The Off-List Recommendation

If you’re a dean or a department head evaluating a job candidate, should you call someone you know who works with the applicant, or used to? Someone who is not listed as a reference on the candidate’s CV?

Many deans and department heads I know routinely do that. Sometimes they tell the candidates, sometimes they don’t.

My personal policy is that I don’t call any listed references until I have contacted the applicant and given him or her a heads up that the checks are going to take place. Having said that, I don’t typically let candidates know when I am going to call someone who is not on their list of references.

Further, I only go off-list in rare cases — for example, in a search for a department chair — where it’s wise to have a more extensive review of an applicant’s background. I’ve heard through the grapevine that most of the administrative searches in which I have been a candidate have gone off-list in making calls about me.

My observation in faculty searches, though, has been that most off-list contacts simply reinforce the information that’s been provided by the candidates’ own references, so such contacts may have limited value. I do think, however, that their use is increasing since letters of recommendation continue to be so inflated.

If you’re a job seeker, are you surprised by the use of off-list contacts? For search-committee folks, how have you found such contacts to be helpful?