When a Savvy Miss member asked the following question, we turned to Johnny Taylor for his expert opinion.

I was fired from my last job and now I’m terrified to have it on my resume and applications. I otherwise have great references. Can I just not mention the job I was fired from? Or, if I have really glowing references, will it cancel out that two month fiasco?



As human resource managers, we typically rely heavily on the references that an applicant provides, but we also understand that chances are good that these references are going to be favorable. (After all, why would you give us a reference who'd say negative things about you?) For this reason, employers will really "push" the reference to identify some of your weaker areas.

If all of your references claim you "walk on water" and none of them provide any constructive feedback, we will generally dismiss them. And in some cases, where we are conducting reference checks on the top finalists, the candidate with very positive but balanced references could edge out the candidate whose references are "too positive." In the situation where an applicant does not want us to speak with her former employer(s), thus leaving only the references she provides us to learn more about her past performance, this especially holds true.

Applicants should always provide solid references—people who can extol all of your virtues, but can be fair about your flaws—to increase their chances of being hired.

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., JD, SPHR, is Chairman of the Society for Human Resource Management and Senior Vice President of Human Resources for IAC/InterActiveCorp, the parent company to companies like Ticketmaster.com, LendingTree.com, AskJeeves, and Home Shopping Network. Photo © istock/Matjaz Boncina