The Two Types Of Referrals (& How To Turn More Into Interviews) | Ep #872

How to turn referrals into interviews Welcome to The Dream Job System, the only podcast that provides proven, tangible strategies to help you land a job you love without traditional experience and without applying online. Get ready to level up your job search with your host, Austin Belsack. Speaker 2 Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Dream Job System podcast. I'm your host, Austin Belsack, and today we are going to talk about the two types of referrals that you might be running into and how to find the right ones that are actually going to convert into job offers. So if you've been going to the job search process and you've been working to generate referrals, you may have noticed that referrals don't always lead to interviews. And that can be super frustrating, right? Because you're listening to this podcast or you're following other people on LinkedIn. And everywhere you look, people are saying go network because networking is the way you get referrals and referrals are how you get hired. And then you work your butt off and you finally land that referral. And then nothing comes of it. There's no interview, there's no call back, there's nothing. And you're left feeling super confused and probably super frustrated. All referrals are NOT created equal So why is that the case? Why does that happen? Well, it's because all referrals aren't created equal. And when we boil down the types of referrals that are out there, it really comes down to two specific kinds. First, there's the one and done, and 2nd, there's the advocate. So let's start with the first type of referral here, the one and done. This is the type of referral that most people end up with. So typically this happens when you send a message to somebody and you say something along the lines of, you know, hey, I saw that there's this opening at your company. I'd really love to work there. Here's why I think I might be qualified. You know, would you be willing to pass along my resume basically some sort of message that speaks directly to the job, mentions that you're interested and asked for the referral, right? And this is something that we don't necessarily recommend that you do, but it is something that a lot of people do. And occasionally you will get some bites, right? Somebody at the company finally says, yes, they offer to pass your resume along. And typically what this means is that they're going to take your resume and they're going to put it in the company tool or they're going to send your resume to the recruiter and they're just going to kind of wipe their hands and say, OK, you know, I did my part. And they'll let you know that they did that, right? The problem with one-and-done referrals The problem is they don't do much else here. They don't sell your experience. They don't push to get you in the door. And they don't do those things because they can't, right? They barely know you. All you've done is exchange a couple of emails at this point. And that's the reason why these things aren't converting. See the employee on the other side, they actually have a decent amount to gain by referring you in and not very much to lose. So if they put you in the employee referral tool or if they send you to the hiring manager and you get selected, they get that referral bonus, right? They get a couple $1000 in their bank account. But if you don't get selected, it's really no skin off their back. They don't really lose anything. You could go a bit deeper and dive into the reputation piece, which some people care about and some people don't. I personally was very particular about the people that I referred in because I wanted my referrals to carry weight. But I also know plenty of people who play the volume game and they just churn through referrals and they collect massive bonuses. I knew people on my teams who are getting an extra ten, $15,000 a year just because they were cranking out these referrals and they were just putting anybody that they knew in the pot and just due to sheer volume, something would hit, right. So there's a a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes here, but none of it really benefits you as the job seeker. So we need to go a little bit deeper, and that's where the second type of referral comes into play. Why the ‘advocate’ referral is so much better That is the advocate. So the advocate is doing everything that we mentioned, right? They are taking your resume and they're passing it along to the recruiter or the hiring manager. They're putting your name in the pool. But they don't stop there. They go a step further. So when they put your name into the tool, they leave a note that specifically says why they're referring you. And they speak to your experience and they speak to your skills and they talk about why they think you're a good fit for this role. And then when they send an e-mail to the hiring manager or to the recruiter, they do the same thing. They talk directly to your value. They share the direct impact you'll have on the team. And then they share that message far and wide with other colleagues, people that you might potentially be interviewing with, right? Not just the hiring manager. They champion you all the way through the initial application to the offer stage, right? And that is what we're looking for. And obviously that type of person, the advocate, gives us a much, much better chance of landing the job offer. Why? Because they're actively going to bat for us. They're actively pushing back on objections for us. They're actively selling on our behalf. How to get more advocate referrals But the only way you are going to get somebody who's an advocate is if you take the time to build a relationship with them. There's no way they're going to be able to sell your experience if they don't know anything about your experience. There's no way this person is going to be invested in you and want to go to bat for you unless there's a pre-existing relationship there. So that is why it's so important to invest in building the relationship before you ask for the referral. Because if you just go right for the jugular at the very first conversation or in the second conversation or too early, you're going to end up with a lot of 1 and done referrals, which can be really frustrating and painful because it seems like you're making progress, but in reality, you're still not getting the results that you want. Whereas if we spend a little bit of extra time, if we delay our gratification just a little bit and we build relationships with these people, we are going to convert more of these folks into advocates. So when they go refer us in, they're not just pressing a button on a tool. They're not just passing a resume along to a recruiter with no contacts. They're actively selling on our behalf. They're pushing for us to get in the door and they actually have the information to do that. So the next time you get a referral, what I want you to do is make an ask. Obviously, if you have time to build that context, that build that relationship with this referral to turn them into an advocate, that is what I recommend doing. But either way, if you're getting one and done's or if you're building advocates, what I want you to do is make an ask. The next time somebody says they're willing to refer you in, ask them if they would also be willing to send an e-mail to the hiring manager directly. And then what I want you to do is provide them with all of the information and all of the copy they need to make a strong case for you. So you can essentially write this e-mail for them and you can say, hey, here's why I think I am a great fit for this role. Here are some bullets outlined in the specific results and projects and experience that I have or that I've worked on. And then you can send that to them. And what they can do is just repurpose that and send the e-mail to the hiring manager. So the reason I'm recommending this is because even if you don't have that advocate status with somebody, this can significantly boost your chances of actually getting in the door for the interview and winning the offer. Now, I saw this first hand when I was at Microsoft. I referred a lot of people in when I was at Microsoft. And initially what I would do is I would be a one and done. So a friend or a colleague or somebody would come to me and say, you know, hey, will you pass my resume along? And if I said yes, then what I would do is just put them in the referral tool and that would be that. But what ended up happening is these people wouldn't get called back. And I was thinking, well, why not? You know, I'm an employee here, I'm vouching for this person. Why are they not at least getting a call back? And the reality is that especially at these higher tier companies, these highly sought after companies, it's table stakes to have a referral. So many other people have referrals that we need. Another reason we need to sell beyond just the referral to get somebody in the door. So what I started doing was every time I decided to refer somebody and I got much more picky about who I referred, as I mentioned, I would draft up an e-mail exactly as I mentioned. I would say, hey, here's this person, here's exactly why I'm referring them, Here's the value I think they bring to the table, and here's some examples of that value. I strongly recommend that you have a conversation with that. And I had a 100% success rate with getting that person in an interview after I started sending those emails. So that's exactly what I'm trying to get you to play into here. Again, whether or not it's a one and done or an advocate, if you can get somebody to send an e-mail on your behalf with all of the relevant information, you are going to see a massive boost in the amount of interviews that you convert from these referrals. So you get fewer referrals that don't turn into anything and that keep frustrating you. So that's it for today, but I hope this advice is going to help you convert more of these referrals into interviews and more of these interviews into offers. I'll see you in the next episode of the podcast.