On the topic of references, if your resume showing the past 10 years only has three companies and one of the three companies has morphed, reorganized and vaporized into non-existence, leaving only two companies, it’s kind of a pain. Add on top of that one company has informed you of a policy to only confirm period worked and title, while the other one has changed and grown exponentially in the past decade since you worked there, so it’s entirely possible no one there has heard of you, it’s just painful.