8 ms·
Ask HN: How much have you made from your company's referral bonus program?
With these bonuses often going up to $10-20k per hire, curious if anyone has made >$50k or even as high as the six figures.
- rohit02092001 3y ago[flagged]
- rohit02092001 3y ago[flagged]
- giantg2 3y agoWow, our referral program is $1500 for most roles. Managerial and higher is $3500. I haven't referred anyone.
- shsachdev 3y agointeresting, thx for sharing. Yeah I recently learnt that at some places (like Accenture Federal Services - specifically their "hot jobs" section), there are some bonuses going up to $20k. source: https://events.afs.com/referral-bonus-program#:~:text=For%20each%20referral%20made%2C%20we,ranging%20from%20%241%2C000%2D%245%2C000 https://events.afs.com/referral-bonus-program#:~:text=For%20....
- giantg2 3y agoThat's more than my regular yearly bonuses. Crazy
- venkii 3y agoHuh, I've generally seen smaller referral bonuses (<$5k). I referred someone I knew from college at my last role, and got a $5k bonus. If you're able to consistently source great candidates, you might want to lead a team instead where you'll be better evaluated / rewarded on that though ;)
- shsachdev 3y agogood point! i'm sure there's someone out there who's just spamming referrals for fun though. mostly all upside (perhaps there's the social cost of looking bad if one of your referrals totally bombs an interview)
- quickthrower2 3y agoOr be an outside recruiter and pocket a larger chunk per referral
- claudiulodro 3y agoI got a framed company poster once! That's about the extent of it.
- shsachdev 3y agoCould’ve been a hoodie!
- hnthrowaway0315 3y agoI know a director in my SO's company is getting a constant flow of $$ from the program. Love it.
- shsachdev 3y agoHow much $$ we talking?
- hnthrowaway0315 3y ago$2k-5k per head.
- shsachdev 3y agoAnd would you know how much this person has made in total?
- hnthrowaway0315 3y agoJust asked my SO and I actually got it wrong. It's a producer, not a director. The $$ is about 500-2k per head and he made about 10k in total. The beauty is that he had a training side business for this :)
- quickthrower2 3y agoPerverse incentives case study
- quickthrower2 3y agoZero. I referred one person. After their interview I got politely questioned why because they did badly. Referals now become staking your rep on an unpredictable process for a chance to win $1000. I prefer to buy a scratch card.
- shsachdev 3y agogreat point. the "social cost" to referring someone who does badly is often forgotten
- bruce511 3y agoThe right answer is "because you offered a referral bonus. I am neither equipped, nor have the time, to do pre-interviews. Since you offer upside, and no downside, it is my interest to refer as many people as possible. I only have to be right once to score. You make the rules, I just play the game." :)
- schwartzworld 3y ago45k
- shsachdev 3y agoI’m a writer working on a piece on referral bonuses. If you don’t mind, could you email me at shikhar@careerfair.io? I’d be curious to learn more, thanks!!
- JohnFen 3y agoI don't think I've ever worked for a company with such a referral program (including a couple of large tech companies). Or maybe I just wasn't told about them. Although they wouldn't make any difference in terms of encouraging me to bring in new hires. If I enjoy working at the company, then I will do that regardless (assuming I know a qualified dev who's looking for work, which is pretty rare), and if I don't enjoy working at the company, then I won't.
- codegrappler 3y agoI worked for a company that did 5k bonuses and I snagged it once for a referral. The next company had a similar bonus but when I sent someone in and applied for the bonus I was told management didn’t qualify as lead referral was “part of our job”. I’m over it…I promise ;)
- m0d0nne11 3y agoAs a subcontractor I've worked for various pimps (headhunters, agencies, job shops, contract houses, etc) all of which make obscene amounts of money for doing essentially nothing. I don't make referrals because they generally offer insultingly small amounts of "bonus" money even though a (hired) candidate will generate a revenue stream in the 6 or 7 figures. My last contract even had a desperate sounding clause in it saying that I was effectively obligated to refer anybody who I even thought might be available. Yah, right...
- Ndymium 3y agoZero. A referral bonus is essentially a bonus on being social and I don't fit that category. My few friends have all been employed quite happily, so there's nothing I can do.
- lobe 3y agoHave worked a long time in a company that does $5k referrals. Have referred 4, 2 successful so $10k. One of them landed in my lap so treated the money as guilt free "buy whatever I want" money. The other was a very good friend so set up the beer fund so I'll cover drinks until that runs dry. However the most I've seen was a new grad. He's a lovely bloke, was head of all the societies at uni, knew everyone studying CS at a very good uni. In his first year he referred all his uni friends, think he got around 15 or so successful referrals in that first year. My friend in HR processing then said it was more than her salary. It helps that it is a good company where you'd tell little to join even with no referral, but the incentive makes you seem it that little bit more
- shsachdev 3y agoWoah that's wild!!!! Any chance you could put me in touch? i'm doing a piece on referral bonuses. my email: shikhar@careerfair.io my last 2 articles: - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37753292 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37753292 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36634529 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36634529