You just saw a perfect job on linkedin and thinking now if someone can refer you directly. Well, 82% of companies have referral programs in place. They prioritise referral hiring over company career pages or job boards.
Asking your linkedin connections for referrals is an idea worth trying, you never know when your luck will shine.
You must use one of these templates and ask the right person to refer you. These are carefully written referral templates and I have used them to land interviews at JP Morgan Chase in the past.
You can ask your entire network for referrals if you need a job and are not sure about who to ask for a referral. Here you just need to tell the LinkedIn crowd – this is my skill set and this is the role you are looking for, no need to provide a job link.
If someone in your network knows about the same open role, they will message you or add a comment. So the template goes like this
These templates work best because they also ask you to forward your resume to the recruiter in case that person is not confident to refer you.
If you haven’t tried referrals before, you might be wondering what are the chances that it will actually work? Let’s see
By end of this you”ll know
Yes, they do. I have personally got referrals through LinkedIn in JP Morgan and Chase.
I have conducted a survey on linkedin and found that 57% of professionals can give you a referral. All you need to do is find the right person that lies in 57%.
Apart from my own experience, I have found people posted on social about getting referrals
Now, what can you do to maximize your chances? send more requests right? Yes but
Based on our survey, if you ask 2 persons to refer you, that should get at least 1 referral. But just to increase your chances, it is a good idea to ask for referrals from 2-3 connections.
Also, don’t send requests to too many people, save them to ask referral for some other opportunity later.
So you have asked 2 connections for referrals and it has been a few days, no response. How long will you wait and what can you do?
It may be a busy week for your potential referrers. So it is a good idea to remind them after 2 days. I am assuming that a position only remains open for a week. Remember adding referrals in the company portal takes time so prefer Friday or the weekend to send a reminder message.
Use this reminder message template –
In the age of social media, referrals are no longer limited to direct friends or family. Many companies have started giving the “referral from social media” option in their employee referral portal. This is because companies themselves are actively posting jobs and hiring on social media.
The best person to refer you is someone who has worked with you in the past or personally knows you. They will not be hesitant to refer you. So it’s time to leverage that connection and ask them.
You can also ask to 2nd level of connections on social media. If they are convinced they will refer you else they can forward your resume to a recruiter [no harm].
The chances of getting referred by a stranger on social media are very slim. Strangers don’t refer you because they don’t know you and don’t want to risk their reputation.
Give preference to professionals who know you, directly connected or 2nd level connections. Asking a stranger should be your last option.
Even if you are asking a stranger, remember you are smartly asking them to forward your resume to a recruiter which they can do without a problem.
A typical referral application follows below steps –
As your connection submits your referral request, you will get an email that you got referred. You should thank that person for taking their valuable time and doing this for you. You just made a good connection here which you will need later on as well
Use this thank you message template
So after this point, you need to track your application while you are preparing for interviews. Keep reading to know how
You will get notified via email when your referrer adds the request to company’s internal portal. Many times you get email notifications as your application progresses through various stages. But in case you don’t hear back, you can ask your referrer to check the latest status of your application.
Referrals are win win win situation for everyone. This is why 82% of employers have referral programs because they see results. Now let’s see how
Employees who get referred are four times more likely to get hired than those who don’t.
45% of people employed through referrals stay with the company for more than four years.
Via referral, you are bypassing hundreds of applicants who applied through job portals. Since you have been referred by an employee, there is a high chance that a recruiter will look at your profile.
your referrer gets a referral bonus if you join and complete your probation period. Companies offer referral bonuses because it saves them time and money.
This is why referrals are win win win.
By asking for referrals on LinkedIn you stand ahead of hundreds or thousands of applicants applying through job portals and company websites. Since your resume is coming from a company employee, it is more likely to get reviewed by a recruiter.
Asking the right people and using the right message in referral requests makes a great difference. It gets you referred and moves you closer to getting hired.
What our users say
