Someone who has never met me, doesn't work in HR, gave me a bad review!!!

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? IL

I had a great interview with a company.

Their recruiter is now checking my references. They called my former company (from which I was fired, over a year ago, for 'not fitting in'. I had received good reviews the two years I was employed there) on Tuesday to verify employment.

Somehow the recruiter was transferred to the woman who was hired to replaced me. I never met this woman; she was hired 7 months after I was fired (the hiring company does know I was fired). Instead of transferring the call to HR, as she should have done, she proceeded to spend 5 minutes giving me a poor performance review...based on hear say.

Now my offer with the hiring company is in jeopardy.

What can I do????

Explain the situation to your recruiter. How did you find out about this, anyway?

Contact the company directly and get someone in HR, and then forward their contact information directly to your recruiter. Also, I might mention to the HR rep about the conduct of the employee that was potentially against their company policy. Such unprofessional actions could unnecessarily expose their company to liability.

I have dealt with this on both sides, and I'm a bit puzzled... why didn't they ask how long the "bad reference" had directly known you, and why the heck would an HR department forward a request for references to a non-HR party? I've never heard of that.