reference-check

name	Reference Check
description	Verify what a candidate claimed, without turning a reference into a character poll.
category	Hiring

Reference Check

Check specific claims. A general question about somebody produces a general answer, and general answers about people are close to worthless.

When to use

• An offer is close and a must-have rests on something only a former colleague could confirm.
• A scorecard flagged a gap that a reference could actually close.

Steps

1. Decide what you are checking before the call, from candidates.gaps — one or two specific claims, named.
2. Ask about behaviour in situations, not about qualities. "What did they do when the migration failed" rather than "are they resilient".
3. Ask what the reference actually saw. Second-hand impressions get repeated with the confidence of first-hand ones.
4. Do not ask anything you could not ask the candidate, and nothing touching a protected characteristic. This is a legal boundary as well as an ethical one.
5. Record what was said on the candidate row as evidence, in the reference's words. Not your impression of the tone.
6. Weigh it as one input. A reference contradicting a strong interview signal is a reason to probe further, not to reverse a decision on its own.

Output

Evidence recorded against the specific gaps it was meant to close. If the check did not close them, say so — an inconclusive reference is a result, and the hiring decision is the operator's either way.