How many referees are required on a resume/CV?

Question

I have looked at a number of academic resumes to get a feeling for what people expect. I see that the number of referees that people give at the bottom of their resume varies quite a bit. My question is whether it is essentially always better to provide more referees or whether one should rather stick to a maximum of say 4 ?

Answer 1

Hello. The generally accepted rule of references is three minimum. As a maximum I would agree with four. Also, references should represent individuals whom you have worked for and or worked with that are familiar with your work. They should not be personal references (friends, relatives, neighbors,etc.) unless the employer asks for them. (Please be aware that in your question you are spelling references as "referees".) You would want to make sure that you are spelling that correctly on any job application and resume.

Also, your references do not have to appear at the bottom of your resume. You can have a separate document for references and include that in your applications as necessary.