Blue Planet Offices, Inc. and Dan Schramm, the CEO thanks you for visiting our site.

Over the years I have founded and operated a number of companies. I was the vice president or the president. These were small companies, under-financed or things had just run their course and they eventually folded and were sold off. At the same time, many important things were accomplished and I learned a great deal. In one case, I personally invented products for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and won four federal SBIR contracts for many hundreds of thousands of dollars. I also founded and operated a small nationwide dialup ISP. If potential employers believed this or not, I have no idea.

Going out and looking for a job afterwards has always been a problem. Sure, I could put them down on my resume and mention the accomplishments, etc. but there wasn't any way to back any of it up. There really wasn't any practical way of providing an employment reference.

Running these small businesses was an all consuming undertaking. I didn't really give any thought to what I was going to do afterwards. I really didn't give any thought to job references for myself or anyone else in the future. Luckily, many of my employees were part time and held other full time jobs, so they didn't need to use my company for a reference. Of course, this is not the case for most people who worked for a defunct company.

So what do you do if you worked for a defunct company? If it is a major news item, like Enron, HR and executives might well understand, but they will still have questions that will go unanswered. If it was a smaller company, they have no idea if your resume or application is truthful. The employer's unanswered questions places you at a big disadvantage. In a job market where every decent job is going to have multiple applicates, why would the new company take a risk on a person who has holes in their resume? Human resources and business executives are all risk adverse. They don't want to make mistakes in hiring decisions, their own jobs can be on the line.

Like me, if you are in this boat, you too are at a big disadvantage, especially when applying for well paid jobs and jobs with any real responsibility. You usually don't even know why you never get an interview, or why you never hear from the company after a great interview. If there aren't holes in your resume, perhaps one of your references is sabotaging you. Very subtle things to very overt things can kill your job chances. When I was hiring for one of my former companies I called a reference and asked if they would rehire the person. The lady on the other end just laughed and hung up. How do you really know what is being said about you?

If you were a business owner of a company that went under, you are pretty much in the same position as your former employees. Perhaps, being the owner, president or vice president is even worse. You are going from being the boss and leader to being an employee for someone else. I suspect that being in this position actually makes it more difficult to get a job. So you are in pretty much the same boat I was.

If you currently are the owner of a business, I urge you to look at the services Blue Planet offers. We provide a range of personnel services for existing companies. If you are an owner planning on going out of business or are downsizing, consider our other services. Don't leave your employees in the position of not having an employment reference.

There are various websites and publications that tell you what to do about references if you worked for a defunct company. Of course, what they mostly recommend is networking with fellow employees BEFORE the company goes under. That is great advice if the company is gone. They tell you to network with your former bosses, peers, subordinates and even clients if it is a sales job. Assuming you actually do this before the company is gone, it might help, but chances are it will not.

There are lots of reasons. After a company goes under, people move, they move on and usually don't want to be bothered. Even those who say they will provide you a reference will soon get tired of it, or can't be bothered once they have found a new job. If they have found a new job, they will simply not be available when a HR person needs to get information. Neither is HR or an executive going to make repeated calls to reach your reference. Also, a potential employer talking to someone at home with the kids crying in the background is going to be real impressive. If you were a supervisor or worse, the boss, then you have little hope of the networking option. Chances are you will be blamed for the disaster, true or not. You can bet these references are going to sabotage you. Another problem with using peers or subordinates is that any one of them is going to know only part of your employment picture. The new company is not going to call a bunch of different people to piece together your references. They are not going to do any research on your behalf. Why should they bother when they have a big pile of resumes and applications with easily verified references?

On the other hand, let's say you knew that the company's days were limited and you have done your homework. Let us say you networked with other people and they came through for you and you landed a decent job. Now, a year or two or even more have gone by. A job has come to an end or you need to find a new job more to your liking. Chances are the people who helped before are no longer available. Contact information is likely out of date. Even if you contact them, chances are they can't be bothered. Memories and interest have faded. Even if some say yes, you really have no idea if they will follow through or what they might say. What do you do then?

Luckily, I turned all of these problems into an opportunity. Blue Planet Offices, Inc. has a practical, easy and low cost answer for all of these problems for employers and employees. Please explore the site further to learn about all the things that we can do for business and individuals.

If, after reading everything here, you still have questions, please feel free to email or telephone our offices. I try to answer as many customer service calls myself as possible. We care about customer service and satisfied customers. Again, thanks for visiting and reading my message.

For more information, please call our Customer Service number at 305-849-5020 or our Toll Free number at 1-800-518-1206. Customer Service hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time. Write me at dan@blueplanetoffices.com.

Thank you for your interest.