This is, no question, absolutely terrible but the comments section on the post is a little wild: "Asking for references after clearing interview was also Dik m

This is, no question, absolutely terrible but the comments section on the post is a little wild: "Asking for references after clearing interview was also Dik move tbh" (sic) Is this a straight troll? Because if it's not, stop and think that through, will you? I have no idea how many people have listed me as a referee over the years - quite a few (and enough that I know plenty of companies don't check references) - but if every referee is asked to provide a reference for everyone who has listed them for every job for which they pass CV/resume sift (or even some stage part was through the selection process), well, that's a lot of references. Now, of course, you could write one reference for each individual and send that out to everyone who asks, but lots of companies have forms you have to fill out and they're not all the same. And you'd be doing this for a lot of jobs your applicant either wouldn't get or wouldn't take because they have competing offers on the table or are going through a process with multiple organisations. So you know what the result would be? Referees won't give references. This isn't a "dick move" (ah, sorry, I mean a "Dik move") by the hiring company but a sensible strategy to avoid wasting referees' time.