One of my references is my manager (has professional email provided by employer) and the other is a co-worker who knows me very well and taught/mentored me but does not have a professional email provided by the company. JET desk told me an hour ago that in order for co-workers reference to be valid, I need to prove they work at my place of employment. We don’t have any personal business card here as we’re a small family-owned grocery store but I do have numerous photos of past and current schedules with co-workers full name on it AND my manager is also their manager. Should I tell JET desk that manager can verify that co-worker works for them?
First time ever using a co-worker as a reference as you can see. My former professor backed out as a reference today as they are on sabbatical now :/
Kinda panicked that this has jeopardized my application
Thanks.
4 comments
I don’t know for sure, but it sounds like you’re overthinking it
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I think you need to contact the desk and ask them for clarification. It’s incredibly normal in the real world for people to use references with personal email addresses. If your old boss no longer works at a company, they’re still a good reference, but they don’t have the company email address. In other settings, you might be getting a reference from a boss at your current company, who is okay with giving you a reference, but you haven’t told any other co-workers and don’t want them to find out until after the new job is signed and dotted.
But anyway, they want proof, they say, and they’re not a court of law, so it seems to me that a picture of a list of employees or a screenshot of something or any kind of graphic that has the name of the place and the person’s name on it should be sufficient.
I’m from Canada and explained that when I applied (November 2021), my coworker got laid off and didn’t have access to her work email and they accepted her personal email. No verification was needed but our situations are different.