How Referrals Work

So I felt there is justified confusion regarding how referrals work in the top tech companies and I wanted to clear it up a bit.

But before that, just a disclaimer that this is true to the best of my knowledge and is my experience. Your experience might be different and if so, feel free to contact me to correct anything.

In Google the hiring process is something like:

• Automated resume screening;
• Recruiter resume screening; online test/quiz
• technical interviews (2 for internship, 4/5 for full time)
• team matching
• offer.

Note the online quiz might be skipped in some circumstances, but is usually conducted for fresh graduates.

Now what an employee referral does for you is guarantee that a recruiter will take a look at your resume. This means that the automatic screening stop is skipped and you don't need to worry about gaming the stem with keywords etc. It also gives a chance to people from universities that usually don't get noticed by the system. It also usually means you'll get to the online quiz stage as it it's a low cost/low false negatives step for the company.

The referral however does not mean you have easier interviews or anything like that. It just gives you a level playing field with people from prestigious universities who clear the automated step anyways.

So I felt there is justified confusion regarding how referrals work in the top tech companies and I wanted to clear it up a bit.

But before that, just a disclaimer that this is true to the best of my knowledge and is my experience. Your experience might be different and if so, feel free to contact me to correct anything.

In Google the hiring process is something like:

• Automated resume screening;
• Recruiter resume screening; online test/quiz
• technical interviews (2 for internship, 4/5 for full time)
• team matching
• offer.

Note the online quiz might be skipped in some circumstances, but is usually conducted for fresh graduates.

Now what an employee referral does for you is guarantee that a recruiter will take a look at your resume. This means that the automatic screening stop is skipped and you don't need to worry about gaming the stem with keywords etc. It also gives a chance to people from universities that usually don't get noticed by the system. It also usually means you'll get to the online quiz stage as it it's a low cost/low false negatives step for the company.

The referral however does not mean you have easier interviews or anything like that. It just gives you a level playing field with people from prestigious universities who clear the automated step anyways.