Comment by acdha

In three decades, I’ve had some call me to check a reference only twice for private sector jobs. The federal government actually does this as part of background checks so it works but you need to want to badly enough to pay real money.

The other problem is liability: companies often tell their employees not to give references for fear of being sued if the employee doesn’t work out, and most companies don’t expect useful information from them unless someone left in a way which has a public record like a court case. The federal checks don’t have that problem because not answering honestly is a crime. You’d need some kind of shield for honest statements for the private sector to really get accurate assessments, and that’s tricky to do in a way which allows the most useful opinions.