I was once asked by a US company for "recommendations", that is people they would call to ask about me. I am French and it is illegal to call you previous empl

I was once asked by a US company for "recommendations", that is people they would call to ask about me. I am French and it is illegal to call you previous employers, so I guess this was the best they could get. I was genuinly interested in that thing because the idea of such recommendations is so unbelievable to me that I must be missing something. How can a company expect to receive anything else than close friends who will describe some kind of crossover between a genious and a saint? With, of course, some weaknesses such as the tendency to be too good at his work?