Until the recent two years, no referral means no response whatsoever, for me anyway... referral usually guarantees I will hear back, even if it is rejection, al

Until the recent two years, no referral means no response whatsoever, for me anyway... referral usually guarantees I will hear back, even if it is rejection, all else equal, including the exact same resume of mine. EDIT: Forgot to mention, I work for a bigg-ish Tech, and the bulk of the new hires are referrals. Very very few candidates get hired without referral. The referral fee is so high, the hiring manager is usually inundated with candidates the moment a role is available. Very seldom do we need to seriously consider non-referred candidates.