Recruiters for SWE/ Data science positions are hounding me for references. I’ve burned a lot of past bridges so this is nontrivial for me. But it seems like for startups and large companies alike, references are treated like a formality if considered at all, since they like to believe their interview process will tell all. So the question is: are recruiters on one or is it really true that these are important? They claim they want references up front so as to verify their quality prior to providing them to companies.
How’d you burn bridges
Nice
Nothing dramatic, basically just completely ghosting on superiors that thought I was their friend but I secretly hated.
Yes they care
As in they’re assessing skills/ abilities of candidates by it?
To my knowledge, it’s not a reference as in good or bad because that gets everyone into a lot of legal trouble. It’s confirmation that you worked there. Give the main line to your company and someone will basically ask did so and so work there from x time to y time? And the main line will say yes or no not whether you were good or not.
Great. Simple enough.
Elaborate on legal trouble: does it get the givers individually in trouble with their company?