what does it mean by 'references given as requested' ? I don't understand what is the reference means here.

This post has been edited by akira de aimbuster: Mar 23 2006, 09:49 AM

I think what they mean is 'referal', not reference. malaysian companies aren't exactly the best at definitions.

maybe yr ex boss?

References or referrals can mean someone you have worked for, maybe an ex-employer, university professor, or family friend

try to put those lecturers from Uni is good.... which is close to ya la...

i think what is recommended is 1 academic referee aka lecturer and 1 work/club society referee. Of course if you have more references it is no harm to put it in.

that's right. but be sure to inform those lecturers u r referring to.

last year i had a phone call from some firm asking me about one of my graduated student. god, i couldnt even remember the boy's name, not so much his face. apparently he was one of the boys sitting at the back, never ask questions and particularly not very interested in what i teach. i couldnt just say i dont know him, coz it'll affect his future, so i gebang and goreng just a bit, but not too much coz i dont know him.

he got the job eventually, so i called him up at the office and gave him a wallup.



so please, do INFORM ur lecturers. i teach about 30 students per semester, that's about 60 students per year. it's considered very small to other courses who teaches about 200-300 students per year. it's impossible to remember every single on of the students...

guess the student was damn lucky because you did "helped" him in the end. if not he'll definately loose that job offer

As an employer, a reference from a lecturer meant nothing on the argument that university employees know next to nothing about a student besides the grades they received.

The ideal reference comes from someone who works closely and could comment about what are both your strengths and weaknesses and doesn't have a personal relationship with you or your family.

I agree with this. I will prefer to select a person with managerial position to ask for info. The person has a reputation to live based on the words he say out.

References to put depends if you are experienced or not. For people who have working experience, the best to put is:

1. Ex-colleagues
- People who know you professionally and worked with you before.

2. Ex/current employer
- This may not be a good idea to put your current employer unless you are very sure he will give you a fair comment. Best is usually some ex supervisor or someone of managerial level that will speak good of you.

For fresh graduates the appropriate references are:
1. Lecturer (preferably the one that supervises your most important project in your studies)
- Make sure you pick the lecturer you are close with and that actually knows you

2. Friends (that do projects with you)
- This shouldn't be much problem for undergraduates.

It's always to put 2 different kinds of references. The first type are people that actually evaluates your work e.g. ex-manager/ex-lecturer, and the second is people of the same level e.g. ex-colleagues/friends because sometimes employer wants to know from them what kind of character you are which manager/lecturer will not be able to tell them.

Sometimes it is best to put on your resume that "references are available upon request" so you can actually give the people you plan to put as references a call to let them know they may be expecting a call to ask about you.

i dunno if u could say that for sure. at the time when they called, i wasnt sure which student this guy was. so i made up "stories" la. something very generic that is common to everyone like "hardworking, good at drawings yadda yadda".