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Ask HN: Is providing references common to get tech jobs?

3 points by softveda ↗ HN
I have recently been offered a job by an US tech startup, the role is outside of US in the country where I live. They have offered me the role and I have accepted the offer. Now they have asked me to provide references from my current and past jobs, they must be my managers. Is this common in US? How do people provide reference from their current place of work?

3 comments

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byoung2
I have only had to provide references twice in 12 years. I have alerted my managers ahead of time and they indicated a willingness to provide a reference. I left off my current job (I always find a new job before quitting the current one).
simonebrunozzi
Not too common in my experience, but certainly way more common in the US compared to other parts of the world; it might depend on the type of role: I would guess that a tech job (e.g. software engineer) relies less on references compared to, say, a sales role.
onion2k
It's incredibly common here in the UK.