[ryandrake]

> However, at my current job, referring someone for an open position just means throwing their CV in the mix along with everyone else's. There is no way to bypass even a single step in the weeks-long hiring process.

I thought this was the case everywhere, except maybe very small companies. In the companies I’ve worked, if a candidate asks for a referral, I can’t do much more than input their resume into our internal tool, and then tell him “It’s job req. 54401, go apply online for it!” There’s no button on the page that I push to indicate “This candidate is a special referral! Bypass the interviews!”

Maybe it’s different higher up. At the VP level it’s more important who you golf with, and who were your buddies from business school, and who you did coke with at one of last year’s private CES parties. I doubt at that level they even have to apply to job reqs. I’m not even sure that a CxO even interviews!