Let's say that you think highly of Ivan, who works at FooCo as a C++ developer. When Ivan starts recommending Paula for her C++ skills, and Paula used to work

Let's say that you think highly of Ivan, who works at FooCo as a C++ developer. When Ivan starts recommending Paula for her C++ skills, and Paula used to work at Bar, LLC where Ivan used to work, you can trust that to a certain extent. When Ivan recommends Istvan for his Haskell skills, and they've never worked together, Ivan's recommendation might be worth less (he's doing a favor for a friend) or worth more (Ivan is recommending the leader of a local Haskell User Group.) When Ivan recommend Maura for C++ skills, and Maura works at FooCo, that could mean: Ivan sees Maura as a threat or an irritation and would like her to go elsewhere - low value Ivan is getting ready to leave FooCo and is pre-emptively arranging exits for people he likes - medium value Ivan is getting ready to leave FooCo and is trying to do as much damage as possible on the way out - high value Ivan sees that FooCo doesn't have a place for Maura to grow and wants her to thrive - high value People are complex.