Which ones? There aren't that many software companies of that size. I worked for one of them (Google) until a couple years ago, and I never knew of any ICs, at

Which ones? There aren't that many software companies of that size. I worked for one of them (Google) until a couple years ago, and I never knew of any ICs, at least up to the "Staff" level, who skipped the interview gauntlet on the back of an internal referral. It was a good way to get an interview though (which was already a big advantage). Maybe it was different for managers though. Is this different at Meta/Amazon/Microsoft? That has not been my impression, but I don't have personal experience with those companies.