[p1esk]

In one of the startups I worked at, when we really needed to find good people, CEO raised the referral bonus from 3k to 10k, paid 90 days after start date.

In another startup, management asked every IC on hiring teams to find at least one potential candidates - every week. Time to find them was allocated into sprints. The referral bonus was raised from 2k to 3k.

The first example was more successful from what I remember.

[web3-is-a-scam]

Am I the only one that isn't incentivized by referral bonuses? The last thing I want is the blame for a bad hire because I somehow referred someone ended up not being a good fit for whatever reason.

[epicureanideal]

Usually the amounts just aren’t enough to be worth the effort. A couple thousand, where a recruiter would get tens of thousands?

[atmosx]

The idea is to refer ppl you want to work with based on prior experience. I don't think they want you to on a wild goose chase on Github, StackOverflow or LinkedIn.

[sfe22]

Well, you get it after 90 days, by then they will probably know if it is a bad fit.

[noirbot]

Sure, but if it's a bad fit, it's still tied to you. Your team or some other team is now blaming you for their bad hire and you don't get the money.

[p1esk]

I never felt like that when recommending someone. First of all, before referring someone, I'd personally interview them and make sure I want to work with them. And after that the candidate would still go through all the usual interview rounds (sans the initial recruiter's screen). The decision would still be collective - everyone on the team still has to write a review and give thumbs up.

[loa_in_]

Assuming that company wants best hires they are glad to give a go to anyone in the possible candidate pool sooner or later, and knowing anyone in same line of work (surely) is a positive bias to viability so they should thank you. What makes you feel like it's about blame?

[noirbot]

Blame is maybe a too-strong word in some cases, but if someone gets hired onto my team and is a bit of a dud for whatever reason, and I know someone influential on another team referred them, it starts to feel more like nepotism than simply "using a referral network".

Especially at a larger company where the hiring process can be a little obscured from the actual team. Where not every, or even most engineers on a team get to meet a new engineer before they're hired.

[loa_in_]

I think nepotism is a pathological case of something that happens just normally anyway. But then it's not nepotism... until it is...

These systemic problems that are only tangential to actual work rarely occur but the common mitigations seem to put a lot of pressure on everyday man, maybe even more than the problem itself... I wonder what's the "correct" solution here.

[ghaff]

Yeah. I won't refer people I don't really know and certainly not someone I do know and am not impressed by.

[roland35]

One unfortunate side effect of referral bonuses is that they don't really help increase diversity since employees are most likely to refer friends from their existing social circles. I didn't realize that at first!

[p1esk]

I personally would prefer to work with people from my social circle.

[pkrotich]

I used to believe in "culture fit" as well but it took me going to a tech conference to realize it was a codeword / gateway for alot of **isms.

And I don't even mean racism - say your potential candidate is older with kids (assuming you're younger) would you pass them because they cannot go out drinking with you after work (a.k.a social circle)?

That said, I agree that you want to work with people you get along with, but it has to be at work. Social circle is the issue for me.

[p1esk]

By "social circle" I did not mean people I go out for drinks with - I'd call those "friends". I simply meant people I have something in common with, share the same values with, people I can relate to. If the candidate is older with kids (assuming I'm younger) - he/she should be someone I want to become in the future, someone I respect, someone I'd learn from. Race, gender, age, even education - does not really matter - as long as I'm genuinely interested in that person and feel like I'd enjoy working with them. After many years of interviewing and hiring at various startups this is more important to me than technical skills. Skills could be learned, personalities usually don't change.

[klooney]

I feel like programmer discourse goes in a circle every five years on agreeableness/human factors when hiring. You can say "rigid process and blind hiring!" And then you hire someone you knew was, er , difficult, and it sucks and they get fired and you have to adjust. Then on the other side of the spectrum, you have grumpy people pointing out that it turns out agreeableness turns out to mean coethnic drinking buddies, and how could you?

[BeetleB]

Of course you would. That is exactly the problem.

[atmosx]

Why is that a problem?

[BeetleB]

Imagine you keep applying for jobs and you get none because all the existing employees are recommending their friends who are inferior to you in skills, but the company is prioritizing referrals.

This is, and has always been, a real problem: That your ability to get good positions is limited not by your skill set but by your ability to network.

[deadbeefinmoon]

You only need a laptop to set up a company in this field. If there are separate networks of different ethnities (or whatever you mean by diversity) their companies should be able to win over the ones who are not hiring based on pure skill and abilities. Does this happen?

[p1esk]

Generally if you have good skills people will want to network with you, unless you're anti-social or have some other personality issues. Keep in mind that technical skills are just one component in a good coworker.

[p1esk]

I am more productive (and generally happier) when working with people I like, and can relate to. Communication is better too, which is pretty important.

[quickthrower2]

I prefer to work with the best people for the job.

[wobbly_bush]

Interestingly, one of the actual AIs from DEI teams is to ask for referrals from existing diverse candidates.

[elevanation]

That sounds like a good idea. I wonder what percentage of companies are offering substantial referral bonuses?