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Controversial #academic opinion:
Search committees shouldn’t request letters of recommendation from candidates until the phone interview stage, at the earliest. Take the pressure off of the candidates, their mentors, and the committee members.
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@beatnikprof @academicchatter In the UK we don’t seek references until after we decide we want to invite you to the interview so that’s really not so controversial
@emmalbriant @beatnikprof @academicchatter yep agree Emma, that's the way it should be. References should be confirmatory evidence, not part of the screening selection process
@academicchatter @emmalbriant @beatnikprof I’ve only ever had my references checked (or been checked with as a referee) after a decision has been made to offer the job to the person. You put people’s names down at application stage and clear it with them, but I think that’s a lot fairer, and a lot less work all round!
@_sorcha @academicchatter @emmalbriant @beatnikprof I've had that (in Canada) only for non-academic jobs: a phone call or an email with questions to answer about the candidate.
Don't ask for letters until you've decided they're finalists. Some people are trying to move because of bad, bullying, management. It's not your place to reveal their desire to leave before it is necessary.
@beatnikprof @academicchatter why is this controversial? When appointing I don’t get references until we are about to make an offer, as a check.
@profwinikoff @academicchatter In the US, letters of reference can come in as part of the first round of materials.
@beatnikprof @profwinikoff At my U.S. institution, reference letters are never requested. We call references in very final stage.
@profwinikoff @academicchatter @beatnikprof For what it’s worth, I don’t apply to jobs that ask for letters up front.
@beatnikprof @academicchatter ...and even if you ask letters, the goal should really be only that of knowing about undetectable potential issues with the candidate, not to use the to assign points on any scale - way too arbitrary!
@beatnikprof @academicchatter yes indeed. It is a large burden to prepare recommendation letters for each position considering that the "success rate" is really low.
Request of contacts of the recommending persons is also a viable solution.