Ask HN: How much have you made from your company's referral bonus program? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How much have you made from your company's referral bonus program?

17 pointsshsachdev25 comments

With these bonuses often going up to $10-20k per hire, curious if anyone has made >$50k or even as high as the six figures.

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Zero. I referred one person. After their interview I got politely questioned why because they did badly. Referals now become staking your rep on an unpredictable process for a chance to win $1000. I prefer to buy a scratch card.

great point. the "social cost" to referring someone who does badly is often forgotten

The right answer is

"because you offered a referral bonus. I am neither equipped, nor have the time, to do pre-interviews. Since you offer upside, and no downside, it is my interest to refer as many people as possible. I only have to be right once to score. You make the rules, I just play the game."

Have worked a long time in a company that does $5k referrals. Have referred 4, 2 successful so $10k. One of them landed in my lap so treated the money as guilt free "buy whatever I want" money. The other was a very good friend so set up the beer fund so I'll cover drinks until that runs dry.

However the most I've seen was a new grad. He's a lovely bloke, was head of all the societies at uni, knew everyone studying CS at a very good uni. In his first year he referred all his uni friends, think he got around 15 or so successful referrals in that first year. My friend in HR processing then said it was more than her salary.

It helps that it is a good company where you'd tell little to join even with no referral, but the incentive makes you seem it that little bit more

Woah that's wild!!!! Any chance you could put me in touch? i'm doing a piece on referral bonuses. my email: shikhar@careerfair.io

my last 2 articles: - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37753292 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36634529

As a subcontractor I've worked for various pimps (headhunters, agencies, job shops, contract houses, etc) all of which make obscene amounts of money for doing essentially nothing. I don't make referrals because they generally offer insultingly small amounts of "bonus" money even though a (hired) candidate will generate a revenue stream in the 6 or 7 figures. My last contract even had a desperate sounding clause in it saying that I was effectively obligated to refer anybody who I even thought might be available. Yah, right...

I don't think I've ever worked for a company with such a referral program (including a couple of large tech companies). Or maybe I just wasn't told about them. Although they wouldn't make any difference in terms of encouraging me to bring in new hires.

If I enjoy working at the company, then I will do that regardless (assuming I know a qualified dev who's looking for work, which is pretty rare), and if I don't enjoy working at the company, then I won't.

Huh, I've generally seen smaller referral bonuses (<$5k). I referred someone I knew from college at my last role, and got a $5k bonus.

If you're able to consistently source great candidates, you might want to lead a team instead where you'll be better evaluated / rewarded on that though ;)

good point! i'm sure there's someone out there who's just spamming referrals for fun though. mostly all upside (perhaps there's the social cost of looking bad if one of your referrals totally bombs an interview)

Or be an outside recruiter and pocket a larger chunk per referral

I worked for a company that did 5k bonuses and I snagged it once for a referral. The next company had a similar bonus but when I sent someone in and applied for the bonus I was told management didn’t qualify as lead referral was “part of our job”. I’m over it…I promise ;)

Zero. A referral bonus is essentially a bonus on being social and I don't fit that category. My few friends have all been employed quite happily, so there's nothing I can do.

Wow, our referral program is $1500 for most roles. Managerial and higher is $3500. I haven't referred anyone.

interesting, thx for sharing. Yeah I recently learnt that at some places (like Accenture Federal Services - specifically their "hot jobs" section), there are some bonuses going up to $20k.

source: https://events.afs.com/referral-bonus-program#:~:text=For%20....

That's more than my regular yearly bonuses. Crazy

I know a director in my SO's company is getting a constant flow of $$ from the program.

Love it.

How much $$ we talking?

$2k-5k per head.

And would you know how much this person has made in total?

Just asked my SO and I actually got it wrong. It's a producer, not a director. The $$ is about 500-2k per head and he made about 10k in total. The beauty is that he had a training side business for this :)

Perverse incentives case study

I got a framed company poster once! That's about the extent of it.

Could’ve been a hoodie!

45k

I’m a writer working on a piece on referral bonuses. If you don’t mind, could you email me at shikhar@careerfair.io? I’d be curious to learn more, thanks!!

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