<p>What does it take to get hired as an engineer as far as references go? I am an EE student and can provide good professional references easily. However, I'm a little worried if I run into a situation where I need to provide personal references going back 7 years I might have trouble. I think that is the standard for military security clearance. I am wondering if I might run into this if I try to get a job as a power engineer. I've moved around a lot and don't really keep in touch with people I knew before I was 15. </p>
<p>My background itself is perfectly clean. I'm just being a little paranoid right now...</p>
<p>Andrew, do not worry for another second about this. As long as you can provide good professional references then you are absolutely fine.</p>
<p>When it says “up to 7 years ago”, that means the references can date anywhere between 0-7 years. But of course employers prefer much more recent references because they are not idiots and they realize that a 15 year old and a 22 year old will be quite different people. It really wouldn’t do them any good to have a reference from when you were a teenager and they would probably be a bit puzzled if you gave them as a reference your freshman algebra teacher or something.</p>
<p>If you can provide them a few good Recent references then you are already perfect in that area.</p>
<p>Most jobs will only ask you for 3 personal references (if any), preferably not related to you - they don’t need to be great, just not terrible. The exception is for positions requiring a security clearance, for which you will need to provide at least one reference for (a) every place you have lived, (b) every school you have attended, and (c) every job you have held for the past 7-10 years. On the bright side, these people don’t need to be perfectly identified or even cooperative - the government will find them and ask them the necessary questions. However, I am really not sure that a powerplant position would require a clearance - perhaps a nuke plant, but clearances are expensive and require need, so I do not think you have too much to worry about.</p>