So, I just reached the final stages of a job interview process with a telemedicine company. After 4 interviews, the company said they needed to check my references, and asked me to provide the names and contact information of several former employers to whom the company wanted to send… 4 PAGES OF QUESTIONS!!! In nearly 30 years of work, I have never seen a reference request like this. Additionally, I have since discovered that the telemedicine company itself utilizes A NEUTRAL EMPLOYMENT REFERENCE POLICY for folks who are trying to verify employment of THEIR current or former employees, so I think the company should only ask a prospective candidate's references the same questions that the telemedicine company would itself be willing to answer in rendering its own employment verification process. I explained to the 20-year-old recruiter at the telemedicine company that several of my previous employers have neutral employment reference policies, so I would not really be able to proceed further in the application process if they were really going to require a previous employer to answer upwards of 30 questions on a 4-page questionnaire. She breezily told me that was too bad and this was “pretty standard” (again… NOT in ANY job where I have worked in the last 30 years), and she “hated” to have to end the process “after getting all this way” (uh… I'm the one who prepared for, scheduled, and attended FOUR interviews, hon!). I wished her the best of luck with her candidate search and hung up.