Why Job Seekers Should Start Asking Employers for Their Own References

Requesting professional references from job candidates is standard practice for nearly every company across all industries. This step lets hiring teams verify a potential new hire’s work history and core skills, vet their overall fit for the role, and assess whether their character and work style align with the company’s culture.

So why is this mutual due diligence almost never done in reverse? Why can’t job seekers request references from a prospective employer’s past and current staff to vet the organization they are considering joining?

Anonymous review platforms like Glassdoor do offer some worker-generated insight, but outside of the rare case where a disgruntled former employee publicly calls out their old employer on social media, there is no formal, structured system for job seekers to run reference checks on companies. Publicly criticizing a former employer is widely labeled unprofessional, and can even open the worker up to legal retaliation, making it an uncommon and unreliable source of honest feedback.

This common-sense argument recently went viral in a Reddit post that laid out the idea simply: “Jobs keep asking me for 3 references, and I think I might start doing the same,” the post read. “Let me talk to three happy employees please.”

The logic is impossible to ignore. Most people double-check diner reviews before booking a restaurant for a special date night. Before committing to a big-ticket purchase, shoppers scour the internet for recommendations and customer feedback to confirm they are getting a good, quality product. Why should taking a new job—one of the biggest professional and personal commitments most people make—be any different?

Many commenters in the Reddit thread shared that they already put this practice into work informally, with great results. “When I get a formal job offer, I always ask to come chat with the people who would be my peers or direct reports (since you almost only ever talk to upper management and your would-be boss during interviews),” one user commented. “Do people not normally do that?”