At the big companies I havent seen referrals work any better than just applying on their websites I went to a state school and recruiters have been hitting me up since the day I graduated, my gpa was less than 3.0 Why do you leetcode nerds need referrals? is this just naivete?
Higher percentage or sometimes 100% guarantee of a recruiter call to start the interviewing process.
I agree with the OP, I personally never asked for referrals. I always get good amount of calls by just applying to a lot of positions online. Even recruiters always reach out.
TC?
I think for a company like Google or Facebook, you don't need referral if you have a traditional CS background, and went to a college in the US. It might be that people who are asking for referral have non-traditional background (no STEM degree) or graduated from a foreign uni.
or a very small university in US.