"So, just because a guy has a bad reference it does not mean that he's necessarily bad."
This is so true. Years ago I was brought into a company specifically to improve their software quality process, but without being aware one of the company owners (of which there was two) was against be being employed for that purpose. I uncovered a lot of incompetence and outright corruption with some employees. The 'good' owner went on stress leave, and then pressure was brought to bear on me, resulting in me quitting on the spot one Monday morning; not my proudest moment, but I couldn't take the pressure any more, and my ally was no-where to be seen. Fast forward a decade, and I interviewed with someone who used to work at the same company; it turns out that my leaving had been framed as 'fired for incompetence', and word had been put around part of the local industry that I was hard to work with, unreliable, bad at my job etc. I laugh about it now, but at the time it really bothered me about the possible damage done to my career and reputation.
This is so true. Years ago I was brought into a company specifically to improve their software quality process, but without being aware one of the company owners (of which there was two) was against be being employed for that purpose. I uncovered a lot of incompetence and outright corruption with some employees. The 'good' owner went on stress leave, and then pressure was brought to bear on me, resulting in me quitting on the spot one Monday morning; not my proudest moment, but I couldn't take the pressure any more, and my ally was no-where to be seen. Fast forward a decade, and I interviewed with someone who used to work at the same company; it turns out that my leaving had been framed as 'fired for incompetence', and word had been put around part of the local industry that I was hard to work with, unreliable, bad at my job etc. I laugh about it now, but at the time it really bothered me about the possible damage done to my career and reputation.