Use your friends.

If it doesn't ask for a "professional reference," that's on them. Shit, use your mom.

Tbh...just lie. Base it firmly in reality though and get your story straight. Astroturf the entire reference with people you know, who may or may not have been involved with the reality. Make it believable to the rest of the application. Chances are your references will be passed over entirely anyway while whoever is doing the bare minimum to get through their work day checks over your application.

This may or may not be good advice. 🤷

Don’t lie, that’s bad advice. Instead, be honest just like you been here.

Tell them “I’ve owned my own business for the last several years, but covid hit me pretty hard. I haven’t had a manager that I’m still in contact with prior to those years”

Over on Reddit, there was a sub for people who would volunteer to write references and act as references. I don't remember exactly what it was called, but there are helpful people out there.

Is your business rated on Google or Yelp? You could offer that to prospective employers because it reflects your customer service skills.

I've had to do hiring before, and I would not count a lack of references against you if you were upfront about being self employed. Heck, I'm trying to get my own business off the ground now. Being self employed for a decent length of time speaks volumes about your ability to be responsible.

Do you have any customers who could act as references? I'm not sure what you sell, but if you have a few people write statements that say 'MossBear sold me a ____ and they were very helpful. They always have a great attitude and are very knowledgeable about ______' or something like that.

References aren't the end-all-be-all, but if you've done a job and you want to prove you did it well, finding anyone who can act as a witness to how you did that job is useful. It doesn't have to be coworkers or a manager. Customers, suppliers, anyone: 'MossBear has been buying office supplies from me for ____ and they always pay their invoices on time.'

There used to a be a reddit sub where you could post a a request for references and random people would offer to help. I don't know if such a thing exists in lemmy land. Could you ask a neighbor?

Be honest. Say you don't have references so that you intend to prove yourself from day one.

Most hiring we do is based on what we can find publicly and how the conversation goes. If you have more to show, that helps. We hire (developers) based on code and gut-feeling. We don't do the roles you are looking for but if you have been looking for a longer time already, open an issue on an open source reository you care about and ask how you can help sort out tickets and ask follow-up questions.

Companies search for value (often money, but smaller copanies tend to search broader). For customer support I expect that to mean "low monetary investment (including training), high output". Perhaps they need some flexible additional support. Ask them what they need, see if you can offer that, explain/convince how you will bring offer that and ask if they see improvements to the plan.

PS: also what andrewgross said. Customers count, friends can count. And having ran a business that worked is a great reference to show you do what is necessary.

I mean it's just a customer service role, you know they need you. Your application will be supported simply because you are willing to work and a nice enough person showing enthusiasm.

Don't lie, just tell the truth.

Claim you worked for twitter and was laid off. I doubt Twitter has a HR department to verify the claim but considering how public the layoff was they may just believe it.

The American Dream: Unpaid Internship / volunteer To Gain References

I usually say "I've kept my work relationships exclusively professional and communication with references stayed within the scope of the project."

Ask some happy customers whether they’ll act as a reference.