I profiled the following on my job search blog - www.careercapitalist.com - and thought it was applicable for HR types as well.  Job Search Guy has a rant up at his site called "Are There Thieves at Your Job Interview?" - his take is that if people ask for references before they can move forward with the selection process, they are simply stealing additionally candidates from the prospect and likely don't have an interest in the candidate in question.  Is everyone who asks you for references and referrals a Dirty Rotten Scoundrel?  From his notes:

"Here's the way it works: You're looking for a job and apply for an advertised position. You're given some initial good vibes about what a "good fit" you are. Then when you're softened up, they hit you with something like this:

"Oh, before we can proceed with this, I'll need at least three references from you today".

This is totally absurd! Why? Because they're stealing from you, plain and simple. This is what's really happening: They interviewed you because you had the basic qualifications but you don't really fit the job requirements, so they're not interested in you. They ARE interested in who you know. Once they have your references, they've just widened their candidate network and you unwittingly helped them. They're now going to recruit your references. Talk about creating your own competition!"

What Job Search Guy doesn't tell his target audience is there a lot of factors that play into what this type of request means.  First up, who is the candidate talking to?  Is it a recruiter positioning themselves as working for a company or the actual company with the opening?  Candidates are much more likely to run into this with recruiters trying to build databases than they are with the actual employer.  Also, if it is the employer, many employers will ask candidates for references as part of the application process during the initial visit with them, or as part of an online process before the candidate ever sees someone face to face.

The moral of the story - candidates shouldn't be alarmed by this type of concern.  After all, what are you going to do?  Walk away from everyone in your job search that ask you for references?  Good luck with that.  Additionally, what about treating every contact as a networking opportunity?  Even if you aren't a fit for the initial position that drew your interest, playing the game and sharing contacts with a recruiter will make you part of their Rolodex moving forward - increasing the probability that they call you when they do have a match.

As a recruiting HR type, I am sure that we don't ask for referrals enough.  One nice way to get into that is to offer a referral bonus to external sources as well as employees - that pretty much elimates all guilt from the equation for me...

It's a global, networked world my friend.  Don't buy into the calls to build walls around yourself or not be aggressive with prospects.  Network and prosper...