While sitting around listening to Outkast’s Bombs Over Baghdad this afternoon, I got a phone call from an unrecognized number. I picked up the phone and it was someone calling to check a job reference. Somehow I feel very important when I’m asked to be someone’s job reference! 
Anyway, as I did with the first employment reference, I will post the questions the lady asked and my responses (since people found the last one helpful):
“Tell me about him.” ["What do you want to know?"]
“How is his work?” ["We used to work together and his work was great. One of the things that was required of our jobs was paying attention to detail, so that's definitely one of his skills."] (I didn’t want to give the cheesy “He’s a perfectionist” line…although he is!)
“How does he work on teams?” ["We worked on a variety of teams together with people from across the globe, so yes, I would definitely say he's a team player."]
“How are his graphic design skills?” ["We were more on the management side of a lot of projects so we didn't really get into the nitty-gritty. Unfortunately I can't give you an honest judgment on those skills."]
“How was he in terms of showing up to work on time and things?” ["Him? No problems at all. In fact, he would come in on weekends when he was off and we'd have to tell him to go home!!"]
“So he likes his jobs then?” ["Yeah, if he's in, he's in all the way."]
“OK, great, thanks.” ["No problem. Have a nice day"]
I answered all the questions as honestly as I could. I feel like I have to be careful that I’m not hyping up the person too much, but then again, if I agree to be your job reference it’s because I DO have good things to say about you and I’m happy to do so. If I don’t agree to be one of your job references, it’s most likely because I think you’re an idiot and/or incompetent. It’s very rare that I refuse to be someone’s job reference. I got the good news that he was hired today. Congratulations!! 2 wins – 0 losses for my employment references! 