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If you are one of the many job seekers out there on the job market, you already know how important a cover letter and your resume are. But do you also realize just how important that list of references are? A lot of people when they sit down to set up their cover letter and resume often don't think as seriously about the list of references as they do the other two parts of your introduction to a potential employer.

In fact many people may think that no one ever checks that list of references. However, that is not always the case, in fact today, more employers are beginning to call upon these references in hopes of getting a better idea of whether or not you are worthy of hiring.

There are a lot of different ways in which you can list your references for your resume but probably the best thing to do is to keep all of the information regarding the references as short and to the point as you possibly can. You don't want a potential employer having to read a bunch of details about your references, he should be able to go over it quickly and within a matter of seconds. There should just be the information that he can easily use to contact your references and nothing more.

You should sit down a make a list of all of your past employers, those of course that are not going to shed a shadow on your performance as an employee of course. You should also include any business or professional references that you might have as well. These need to be people who can honestly vouch for your skills and your employment history and record.

You will then need to get in touch with all of these references and let them know that you are on a job search and want to make sure that it is OK for you to use them as a reference. Never list them without getting their approval first. Also, you might want to ask them if they would mind writing you letters of recommendation as well. If they agree to do this then make sure that you give them all the needed information they will need to be able to send in the recommendation.

Make sure that you also verify their contact information making sure you have the right spelling of their name, the right address, right email and most importantly the right phone number in case a potential employer wants to contact them by phone.

Once you have your confirmed list you will need to begin listing them right after the very last employment listing you put on your resume. You should make sure to have at least 3 references and try not to list more than 5. You will need to make sure that your references are single spaced. Even if your entire resume is double spaced, your references should not be double spaced.

You should use a font no bigger than 12 for your references and they should be listed with the full name of the person, the company name, their position, phone number and then email being listed last if there is one available.

If you had requested for letters of reference then it's a good idea to call the person and confirm whether or not they have sent the letter to make sure that it gets to the potential employer on time. You should also make a call to the potential employer to make sure that they did receive the letters of reference.