References on a résumé, and the line to delete

The sentence about references being available on request is the most reliably deleted line on a résumé. Here is what to do instead.

ConxfolioPublished 2026-09-12

— delete the sentence, keep the people.

"References available on request" appears on a great many résumés and does no work on any of them. Everybody knows that references are available on request. The sentence spends a line to say something the reader already assumed.

What to do instead

Delete it and put an achievement line in the space. On a one-page document that is a real trade: six words of formality exchanged for one piece of evidence. The experience guide covers how to write the line that takes its place.

When referees belong on the page

When the posting asks, or the application system has a field for them. Academic posts, public-sector recruitment and some regulated professions ask for named referees at the point of application, and in those cases the instruction on the posting is the rule. Follow it exactly, including the number requested.

What an entry holds

Name, role, organisation, and one way to reach them. Not a paragraph about your relationship, and not a quotation from a testimonial, which belongs in a recommendation rather than on your own page.

Ask first, every time

A referee who is called without warning gives a careful, vague answer, and careful vagueness is the worst outcome available. Ask, tell them what the role is, and send them your résumé. Say which two or three things you would like them to be able to speak to. That is not coaching; it is saving them from reconstructing your work from memory.

Who to choose

A manager who saw the work, a client who received it, a senior colleague who can describe how you operate. A friend with an impressive job title who has never worked with you is a weaker choice than a supervisor who can name what you did on a difficult week.

What the check does with the section

The ATS résumé checker recognises References as a section heading, alongside certifications, awards, publications and languages. It awards no completeness points for it: those seven checks are identity, email address, phone number, experience, education, skills and summary. So a references block is neutral for the score and costs you page space, which is the whole argument against keeping it when nobody asked.

One thing does cost you. A heading with nothing underneath it reduces parseability, because the rules look for sections whose headings carry real content. A References heading followed by the availability sentence is close to that shape.

Keeping the list somewhere sensible

Hold your referees in a separate document with their current roles and contact details, and update it when people move. In the résumé builder you can keep a version of your résumé that includes the block for the applications that ask for it, and the ordinary version without it, since versions are saved in this browser and switching between them costs nothing.

What a referee is actually asked

Usually three things: whether the dates and the role are as stated, what you were like to work with, and whether they would employ you again. A referee who has your résumé in front of them answers the first accurately, and a referee who knows which two achievements you have put forward answers the second with a specific story rather than a general impression.

That is why sending them the posting matters more than choosing the most senior name available. Specificity is what a reference contributes; everything else the employer already has.

Written references and testimonials

A quotation from a manager does not belong on a résumé. It is unverifiable in that position, it costs lines, and a reader discounts praise that the candidate selected. Where you have a strong written reference, keep it for the interview or for a portfolio page, where it sits beside the work it refers to. The portfolio builder gives that material a home with a public address, which is a better place for it than the two centimetres at the bottom of an application document.

After the interview

Tell your referees when a call is likely and what the role is, then tell them how it went. That courtesy costs a message and it is the reason people agree the next time. Keep the list to three or four names you look after properly rather than a long list you have not spoken to in two years, because a reference is a relationship rather than a contact detail.