How does referral work?

Hi!

It’s great that you’re actively networking and setting up coffee chats—that definitely helps build connections. Usually, your contacts won’t automatically track every coffee chat in a formal database, so it’s a good idea to be clear and polite if you want to ask for a referral.

If you’ve built a good rapport, you can mention that you’re very interested in applying and ask if they’d be comfortable referring you or guiding you through the next steps. Since you have a chat coming up with a principal, that could be a good moment to bring it up once you’ve established a connection.

Keep nurturing those relationships, and when the time feels right, an official referral ask usually works best when it’s personal and specific. Let me know if you want help drafting a message!

Alessa

Hi there,

No, they don't keep track of that. 

And ideally you don't ask directly for a referral. 

See the coffee chat as primarily informative. Ask questions you are generally interested in - about the job, the recruiting process, the experience of the person you're talking to. 

If the conversation goes well, you might indirectly ask for a referral. I explain more about how to do it in the following articles that you might find useful:

• Expert Guide: How To Handle Networking Calls and Get Referrals
• Expert Guide: How To Get Referrals Via LinkedIn?

Best,
Cristian

Hi,

To clarify your questions are:

• Do coffee chats get logged or tracked at the office (e.g., for hiring/referral consideration)? No they're not
• Or do they still need to formally ask for a referral if they’re interested? Yes

 A referral is abit of admin shlep, the person needs to upload your cv and fill out your details which takes time, which is why people don't do these often. 

You need to really build up relationships over time in order for them to actually take the time to get to know you, see you worth, and refer you.

So do what you're doing - have coffee with those people and then:

• Follow up - I'd say once a month send messages how they're doing, how you're doing, anything interesting, maybe comment on the fact that you saw the MBB in the news as an example - you need to build a relationship

Alternatively, you have a couple of other options:

• Go back to your school alumni network and see who of your peers has gone to an MBB: Reach out to them, ask their journey, I'd say don't ask for a referral on the first chat - work into it, maybe the 2nd?
• Go look on Linkedin who previously worked at your current place of employment and see who of has transferred to a MBB:  Same process

Good luck and happy to chat about a plan forward - I know how hard it is to get that first invite. 

Hi there,

It’s unlikely that someone will refer you after just one coffee chat, without you explicitly discussing it with them.

My suggestion would be to nurture a bit more of a relationship first (maybe a couple of meetings) and then ask for a referral.

An alternative would be to look for MBB employees from your school’s alumni network - they might be more willing to immediately refer you.

Best of luck.

You're doing a great job with your networking. Just keep in mind that MBB firms don’t usually track informal coffee chats in a central system. So unless someone explicitly refers you, the firm likely won’t know about the conversation.

If you had a good connection, felt positive engagement, or got helpful advice, it’s completely fine to ask for a rreferral. So it's up to you to gaugz the level of connection made during the chat. 

Hi,

You need an official referral. Feel free to ask those people for one (there are good articles covering how to do it here) and there is no problem to have more than one per firm.

Best,

Mari

They don't necessarily keep track. And they have to be the ones volunteering a referral.