The answer to this question is – you don’t.

References are best found on a separate sheet, which can be forwarded to a hiring company when needed.

It’s also worth noting that including a specific reference at the back of a resume, such as “References available upon request” is no longer needed. Hiring companies will ask for this information from your client, whether that line item is present within a resume or not.

Basic Reference Sheet

First Step: Who Should Your Clients Use & How Many

Normally, the best references are people for whom your client has worked with — or in cases where your client is new graduate and hold limited work experience, you can list references that he or she knows personally.

Your client should have at least 3-5 references.

When deciding on what references to use, have your client write down the names of everyone who can vouch for his/her work habits and character. They may include:

• former supervisors
• former colleagues
• former college professors
• personal friends
• relatives who know your client well

Second Step: Advise Your Clients to Talk To Each Reference

Nothing is worse than putting somebody on the spot when a prospective employer calls out of the blue. Advise your clients to talk to these potential references, before they get any surprise phone call from someone asking for a reference. Another tip is to ask their preferred method of content, such as email, telephone, or both.

Proper Format

As mentioned above, the references page should be separate from the resume and handed over to prospective employers only when requested.

This said, here is what a “professional” reference (supervisor, co-worker) should look like:

John Dough
Manager In Charge of Everything
Mindless, Inc.
6971 Asphalt Street
Anytown, PA 14923
(555) 555-5555
[email protected]

A personal reference is similar, except that you need not include job title and company:

Mack K. Maus
1122 Fantasyland Drive
Anaheim, CA 91172
[email protected]

There…that was simple enough, wasn’t it?

If you’d like to download a basic reference sheet, you can download one here.

Advanced Reference Sheet

One of the nicest examples of a reference sheet I saw by a colleague looked more like a reference recommendation sheet.

For example, the reference sheet utilized the same header as the client’s resume in addition to the a consolidated header and tagline that outlined the individual’s job target and brief breakdown of the individual’s most relevant skills.

Then, the sheet included the reference’s name, employer, and then contained 3-5 sentences from each reference that served as testimonials.

This way, the hiring company can avoid calling each reference.

To get a better idea of what I’m talking about, you can download an example of a more advanced reference sheet here.