[eitally]

One of the biggest problems -- speaking as a former technical hiring manager myself -- is that a lot of those "serious companies" have HR policies that explicitly forbid hiring managers from pursuing candidates on their own. They are 100% at the mercy of whatever recruiters find for them, which is an awwwwwwwful, horrendous situation.

[brianwawok]

Really? All the big corps I worked at had a referral program. Friend want a job? Send his resume to HR. If he got hired, some kind of referral bonus (500 to 5000 depending on job market)

Not the same as a direct hire of a friend but I know referrals were assumed better qualified than a random who applied online.

[vonmoltke]

I think that was the point. Referrals has to go through HR, who reserved the right to review and reject the candidate. The hiring manager was not allowed to bypass the HR filter and pursue a candidate they wanted.