> Companies always prioritize a strong referral, ignoring mediocre interview performance, and will even skip the reference checks I wish this were always true.

> Companies always prioritize a strong referral, ignoring mediocre interview performance, and will even skip the reference checks I wish this were always true. When I worked as a recruiter, I saw referrals routinely get tossed onto the stack of resumes with no special preference. How candidates are treated completely depends on the preferences of the hiring manager & corporate red tape, even at smaller companies.