Although your resume is an important element, references are just as critical to your job search. There are two types of references that companies may ask you to supply when applying for a job: personal and professional.

A personal reference should be someone that knows you well and can speak highly about the type of person you are. Your attitude and personality will be what the personal reference will speak about the most. You don’t want to pick a personal reference that you don’t spend a lot of time with; choose someone that really knows you. A reference should be positive and enthusiastic about you and be able to deliver specific instances where you have shown positive attributes that would make a successful employee.

Professional references will address your work ethic, quality of work, and personality while on the job. Typically, you want to pick someone that is either a co-worker or a supervisor. Deciding to have a supervisor as one of your references can be tricky if you are still employed, but he or she is also be the person that can speak the most about your quality of work. Most companies understand that you might not want to give your current supervisor as a reference, so you can note on your reference list to only contact if an offer is pending.

A professional reference that is a co-worker can speak about your teamwork and ability to work with others in the field. If you have a wide variety of co-workers to choose from, pick the one who can communicate the best for the position that you are applying for. The reference should be able to speak about your skills and achievements based on the job that you are working toward getting; therefore, if he/she has experience in that position they will be able to correlate what the position needs to what skills you have.

Regardless, if it is a personal or professional reference, make sure that you choose people that are articulate and fairly easy to contact. Make sure you ask your references if you can use them on your application. You don’t want them to be surprised by the phone call. One word from your reference could be the deciding factor between getting a job and staying in the unemployment line.