Senior Developer / Tech Lead
Confirm architectural decisions, mentoring of juniors and the ability to balance technical debt against delivery.
For IT and tech companies
Reference Checks for IT and Tech
The CV says "Senior Developer" — but what does that actually mean? Technical roles need verification beyond the diploma: which stack was used productively, what role did the candidate have on the team, and did they deliver on estimates and quality?
In IT there is huge variation in what sits behind a job title. Reference checks for developers, DevOps engineers and tech leads are about confirming concrete skills, real ownership in projects and the ability to collaborate in a code community. Referansio lets you add technical questions per role and get structured answers you can compare across candidates.
Challenges
What separates a great hire from a costly mistake
CV inflation in technical roles
"React 5 years" on a CV can mean anything from writing two components to architectural ownership. References clarify actual depth.
Team fit in a coding environment
Technical skills are only half the picture. How does the candidate handle code review, pair programming and architectural disagreement?
Ownership vs membership
Was the candidate the lead on the project, or one of eight? Direct questions to former managers clarify actual role and responsibility.
Security clearance for sensitive roles
For access to production and customer data you need trust. Reference checks document reliability and discretion.
Use cases
Roles we cover in this industry
DevOps & SRE
Verify uptime, on-call discipline, IaC experience (Terraform, Pulumi) and ability to handle production incidents.
Frontend / UX engineer
Check collaboration with design, performance focus, accessibility and how the candidate balances pixel-perfect against development time.
Data engineer / ML
Confirm pipeline experience, data quality discipline and whether the candidate has actually shipped models to production — not just notebooks.
Questions
Suggested questions for references
Industry-specific questions you can use as a starting point — customize in Referansio.
- What stack and tools did the candidate use daily with you?
- How independently did the candidate solve tasks — from spec to production?
- How was the candidate's code quality and attitude to testing?
- How did the candidate handle on-call and production incidents?
- Describe the candidate's collaboration in code review and with the product team.
- Which projects did the candidate actually own?
Regulations
Privacy in technical reference checks
Technical reference checks fall under the same GDPR framework as other recruitment: legitimate interest or consent as legal basis, and data minimisation as a principle. Only ask about what is relevant to the role — not political views, health or religion. Avoid questions about specific clients or trade secrets the referee is bound by NDA on, and stay focused on the candidate's role, deliveries and collaboration. Referansio structures the questions so you stay within legal bounds without having to think about it per candidate.
Process
Three simple steps
From new candidate to finished report — without manual follow-up.
Add candidate
Enter the candidate's name, role and referees. Takes under two minutes.
Collect responses
Referees receive a simple questionnaire and respond securely on mobile.
Generate report
AI analyses the responses and delivers a complete report with scores and insights.
Frequently asked questions
Other industries
See how Referansio fits other sectors.