I Asked My Former Boss to Be a Reference. It May Have Cost Me the Job.

"You may be jumping to conclusions about your former boss. Your interviewers could have been nasty for all kinds of reasons. They might already have known who they wanted to hire (possibly an internal candidate) and were irritated that they had to interview other people. They may intentionally haze candidates to see how they hold up under pressure. They might have been mad at one another. Or they could just have a nasty office culture. You're probably lucky you didn't take a job there!"

"Do you know if the interviewers even spoke to your boss or other references? Many hiring committees save that step until after the interviews and after they've chosen their candidate, as a final due-diligence check. References and letters of recommendation aren't as important in most fields as you might think, though a particularly bad one would stand out. To ease your mind, ask your boss for advice about the interview and tell her how weird it was."

Interviewers' nastiness can stem from many factors unrelated to a candidate or their references, such as internal hires, deliberate stress-testing, interpersonal conflicts, or a hostile office culture. Many hiring committees conduct reference checks after interviews, so references may not have influenced interview behavior. References and recommendation letters are often less decisive in most fields, though an explicitly negative reference can matter. The candidate should ask the former boss for recollections about whether interviewers contacted her and whether anything she said might have provoked hostility. If the boss is evasive or admits to a negative review, address it directly and seek alternative references.

Read at Slate Magazine