Hi!

I wrote a lot of applications and went to a lot of procedures last year. I had interviews with around ten staffing firms and just as much employers directly before I found "my" job at a large, very Swiss company. I was not in a hurry, so I took my time and made a lot of experiences...
Normally, people here do not call your former employer. They are very interested in a well documented CV (and written documents in general), so I hope you do have a somewhat nice letter of recommendation. It should prove your work experience in your last six years including role description to quite a detailed level.
I provided some of the recruiters with references to call, but I never gave them my last managers number (because I was in an uncancelled employment contract) and they were ok with the numbers of other former manager and colleagues of my choice. I believe only one of them ever actually called.

Cheers,

Chris