Should we be obliged to give a good reference to someone just because they’re family?

Mixing the professional and personal is often a risky business, and that includes when you decide to work with your relatives. Even if your family members present themselves as responsible people who would be a credit to any company, the complications that come from having a close relationship are liable to sneak in if you do not maintain some very strict boundaries.

We can also have a tendency to overestimate the abilities of the ones we love, or ignore some of their more glaring red flags when it comes to their work experience. Even worse, some relatives can expect us to overlook this in favor of letting them benefit from some nepotism. 

While it is understandable to want to use the contacts you have when you want to break into an industry, it isn’t always a good look to cling to family members in the hopes they will salvage your professional reputation. At best, it is likely to make you look inexperienced and lazy, and at worst, it looks like an obvious attempt at hiding the fact that you are a lot less employable than you make yourself out to be.