A simple rule for interpreting references for a job candidate

Edited excerpt from 3 Essential Steps to Doing a Thorough Reference Check by Jeff Markowitz:

It’s hard to predict anyone’s failure or success in a given role, but I’ve found that references tend to be overly kind during a reference call. Roughly speaking, if you downplay positive feedback by 30% and amplify negative feedback by the same amount, it should give you a pretty good picture of the candidate.