[lbotos]

Sure, but at the other end of the spectrum you get "know a guy" interviews where interviewers just hire their friends if they are the only person in the hiring process.

Where I work (and even other co's my friends work at) even if you wanna hire a friend as a candidate, your friend still has to go through a full interview process.

What's the alternative look like?

[skeeter2020]

I don't agree with "hiring a friend" but I can certainly say that nothing has higher signal value than previous coworking experience with someone. The validated network of your current high performers is the best place to look for more.

[lbotos]

I agree. So should that person get a "skip the vetting process" pass?

At my current org, they don't. They go through the hiring process like everyone else, and the person that recommended them is not involved until they are hired or not.

They will very likely be hired because they are good, but the process makes sure of it.

[YZF]

Or the process rejects known good people?

A middle ground that I follow is to go back to the person referring and ask are we stupid for not hiring this person? Then we try and reconcile the interview performance with the recommendations.

Another thing that I generally do is never recommend to anyone great that I know to come work where I work. Nothing good comes out of that. They already have good jobs. There is some probability they won't be as successful in the new place. I would deviate from that under certain scenarios but as a rule I would not initiate that sort of change. If they come to me I'd happily recommend them (rarely happens, as I was saying, they have good jobs).

Referrals are tricky especially when there's incentives like referral bonuses and everyone starts referring their cousin's friend's uncle's neighbor (some other problems in that sort of culture but we digress).

[usrbinbash]

> Sure, but at the other end of the spectrum you get "know a guy" interviews

And code puzzle style interviews prevent that how exactly?

If the boss's boss want's his golf buddys friends nephew hired, goes to HR and says "hire that person", then that person will go through the same interview process as everyone else, presented with the same puzzle questions as everyone else, and do as good or bad as his preparation allows him to do, just like everyone else...

...and then get hired no matter what, because, just like everyone else, HR people want to keep their jobs as well.

[ipaddr]

The other side looks like this:

That person gets hired and fits in with the team. The team puts more effort into mentoring because they are friends and you end up with a strong teammate.

Team made of friends tend to level each other up or cover for weak areas.

Teams of strangers need to fit in socially.

Relationships level teams up quicker so if you are hiring every 6 months gets friends if you are hiring every 10 years it matters less.

[ghaff]

As someone in tech but not (professionally) a developer I have to confess that all my (few) jobs since grad school were of a “know a (senior) guy/gal” persuasion. Haven’t had a really serious interview since the 80s. Hav I optimized salary? Likely not but things have worked OK.

But it’s very “unfair.”