How to Run a Reference Check
That Actually Reveals Something

Most reference checks confirm what you already think. They’re scripted, surface-level, and produce a stream of positives from people the candidate hand-picked. Here’s how to run a reference check that genuinely surfaces what interviews can’t — the working style, the failure modes, and the things you most need to know before making an offer.

Why Most Reference Checks Fail

The standard reference check fails for three structural reasons. First, candidates only provide references they know will speak positively — the selection is already biased before the call begins. Second, referees know they’re being asked formally and respond accordingly — carefully, positively, and without nuance. Third, the questions interviewers typically ask (“what are their strengths?” “would you hire them again?”) are designed to produce confirming answers, not revealing ones.

The result: reference checks rarely change a hiring decision, which makes them feel like a formality — which makes them less useful, which confirms the belief that they’re a formality. They don’t have to be. The references that change hiring decisions use different questions, a different conversational approach, and often different referees.

Who to Call — and How to Find Referees the Candidate Didn’t Give You

Two calls with the candidate’s hand-picked references are the minimum, not the maximum. The most useful reference calls are often with people the candidate didn’t list — former colleagues, managers two levels up, direct reports if the candidate has managed people.

How to find them: LinkedIn is the primary tool. Look at the candidate’s career history and identify people who would have worked closely with them at each relevant role. For senior hires, your network often overlaps — ask your investors, advisors, and peer founders whether they know anyone who’s worked with this person. A single backchannel reference from someone in your network is often worth more than three formal references.

For each role the candidate has held: try to speak with at least one person who managed them, one peer, and (for leadership roles) one direct report. These three perspectives reveal different dimensions of how someone actually operates. For your first engineering hire or sales hire, consider the reference process in our engineer hiring playbook and sales hiring playbook.

How to Open the Conversation So People Actually Talk

The opening of a reference call determines how much useful information you get. A formal, transactional opening — “I’m doing a reference check on [name] for a role at our company, could you tell me about your experience working with them?” — produces a formal, transactional response.

The opening that works: “Thanks for making time. I want to be upfront — I’m not looking for a positive recommendation, I’m trying to understand how [name] works so we can set them up for success if we bring them on. I’d love to get your honest read rather than a sales pitch for them.” This reframes the call as collaborative rather than evaluative, and gives the referee permission to be more candid.

Establish early that this is a two-way conversation. Describe the role briefly — what the person will own, what the environment is like, what success looks like. This gives the referee a frame for their feedback and often prompts them to volunteer relevant observations before you even ask.

The Questions That Surface Real Information

“In what environment does [name] do their best work — and what environment would frustrate them?” This question consistently produces the most useful responses. Most referees will give you a genuinely nuanced answer because it’s framed around fit rather than quality.

“Can you tell me about a time they had to navigate something genuinely difficult?” The specific situation they choose, and how they describe the person’s response, reveals far more than any competency question.

“How did they handle feedback? Can you give me a specific example?” This surfaces one of the most important traits for early-stage hires — whether the person can receive and act on direct feedback without becoming defensive.

“What would their direct reports or close colleagues say about working with them? What would the 10% who found it harder say?” The second part of this question is where the gold is. Asking about the minority who had a harder time gives the referee permission to share a more balanced view.

“If you were building a team from scratch, would you hire them? For what role specifically?” The “for what role specifically” clause is the key. A referee who enthusiastically recommends someone but subtly narrows the role type is telling you something important about where this person is and isn’t strong.

“Is there anything I should know that I haven’t asked about?” Always ask this last. It’s where the most important unsolicited information surfaces.

Reading Between the Lines

References almost never say negative things directly. What they do is hesitate, qualify, or redirect. Learning to read these signals is the real skill in reference checking.

The long pause before answering a specific question about a specific situation. The pause means they’re choosing their words carefully — there’s something there worth probing.

Enthusiasm that collapses when specifics are requested. “They’re absolutely brilliant” followed by an inability to name a specific example of that brilliance is a pattern worth noting.

Redirection to strengths when asked about challenges. “Yes, they could sometimes move faster, but honestly their thoroughness was such an asset” — when a referee pivots immediately from a challenge to a positive, they’re managing the narrative. Probe the challenge specifically.

Praising traits that are table stakes. If a referee’s strongest praise is “incredibly hard worker” and “always on time,” ask what specifically they achieved. Work ethic praised in isolation sometimes means achievement is hard to point to.

Backchannel References

A backchannel reference is a conversation with someone who knows the candidate but wasn’t listed as a reference. These calls are often the most candid because the person isn’t in “reference mode” — they haven’t been prepped and don’t feel the obligation to be careful.

The right approach: frame it as a casual conversation, not a formal check. “I’m thinking of bringing [name] on in a [role] capacity and I know you’ve worked with them at [company] — I’d love your read if you have 10 minutes.” Most people are happy to give it and more candid than they’d be in a formal reference call.

Ethical caveat: backchannel references are entirely standard in hiring. The only line to respect is not asking backchannel contacts at the candidate’s current employer without the candidate’s knowledge — that creates risk for them that they haven’t consented to.

---

Get 50 more prompts for hiring, people ops, and team building — free.