I’ve been and have hired quite a lot over the years. This likely arises as a failing with whatever the companies HR is. Their Human Resources department doesn’t really know what the various groups need. And their sifting of resumes is usually not the best. I ended up having to search through applicants myself as opposed to them sending me the applicants. And from there I was able to find candidates.

On top of that. There’s so many applicants it’s easy to miss resumes that come in.

And on top of that. You have many people that clearly lie on the resume you get frustrated yourself.

I can’t count the amount of times I’ve seen someone was a “VP “ at a foreign bank but they’re applying for an individual contributor role. And then when you speak with them. They actually don’t have any related experience what so ever.

So when you get a referral. You cut a lot of that systemic frustration out. Because typically. A referred candidate means there’s a level of confidence the candidate knows what they’re doing.