Job Advice: Overcoming a Bad Character Reference
| The Scenario: You just scored a sweet interview at a firm that's a big step up. As you start your prep work, you suddenly realize he is there. Yes, him. Joe Jerk—the guy you butted heads with over the years like a hypercompetitive mountain goat. He moved on a while ago and is now in a senior position at the company you want to join. You won't be working with him if you get the job (whew!), but there's little doubt that your interviewers will ask him about whether you're worth hiring. And that just might be the difference between your getting asked to climb aboard versus hearing, "Thanks, but we're going in another direction." |
It’s a simple workplace fact: Personalities clash. And another workplace fact is that the higher you go, the fewer positions there are, which increases the chances of having clashed with someone who later becomes important to your career. How you respond and deal with the past will help define how you’re perceived professionally and personally. Do you still get the job done with excellence? You better, for right now your situation is like well, imagine General Stanley McChrystal interviewing for a job and finding out that — Joe Biden will be weighing in on his personality. So how do you gain control over a potentially uncontrollable situation? Here are three key techniques.
1. Stay cool.
Your initial response may be to panic, but don’t let the fear factor determine your actions here, advises Janet White, author of Secrets of the Hidden Job Market. “Do you want to get hired, or play games? Your instinct is to defend yourself against this person’s potential attack, but you need to go against that instinct.” Why? Well, an attack may never come. You’re actually focusing on your ego here thinking that Joe Jerk cares what happened between you a long time ago. Do you really think that you command that much free real estate in his brain? If he’s a senior level person years removed from any conflict you may have had? He is not evil incarnate (not literally, anyway), but a human being, and “as a human being, he’s the center of his universe,” say White. “You are not.” Right now, your first priority is to kick ass in that interview. Speaking of which2. Pre-empt your interviewer.
Companies don’t interview people to pass the time. If you’re there, they are really interested in you. But if you are still concerned about what Joe Jerk might say about you, try planting a positive seed with your interviewer. Mention that you know Joe works over in XYZ department and that you used to work together. The key? “Remove personality from the conversation and focus on the work,” says Alison Doyle, a job search expert for About.com and author of Internet Your Way to a New Job. Say you and Joe did some solid work together and you really respect how he ran his department. You can see why they hired him.
Why say such positive things about someone you clashed with? It’ll probably get back to Joe Jerk and it might help your cause — after all, positivity is contagious. “Again, he’s a human being. And time may change how he remembers you,” says White. Even if Joe Jerk later badmouths you or says you’re difficult to work with, you’ve presented yourself to your potential boss in an entirely different light, and maybe you’ve even sown some doubt in your interviewer’s mind about Joe’s judgment.
3. Deflect any blowback.
Your interviewer may not mention what Joe’s said about you — he or she is more likely to consider any criticisms from him privately against what you present in your interview. If that’s the case, you need to make any potential negatives from Joe seem completely incongruous. So if you clashed with him over, say, how you handled your staff, then you’ll want to ensure you have rock-solid management credentials on your resume, and also that you’ve lined up references and allies to attest to your emotional intelligence. For the interview itself, make sure you’ve prepared detailed anecdotes to reinforce this idea.
And if your interviewer does come out and ask you questions about your past with Joe? Avoid the instinctive need to defend yourself. Instead, deflect, says White. Here’s a reasonable response: “I guess Joe and I may have had words at some point, but that was years ago. I’m sure you’ve had some clashes with folks over the years. Personality clashes happen, but I still have nothing but respect for him. We did some good work.” At which point, you talk about that good work. In detail. The bottom line here is presenting yourself at all times as a solver of problems, not a creator of them. After all, a person who is able to navigate the stormy waters of personalities in the workplace is an asset to any firm.
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