Show HN: A site that puts in a referral for you for your dream job | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: A site that puts in a referral for you for your dream job

yourfriendat.com

52 pointsupwardline9 comments

I often see people on blind asking for and offering referrals to people who are basically strangers. It makes sense to turn that into a product, so kudos.

That being said, it's always made me feel weird in a way I struggle to articulate. It seems cool to offer an opportunity to someone who needs it, and referral bonuses are nice for workers.

But it does seem to go against the spirit of referral bonuses.

I suppose if companies were really upset by people hacking their referral system they could simply fix their online application process so that it doesn't go nowhere.

Looked at a different way, the companies are essentially paying bonuses to their engineers to do resume screening. It seems like if that's what they really wanted they could ask people to do it as part of their job though.

It's definitely totally bizarre. I think it works only insofar as there is some filter.

I used to hang out one a discord for competitive programming. Many people gave referals to other competitors, even though they may have only known each other through their online interactions around programming competitions.

This worked, until it didn't--people start to show up without any interest in the topic and just referal seeking.

Kind of a tangeant here, but this is how status symbols evolve. First, someone figures out that 'people who do x can do y'. Then, if y is highly desireable (say it's 'work on wallstreet' or 'become an astronaut') suddenly everyone wants to do x, and the association between x and y is lost.

I don't think it's hacking the referral system. Especially if the company is paying recruiters a lot more for a successful hire. Most companies would gladly pay an employee over a recruiter. And if you recruit enough people, they'd likely just move you over to the recruiting team!

The volunteers who refer people can still screen and decide who to refer. And companies can change their referral program if they're not working.

I ignore lots of messages from recruiters that I ignore but if a peer on here knew of a open role and wanted to tell me about it I'd at least listen.

It may be that the people they'd like to hire won't take the recruiters calls.

This dilutes the value of referrals, which:

1. makes it harder for those who earned it to get the boost they need; and

2. will cause this very site to fail right after it succeeds.

I get the idea, and I think the intentions are great, but I don't think the means are net positive.

I don't know. I feel like I would be more critical when referring a stranger. If a friend asks me to refer them to a big company, I would likely do so regardless of how good I think they'll be. But if some stranger does, I have no reason to refer this person. So I'll check out what they're doing, maybe look at a side project they're working on or read their blog. And if I think they would be a good fit I would only then refer.

Most places I worked were so desperate for job applications, especially ones that they didn't have to pay a head hunter for, that they'd take pretty much any referral. It has always been hard finding remotely qualified interested candidates.

This just ends up putting referral on the same place as job application.

In my experience, a lot of companies don't care if you leave references blank

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