Hi there,

(1) Does referrals have the power to influence who to be selected for interviews?

A referral will help you to get interviews. It won’t guarantee one though (even if from a Director/Partner),

(2) Best level for referral? 

Director/Partner. In general the more senior the better.

If you want to cold email, be sure to have the right strategy in place. You can find more on that here:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/hey-everyonehope-all-is-well-3176

Best,

Francesco

Hi there,

This is indeed an interesting question which is probably relevant for quite a lot of users, so I'm happy to give you my perspective on that:

• While I agree with what other coaches said so far, I still think that having a referral is pretty powerful, especially when you enter the interview phase. Here, you can - depending on the familiarity with the employee who mad the referral - always refer to what he/ she said, making you seem more informed and authentic.
• In my opinion, there is no one best level of referral, and I would advise you to not limit yourself to a specific level. While a partner referral will most certainly weigh in a lot, a project leader referral might help you more in the interview phase.
• Since you have already received referrals for the past application, you seem to already have a basic understanding of how to succeed in receiving referrals. Generally speaking though, one of the best ways to receive a referral is genuine interest in the work of the project leader/ (associate) partner and having some type of common ground (e.g. university).

Nonetheless, however, that your application files were simply not strong enough to be invited.

If you would like to discuss and have reviewed your application files in detail, please feel free to to contact me directly.

I hope this helps,

Hagen

Hi there,

My immediate thoughts are that 1) Last year was incredibly tough (just so little demand) and 2) You need to double-check your resume (get a professional to take a look).

That aside, to answer your questions:

1) No. Not in the slightest. It greatly helps (flags your resume for particular review), but no referral ever has the power to automatically get you selected

2) The general rule is the higher the level, the more the impact (this is particularly true for Partner). Ultimately, why are you narrowing your scope? Cold mail both! Diversification is key here…the only “downside” is time spent. The upwise is a referral. Cast the net wide!

3) Bonus tip: Don't forget to “play tag” across calls. This minimized the amount of cold messaging you have to do

Good luck!

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Hi there,

A referral is just a door opener such that the recruiting team will look through your application more thoroughly. Depending on the seniority, tenure and advocacy of the person referring you, you have a better chance of getting a first round interview. The more senior (manager level and above) the person referring you is, the better. The longer the tenure of that person with the firm is, the better. 

The reason is that such voices carry more weight than referrals coming from super junior or brand new people. They typically know the HR folks better and have been involved in recruiting activities for a while so it is usually assumed that they have a good grasp of what types of candidates with which sets of qualifications the firm needs. But any referral is better than no referral.

Ideally, you get a referral from someone from the same office (or same country) you are applying to. But again, a referral from someone within the same firm but different country organization is still better than no referral.

A direct rejection after the CV screening stage can still happen - even with a referral. In that case the HR team usually provides some feedback to the person having given the referral. So you should follow up with them to better understand the rationale in case that happens. On the flipside, you can still get an interview invite when you just apply online without a referral - the probability is just lower on average.

And as always, factors such as economic conditions and headcount/budget planning of the individual firm also matter significantly in these decisions - but they are not within your control.

Best

Hi!

A referral helps to get an interview. Partner level should be preferred to other seniorities.

Best,

Anto