I'm not really fond of references for a couple of primary reasons: 1) IMO, they are relatively unreliable indicators for technical candidates 2) They leak the

I'm not really fond of references for a couple of primary reasons: 1) IMO, they are relatively unreliable indicators for technical candidates 2) They leak the candidates active job seeking status to potentially untrusted colleagues 1 occurs primarily because references are self-selected to be people that the candidate has friendships with rather than people who will give the the most honest assessment. In large companies, this can often be especially easy for a candidate to game. The technique in the linked article will do nothing to resolve this, IMO. And 2 is made worse by this person's desire to interview people who aren't even listed as a reference by the candidate. I've worked for companies before where I would have had to turn down a restriction like this.