"...Sure the staff member could be recommending them just because he's a friend, but I'm assuming most people would not risk their reputation recommending someo

"...Sure the staff member could be recommending them just because he's a friend, but I'm assuming most people would not risk their reputation recommending someone who was incompetent." Maybe I've just been around the wrong people, but this seems the primary motivation behind the recommendation one friend would give on behalf of another. Competence never entered the picture; even when I would ask about it, I was always told "it's not what you know, it's who you know," as if to reassure themselves as much as to admonish me. In some cases, the recommendations are truly noble-minded, but never underestimate the social pressure people have to practice nepotism. I will caveat this by saying I've been hired in one or two places where the recruitment tango started through a recommendation. One of those places, it stopped mattering as soon as the phone screen began. The other, well, the person who recommended me was the hiring manager, so I'm not sure that counts. :-)