[jpindar]

Great way to weed out older developers, since there's a good chance that some of the companies they've worked for have gone out of business or been acquired, and some of their references have died.

[geomark]

Yeah. Every one of my past employers has been acquired and my old organizations picked apart and my old managers ended up who knows where.

[justinclift]

Agrees. There's no chance I have contact details for people from even the first 10-15 years of my career. That was a long time ago. ;)