I see many Blind posts asking for referrals. What's the benefit of getting a referral from a SWE vs reaching out to a recruiter on LinkedIn? A recruiter from FAANG contacted me after they found me on LinkedIn. I'm really interested in joining this company. How do I play my cards right? They want a copy of my resume. Should I ghost them and get a referral from Blind instead? #tech
Both increase your chances of interviewing with the company but I'd say that being reached out by a recruiter on LinkedIn is better than being referred by a SWE from the same company. I've had some referrals from some SWE friends and some got me in front of a recruiter but other times, my application was rejected before even chatting with a recruiter. I was only rejected 2 out of 50+ times I've interviewed over the last few years when recruiters reached out because they were looking for something specific rather than generic SWE experience. Since you were reached out by a recruiter, say thanks for reaching out, you're interested in the company, give some availability to chat, and say if they'd need anything else. Then they'd follow up with a time they're available and probably request your resume. Then once you two chatted you're a good fit for the role, you kick off the interview process. Good luck!
Makes sense. I've never had good experience with recruiters. They tend to not disclose info and try to play you. The thinking was SWE's referral would add more weight as recruiters are not technical.
The recruiter can only give only so much information since I believe that they only speak with the hiring manager(s) of their org (not the rest of the SWEs) and the projects can be too technical for the recruiter to regurgitate beyond their pitch. I've found most recruiters to be okay except for one that gave me so many red flags during our initial chat that I rejected to continue interviewing lol. Once you've started the technical/onsite rounds, then it's balls in your court to ask questions to the SWEs, PMs, managers, etc. about the team, wlb, projects, etc for whatever it is that you're looking for in your next role. If you land an offer and you're still unsure, try reaching out to the recruiter if you can follow up with the hiring manager for another call or an email thread for the remaining questions you have. Remember that you're interviewing the company as much as they're interviewing you.
If the SWE referral is for his own team then that's better than recruiter I would think. Otherwise, a recruiter may be better.
No. Referrals from people you don't know or who haven't worked with you are pretty useless. Go through the recruiter.
Wouldn't that SWE give me insight about different teams, what to avoid etc? Recruiter will never be transparent, right
Unlikely that the SWE will actually A) refer you, B) give you tangible, useful information. If you don't have a reference, don't fake it by asking or paying for one from a stranger. There's really no point.