Roland's Merciful Modly Mash-up Random Banter Thread #221

[Florian]

Don't know how Canada is, but in pretty much the entire US, no they can't. Or, at least, won't.

Basically all over continental Europe, companies / employers are bound by the law to give testimony about current or former employees, mostly in the form of a written letter of recommendation.

Way back when I was a rookie in the field of IT, I used to work for a company that was a subcontractor for the secret service and parts of the defense ministry, so the whole screening and signing of NDA thingies. When the company went under and I lost that job, my letter of recommendation more or less consisted of three letters:
- One letter from my former chef confirming length and level of the job, as well as an assessment of me as a person and my abilities. "Florian worked for three years (start to end date) as a Project Manager in the field of Hardware Development, leading an international team of 30 engineers and developers, most of them in India, Vietnam and Russia. Florian never failed to deliver on a project and always executes them below any given budget, both monetary and time, but is unwilling to cooperate with other Project Managers".
- Two letters, one each from secret service and defense, simply stating project date and job level, then cleanly announcing what type and level of security clearance it would take to get their full letter of recommendation on the job.

A standard NDA lasts for a decade and that's, well, back two decades by now, so I can talk about certain stuff, like early trial runs of facial recognition software in prisons or conventions.

...I dunno if I've said this before, but, man, do you live an interesting life.

Truth be told, I´m rather horrified by that statement.