I hate the whole concept of references. I don’t want to ask a favor from someone in my past. I don’t want to keep contact info for former bosses or co-workers.
Our society is like:
Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps.
Have personal responsibility.
Your success or your failure is 100% due to your good or poor choices.
Employers: “By the way, you are going to need help from some strangers in your past in order to get a job with our company.”
Companies are constantly trying to figure out how to pay workers less. I would absolutely take less money if the hiring process didn’t have so much hoop-jumping. How has capitalism not figured that one out yet?
Ask your friends. I used to have a home business, and I keep my website active so it looks like I still exist or just recently closed down. If any of my friends need a reference, they know they can put me down and I’ll be happy to say they did whatever they want. A glowing review. “When they were placed in charge of logistics, they reworked our entire system and nearly doubled our efficiency while cutting previously-unnoticed losses.” or whatever fuckin business nerd words are good.
That’s what I told my best friend and brothers. List me as a previous freelance boss, I’ll lie for them, fuck companies.