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Comment by bbarn | Hacker News Reader

You know, the idea may be bonkers, but honestly - hiring is such a pain for every person involved that I'm willing to try just about anything to make it easier. There is some merit to your colleagues sticking their neck out for you, and I can think of some people I would definitely do it for that I've worked with in the past.

Is it a bit tone deaf in the current market? Quite possibly. Is it DOA? Seems to be. Is it offensive or discriminatory? I just don't see how.

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> You know, the idea may be bonkers, but honestly - hiring is such a pain for every person involved that I'm willing to try just about anything to make it easier.

The introduction of mandatory middle men into a system listed on the FTC webpage as a classic scam signal (pay for job opportunity) does not fundamentally eliminate the problems with it. The structural incentives are such that this model cannot work except as a scam ripping off most of the people pay into it, and the structural incentives also guarantee that it will mostly be the actual job seekers ultimately paying, even if the payments are forced to be laundered through “referrers”.

I think the issue is so much of the labor market is based on who you know, in particular if you know wealthy/connected people you can get job opportunities, and this sort of amplifies the well connected's leg up on the unconnected.

I think the knowing-people effect is a better criticism about referrals generally. Given that most companies already accept referrals, at least with this setup, employees would think twice about referring someone who would be let go before 2 months.

As a (formerly?) unconnected person – You can become connected. It just takes effort.

My favorite way to think about it comes from an old dating forum: Okay so you want to date a super model … how many super models are you meeting every day? If you aren’t where the super models are, you aren’t going to date a supermodel.

Same with networking. Go where the people you want to meet are. Then meet them.

Want a big network in tech? Go be an intern (or whatever you can get) at a large tech company. Have lunch with a new person every day. Or every few days. Spelunk from there

Want a big network of complainers? Go hang out on twitter. There’s lots of us and we love to complain about everything.

Once upon a time on this very forum I posted a blog: “Hey I’m coming to the Bay Area for 2 months, it’s my first time in USA. Who wants to hang?” that got me a string of coffee dates with dozens of people and it was amazing. I failed to keep in touch but most of us still recognize each other online.

Sure, being unconnected is a disadvantage, but that doesn't mean it's one we should fight against. Having referrals and a network means you're not just a good coder, you are someone other people are willing to stand up for - that's a real world advantage in someone you hire. Ignoring that out of some sense of "fair" (if it's even "fair") would be a bad idea.

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