Yup. This is especially true if a person is still employed. I've known bosses to give absolutely glowing references to otherwise-unfireable people just in the hopes of getting rid of them.
Imho references to people you don't know are close to meaningless, especially in the tech field. It's good to know where a given candidate has worked before and what his duties were. But that's normally in their CV and from there it's all up to your judgement and testing.
A few more reasons why references are worthless:
- Many countries have laws that explicitly forbid said references to tell you anything that could "hinder the candidates efforts to find a new job".
- Without knowing the company and people the candidate listed as reference you have little means to judge their assessment.
- Even if a candidate delivered perfect results in his previous environment that does not mean he'll function equally well in your environment. Your people, your tech, your salary will all be different.
The article looks like the typical pseudo-science to me (is the author selling a book, perhaps?). In reality the references are amongst the smallest factors to consider.
At least in the tech-field a skilled interviewer will know what he needs to know after an hour of talking to the candidate. Paperwork is secondary.
