Postdoc applicant not listing current postdoc advisor on CV

[born_a_prof]

I have a postdoc opening in my group. A postdoc from a much higher ranked university applied to it, but didn't list their current postdoc advisor. The applicant has been at the current position for less than a year.
Certainly a red flag, and I want to know what's up. What is the best way to do it ? Should I ask them during the interview. If they give me some story, should I still contact the current advisor ? Should I ask for their permission to talk to their current advisor ?

[mamselle]

Did they just forget?

M.

[Ruralguy]

I vote for asking the applicant if they intended to leave him off. If they say "yes", have them explain (briefly), but if it isn't because the person was a harasser or something unusual like that, explain that their application is unlikely to forward without an assessment from current employer (assuming that's true and that you are allowed to say that). Perhaps you can work out an alternative.

But I don't see why you need permission to contact someone. This individual is asking *you* to hire him/her.You are entitled to have the information you need.

[onthefringe]

Do NOT contact a reference, especially the current employer, without permission from the job seeker. It's bad form, and may cause them huge amounts of trouble and career damage if they are trying to get out from under a (for example) abusive current advisor.

If their CV looks interesting, contact them for a phone interview. You can ask during the phone interview why they are looking to leave their current position, and for a list of references to contact.

But the reality is, if the person does not want you to contact their current employer, you should 100% respect that. If you can't get enough information from them and their listed references to feel comfortable offering them a job, just don't offer them a job.

Be aware that the prevalent to candidates who are trying to leave a bad position is not to badmouth their current advisor, but to have one of their other references address whatever the situation is. So don't be surprised if the candidate does not come out and say their current advisor is harassing them or something like that.

[AJ_Katz]

They probably don't want their current advisor to know they're job hunting.  It may or may not be a red flag.  Maybe they have a partner who lives in the area where you work.  Maybe they don't have a good fit in personality or interests with the current advisor.  At this point, I wouldn't read more into this if they otherwise have a good track record.  Interview them via Skype and if they're still a top candidate, inquire gently about why the position was left off.  It might have been a rookie mistake or maybe done intentionally to fly under the radar of their current supervisor.

[mythbuster]

My first post-doc was the post-doc from hell. I worked well with everyone in the lab except the PI. While I did list the lab on my CV, my reference from that lab was not the PI, but another more senior post-doc who knew the situation. My guess is that this is a similar situation, but your should ask some gentle questions about why they are looking for a new position and read between the lines.
   In my case, my PI in Post-doc #2 knew all about the chronic issues that PI #1 had. The grapevine does work. So I never had to explain a thing to her. She was/is a great mentor.

[youllneverwalkalone]

I also don't agree it is "certainly a red flag". There are many possible good reasons why they would have left that person out.

Do NOT contact a reference, especially the current employer, without permission from the job seeker. It's bad form, and may cause them huge amounts of trouble and career damage if they are trying to get out from under a (for example) abusive current advisor.

If their CV looks interesting, contact them for a phone interview. You can ask during the phone interview why they are looking to leave their current position, and for a list of references to contact.

But the reality is, if the person does not want you to contact their current employer, you should 100% respect that. If you can't get enough information from them and their listed references to feel comfortable offering them a job, just don't offer them a job.

Be aware that the prevalent to candidates who are trying to leave a bad position is not to badmouth their current advisor, but to have one of their other references address whatever the situation is. So don't be surprised if the candidate does not come out and say their current advisor is harassing them or something like that.

This is perfect advice, OP.

[polly_mer]

I also don't agree it is "certainly a red flag". There are many possible good reasons why they would have left that person out.

Few of those reasons reflect well on the candidate (thus, at least a yellow flag) other than trying to get out from under an abusive current advisor.  Even in that case, as others have written, the proper thing to do is have some other reference speak to that situation, either as the sidestepped "The candidate is fabulous and let me tell you how fabulous" or the blunt peer-to-peer network phone call as "We gotta get this kid early career researcher out of Bob's lab before the kid leaves the field all together".

[Ruralguy]

I disagree with OntheFringe. Unless they said "do not contact," then simply not listing an employer as a reference *is not* the same as saying "do not contact."  However, if the candidate is good , then there's no sense in rejecting them out of hand just based on this "flag" (without saying the color of the flag!).
Ask them or ask another mentor.  However, I still think you have every right to call their employer. Even if they said "don't" you can, but I would suggest you don't do  so if they asked you not to...at least not before attempting to clarify. Keep in mind: you are not participating in idle gossip. You are deciding whether or not to hand over  80 K annually (salary and benefits, I assume) to this person. You are entitled to the information in order to make your decision.

[onthefringe]

HR best practices and search firms agree. While backdoor references are generally permissible you 1) shoukd not do broad checks unless the candidate has agreed for reference checking to be done and 2) you should not check references with a current employer without express permission.

Ask them, ask another reference who is listed, fine. But you are not "entitled" to anything. You are in the position of power here, and should tread lightly. Seriously, if not listing the current advisor is a red flag, just *don't hire the person*. Don't risk screwing up their life by going behind their back.

[youllneverwalkalone]

I also don't agree it is "certainly a red flag". There are many possible good reasons why they would have left that person out.

Few of those reasons reflect well on the candidate (thus, at least a yellow flag) other than trying to get out from under an abusive current advisor.  Even in that case, as others have written, the proper thing to do is have some other reference speak to that situation, either as the sidestepped "The candidate is fabulous and let me tell you how fabulous" or the blunt peer-to-peer network phone call as "We gotta get this kid early career researcher out of Bob's lab before the kid leaves the field all together".

I think people have the right to leave and if they don't want to let their employer know they are appllying for a certain job, this should be respected. Reasons may range from their supervisor being abusive, as you said, but also be something more innocent like not wanting to strain relationship with your current employer in case the job doesn't materialize.

Admittedly my opinion may be based on cultural difference, as in Europe we don't value letters of recommendations nearly as much as in the US. In my experience oftentimes those letters are drafted by the candidate themselves anyway so their intrinsic value (i.e., over their cv + job interview) is rather limited.

Certainly one can and should question the candidate about their motivations for applying and why they are looking to leave their current position, but to me it would be rather stupid to reject a candidate solely on the basis that they miss a LoR.

[LetsGetCooking]

If you want to know why a candidate left a reference off their materials, why would you as anyone other than the applicant? Only the applicant really knows. Ask that person and if the answer is unsatisfactory then don't hire them.

I have been in a situation where a reference call to my supervisor would have been very detrimental to my job. The situation was already toxic and my "disloyalty" would have led to "punishment" (I witnessed that type of petty behavior, hence why I desperately wanted to leave). In fact, I had learned that individual who held the year-to-year contracted position before me had their contract non-renewed when their job search was revealed. Luckily, they got one of the positions, but would have been stuck without a job in the middle-of-nowhere location of the school if the new job had not come through. Since I could not risk having my contract non-renewed, I could NOT list my supervisor as a reference. I also could not list other people at the school since it was a "cult of personality" with my supervisor at the center and I could not trust my co-workers not to tell that person in order to curry favor. Like I said it was a very toxic situation! It was very frustrating knowing that although I earn high teaching evaluations and awards in my field, my terrible supervisor's toxic behavior made me look bad on paper, which might have thwarted my ability to get out of that toxic situation!

So, as I said in the beginning, if you wish to know why the applicant left the supervisor's contact information off the application, then ask the applicant. Don't risk ruining the person's life and career when you might not even give them the interview, let alone the job!