Any help with Search references?

[chi_yo]

Wondering about getting help with my Search profile. All my admins have always seemed happy to give me references, I have positive reference letters from them as well and good apraisals from any observations etc.... It has become apparent though that one of my Search confidential reviews has some not so great stuff in it, which is really hurting me. I have more references than I need but because all my references seemed happy in doing it for me there is no way to know which one(s) in particular should be removed. I'm pretty desperate to resolve this to the point of wanting to leave my e-mail and see if anyone with access could give me help, but I'm guessing nobody would go out on that limb for a stranger or I would either just get trolled or in trouble with Search.

Part of me understands that it is part of why they want confidential references, so people can say what they believe. But a bigger part of me thinks that someone writing a reference for someone should have enough integrity to just say no if they think it wouldn't be that good, since I have a lot of other people I could have asked. In no way am I interested in holding a grudge against who it was, or ever mentioning to them about it. I don't want anything except to reduce the amount of references I am using, while making sure I am getting rid of the right ones. This is obviously something that could potentially have a big impact on my life.

Any advice on this would be appreciated. I am sure my associate at Search will not give me any help so this is really all I have.


Thanks

[PsyGuy]

Talk to your associate, and see what they say, they wont tell you whats in them, but they can remove the offending reference and have you submit another one.
It doesnt have to be a written reference, they could all be generally positive or neutral and the recruiter/HOS calls or emails them and they could be sabotaging you that way.

[chi_yo]

Thanks for your response. I have enough information to kind of know that it is in a reference. It is not one that completely slams me but at least enough to probably keep a lot of schools away. My understand of the associates is that they will remove a review but only if you tell them which one. If they just remove a bad one, that would kind of be like telling me it was that person which throws the person writing the reference under the bus. At least that is how I imagine they would approach it. Since I don't know which review it is, I can't tell them which to remove. Like I said, already have more reviews on there than I need.

[wrldtrvlr123]

chi_yo wrote:
> Thanks for your response. I have enough information to kind of know that it is in
> a reference. It is not one that completely slams me but at least enough to probably
> keep a lot of schools away. My understand of the associates is that they will remove
> a review but only if you tell them which one. If they just remove a bad one, that
> would kind of be like telling me it was that person which throws the person writing
> the reference under the bus. At least that is how I imagine they would approach
> it. Since I don't know which review it is, I can't tell them which to remove. Like
> I said, already have more reviews on there than I need.
=======================
There really is not much that you can do other than to try and appeal to your associate to advise you which references (if any) you might want to remove. We were in a similar situation in that an interviewer asked me a question in such a way that made me very suspicious of something that might be in my Search references ("So do you feel you are a team player? Any reason someone would think you are not" or something like that). It did not necessarily have to be a negative comment just one score that was marked lower than others for whatever reason (the references are quite short and some admin probably just click through without too much thought about it). Our associate was not much help but we eventually narrowed down who it must have been and asked to have that reference removed. No idea if it really did any good or not in the long run or if there really was anything there that needed removing.

If your associate won't help and you can't/won't approach the reference(s) directly (generally a bad idea unless you have a great relationship with them and if you did you wouldn't have to worry about what they wrote) then you might need to just gamble and remove a reference that you feel hinky about. Hopefully it is not a reference from your last/current school as most recruiters would want to speak to them directly before making an offer. Good luck!

[scribe]

Contact your Search representative - they work for you, too. Make sure you have more than enough references, then ask your rep. to remove the least helpful letter as it would be superfluous anyway. (By checking which letters remain in your file, you'll know whose was removed and can avoid using that person's name as a reference in the future.) This would likely not work with your current head of school, though, as most prospective employers will want to make that contact as a routine part of the process.

[jschott]

My experience suggests that Search will drop you faster than a hot potato if you prove to be a problem. You're like a share of stock to them. If the promise of dividend decreases or disappears, Search will move on. Search doesn't "work for you"; Search works for itself. You're a means to an end. And it's not your end they're worried about.

[PsyGuy]

@chi_yo

Contact your associate and ask them to review your references, and ask if everything looks good. While your associate doesnt work for you (they work for the IS, and you are just a commodity), its not going to serve their goals of collecting a placement fee, if they dont place you.