Anyone experiences that your potential new employer asking "May We Contact Your Current / Previous Employer?"?
Instead the HR insisted to reach superiors / bosses / top management who may provide more detailed info than my colleagues aka friends/buddies.

There are 2 reason for this imo. First it tells me whether the candidate is open and honest or has something to hide. An unwillingness to allow might set off warning flags. Second, it applies more to middle and upper mgmt to verify what is stated in your cv, and get a perception on how the candidate did in the previous employment. This question is one of those tools that is useful to gauge the potential candidate. For me, any hesitancy to answer this question tells a lot.

as my case, the head of department offered a position to me as confirmed for employment yesterday and any HR related issues can deal with him only.
Out of sudden, someone titled "HR & Admin" requesting for more details and expecting for the of contacts current / previous employers.

after some thoughts, I decided open book instead as thinking transparency to new employer, list down all my previous and current bosses no matter had conflicts before or not and highlight the reasons for previous resignation, eg: staff welfare, poor sales performance, different thoughts/mindset, etc.

However regret that I hostile purposely to current boss for the past few months as I planned to propose for early release during tender resignation for allowing me to join the new company soonest. Unsure what my current boss will feedback to the HR today.

you choose to be hostile so your current boss will let you go early?
lesson learnt is that always try to be civil cos you dont know you might meet again.
dont worry prob HR just wants to double check your current salary you claimed in your interview.

bcos my boss have "cost-cutting" approach, eg: move to smaller office size for rental saving, management retrench some staff and closing down offices.
thought the early release will "help" the company for some saving, on top of that I sitting duck in office doing nothing too and enough spare times to play games in office as too boring. so I rather join the new company early for new works without wasting precious time for nothing.

It's pretty obvious they're serious about hiring the candidate and wanted to make sure this person:
- not a troublemaker
- no lying
- no misconduct
- work attitude is good
etc

Colleagues, seniors, buddies oftentimes would usually put in good words rather than give an objective feedback. If I'm the HR, i'd also prefer to hear from the previous employer, or the reporting supervisor/ manager.


HR should know better than anyone that there's always 2 sides to the coin. If your ex employer threw out some pretty severe accusation, they'll check with you on some of the facts of the 'story'.

Then it defeats all purpose of the employers asking that question isn't it? If that is the case, they can just say something along the lines of "We may or may not contact your ex employers for work reference or background checks". That question is redundant to say the least.

Like another user here has already mentioned - your issue for lashing out at your superiors. No matter how much you do not like or disagree with your superiors, you do not lash out at them. If you disagree, best you can do is to discuss with them a better way out for you. Like you mentioned, your company is cutting cost and what not. If you have interacted with them nicely, they may have agreed to let you go at an earlier time.

One of my previous employers was like that. They let me off earlier than the required serving months and I don't have to pay for the extra month's salary in lieu of. Next employer, try not to do this again.


Fair point. I have to agree with the "putting in good words for you" part though. Sometimes they may even go the extra mile for you if you were nice to them. Just sad that there weren't a lot of those kinds of employers...

not too sure what you meant by your statement and why it is redundant

Not encountered this and if there is, my answer will be no. The logic is simple, if HR don't divulge the identity of the candidates they are interviewing, they can't expect for me to disclose to my existing employer that i am evaluating other job opportunities. If the HR insist, this is not a company I will be interested to join unless they have an extraordinary reason for this.

Your latest pay slips should already sufficient for most companies to do background checks.

What about previous employer? Not current employer. What would u say?

Previous employer sure, no problem

[QUOTE]

Because that kind of question "doesn't mean much" if they are still gonna ask anyway, isn't it?

my friend who is a manager had this experience once.

he once had a subordinate with work attitude problem (always push his task to other colleague and likes to borrow money). later on, this problematic subordinate wanted to hop to other company.

the other company contacted my friend about this subordinate's history and he did not say anything bad about him. he just mentioned briefly that this guy is an all rounder. the reason is because my friend would prefer if the other company take him in than to stay in current company.

needless to say, the problematic employee got the offer and resigned a month later.

in other words, contacting a previous employer may not be a good move too if they want him out desperately. just put in a few good words and let the employee move out, hoping he will never come back.

This post has been edited by klch87: Jan 7 2021, 09:13 AM

An asshole move but I get why your friend did what he did.

in fact, my boss mentioned that my paid is at the high side of the market rate as my position but still retaining me. True enough, no increment and little incentive (upon request only) for the past recent years. Hence, retrenchment and cost-cutting approaches (happened before MCO), sound like hinting I getting irrelevant to the current company anymore. but still unsure what my boss commented about me, unsure how the HR generate the report and still puzzled for employment letter even though head of department confirmed to take me.

but i understood where the new employer come from, 2 interview conducts, questionnaires filled for better understanding on my previous working performances & attitudes which spent me 1 whole day to puzzle out all my memories and experiences in paper and almost giving up for submission since HR asking for more references' contacts, that HR contacted my current and ex colleague but unsure any of my superiors contacted or not as I didn't inform up-front about the phone call interview from my new employer. but still i open book and honest to that HR for the reasons of resignation, eg: staff welfare, poor sales performance, irrelevant assigned jobs, etc which leaded conflicts with my boss and no expecting for good comments.

This post has been edited by gkl83: Jan 7 2021, 11:04 AM

judging form your comments, i guess your new employer wants to really know how well you performed in your previous company because your pay is already at the high side of the market.
their concern is that if wrongly hire you but cannot perform then it will be a waste of hiring process.

i guess if you are honest and hardworking employee, there is nothing to be worry. cheers.

my major issue is, company going downhill and downsizing and I cant perform with my full strengths.
If I cant perform as their expectation, they can terminate me during the probation anyhow.

anyhow, I just received a call from head of department.
They no going to proceed for my confirmation due to negative comments from my contacts.

Unsure why my boss want to retain me back but I no longer have the passion to work for the company.
but still I pursue with head of department that their HR should no judge the people from one side comments only.

i see. thanks for the feedback. if you old boss wants to retain you meaning you still valuable to them.

continue to pursue for your next career. all the best!

They have the right though.

That's why always quit in a proper manner.


I was very lucky with my previous employer.

Got 2 awards and a very friendly Team Leader.

WTF, I received my previous boss phone call just now. He is one of the references provided to the HR.
He said that someone called him for phone interview about me and asked why looking for new jobs.
He mentioned that his current company have some staff resigned and "see how". I felt like sabotaged purposely.

This post has been edited by gkl83: Jan 7 2021, 01:25 PM