by Stephanie Meehan

After all the interviewing is done, you have one more hurdle before you accept your next job offer: References.

Employers will want three to five professional references. A professional reference can speak about your performance on the job. If you're a recent graduate, professors able to vouch for your academic, communication and technical abilities can be strong references.

Good professional references may be recent supervisors, co-workers (not subordinates), customers, vendors or suppliers, pro-bono clients, or volunteer committee members. Don't list your close friends, minister and relatives They cannot give employers the information they need to decide if you should be interviewed or hired.

You want to provide professional contacts who know your work and think you're great. Your goal is to present several knowledgeable, articulate and enthusiastic references.

I have followed up with references who turned out to be the candidate's golf buddy or college roommate from way back. They may provide unique insights about the candidate, but for solid information about how the person solves problems at work, they are not much help.

Be sure your people are willing to provide a reference for you, and send them a copy of your resume. Furnishing an outline of your background and accomplishments is very helpful to anyone willing to speak about your strengths in the workplace.

When creating your list, keep in mind this is not an exercise in name dropping. It is wonderful to know important people, but if they are not able or likely to take a phone call during business hours to provide a reference, you need to find someone more accessible.

After you get permission to use each person as a reference, you need to provide your recruiter or hiring manager the following information about each one:

• Full name and title, if any. (Titles would include Colonel, Doctor, Professor, Judge)

• Phonetic pronunciation of the reference’s name (if required). For example: "Sienkiewicz" is pronounced: "sin’-cavage."

• Job Title

• Organization’s name

• Business mailing address including ZIP

• Daytime phone number including area code and the best time to call (if applicable)

• The reference’s private e-mail address (if available)

• The reference’s professional relationship to you (former supervisor, current vendor, colleague, and the like) and the number of years you have known each other professionally.

You may improve your chances greatly if you have a powerful LinkedIn page, particularly if your page includes recommendations and endorsements. If you have such a page, and you are satisfied it represents you well, you will want to include the URL to your page when you email the other information listed above.