Comments on: Referral Bonuses

Question: Referral Bonuses

th3ph17 — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 00:12:10 -0800

Any metafiltarians work for companies in the bay area [monterey to sf] that pay you big fat $$$$ bonuses for referring new hires?

By: jeremias

jeremias — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 04:24:36 -0800

Companies are still doing that? I thought that died off in 2001.

By: substrate

substrate — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 07:32:44 -0800

We're still doing it and we haven't been profitable in 7ish years (other than a couple quarters on a non-operating basis)

By: th3ph17

th3ph17 — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 08:10:00 -0800

a company i was with a year ago was still doing small cash bonuses.

i'm just looking for some proof of selfish motivation for resume forwarding before i actively search around for people willing to do so.

fortune favors the bold and all that.

By: o0o0o

o0o0o — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 08:24:58 -0800

Well it's certainly one way to get a stack of worthless resumes and create an environment where everyone is goofing off with their friends.

Then again, that's usually how it is anyway, so carry on.

By: LairBob

LairBob — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 08:30:03 -0800

The problem with paying out referral bonuses is that while, yes, you can demonstrate that, in principle, a good referral hire brings value and saves costs, you actually have to have a mechanism for capturing that extra value, and wringing out that extra cost.

If you can't turn that into real numbers on the balance sheet, then the referral bonus is just makes those people more expensive than someone walking in off the street, turning the whole system on its head.

By: ruwan

ruwan — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 08:35:18 -0800

my dad's company is. but he's an engineer...