" if it was not true. Regardless of legal rules, you do not want your references to say bad things about you. There are companies that for a small fee will call your references and provide you with results. If you suspect a reference you're using is saying unfavorable things, you may wish to consider using a reference checking firm. Alison & Taylor is one of leading companies in this market. To find out more about them, visit this link: http://www.jobsearchinfo.com/at.htm