[jmchuster]

Recommendations really only come into play when you're talking about the best engineers. In which case, you're effectively no longer interviewing, just getting people in your network who say they must hire you or tell other people in their networks they must hire you.

Related, in blog form: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/09/06/finding-great-deve...

[jnbiche]

I would consider those as more referrals, not recommendations (which implies the traditional job recommendation process).