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"Have your employee log in to LinkedIn and do a "first degree network" search to return all of their immediate connections. Read more: http://firstround.com/ar

"Have your employee log in to LinkedIn and do a "first degree network" search to return all of their immediate connections. Read more: http://firstround.com/article/Mine-Your-Network-for-Early-Stage-Hiring-Gold#ixzz2zdU2bWWF http://firstround.com/article/Mine-Your-Network-for-Early-St... " Hah, no, try again--this strikes me as exceedingly scummy. What's really annoying is when you try to bring in talented engineers from your network, and your company drops the ball: either by not getting in touch with them, or lowballing them, or refusing decent equity. If I'm referring somebody from my network to you, I want to make sure you treat them well and with promptness--disrespecting them is a sign of disrespect to me as well, and makes me look like an ass to them. And I know that hiring in small companies is a huge pain in the neck, but that's no excuse for not taking care of this kind of stuff. EDIT: Oh wow: "So, that's LinkedIn. Now we're going to do the same thing with Facebook." And then: "Make it a homework assignment for your staffer to fill in as much email contact data for their list as they can. " I am sick to my stomach with this. TalentBin sounds super scummy, and I wouldn't want to recommend their services to anyone.

GVIrish 13y ago
This was absolutely my problem with this strategy as well. "Strip mining" someone's professional network doesn't give the impression that the employee's contacts will be treated with thought and care. The whole reason referrals are valuable is because they leverage the trust between two people. I trust that someone I refer is going to put their best foot forward and perform well, the person I refer trusts that I'm not going to recommend them to a crappy hiring experience or a crappy company. They also trust that I'm not going to spam them or otherwise waste their time. By putting all of my contacts in the hands of the HR dept I no longer have any control over how or when the company contacts them. That company can easily break the trust I have with my contacts. I wouldn't be comfortable doing that, referral bonus or no referral bonus. Then there's the section about outsourcing this internal contact mining and impersonating a VP in recruiting emails. If you're starting out the process with outsourcing and fake personal touches chances are you are not going to treat my network with care. The most important question doesn't even get asked here, does an employee want to refer his or her network to the company. Some people are just not going to feel comfortable with doing that at all, or maybe they don't trust the company enough yet. Being aggressive with someone that feels that way could elicit quite a negative reaction. I do think working the networks of employees could bear great referrals but I think a delicate and thoughtful touch needs to be applied.
general_failure 13y ago
That's the thing. TalentBin is not for engineers. It's for HR and CEOs and recruiters. They don't care if it's scummy. On a side note, the line about lowballing and refusing decent equity resonates with me.

GVIrish 13y ago

This was absolutely my problem with this strategy as well. "Strip mining" someone's professional network doesn't give the impression that the employee's contacts will be treated with thought and care. The whole reason referrals are valuable is because they leverage the trust between two people. I trust that someone I refer is going to put their best foot forward and perform well, the person I refer trusts that I'm not going to recommend them to a crappy hiring experience or a crappy company. They also trust that I'm not going to spam them or otherwise waste their time. By putting all of my contacts in the hands of the HR dept I no longer have any control over how or when the company contacts them. That company can easily break the trust I have with my contacts. I wouldn't be comfortable doing that, referral bonus or no referral bonus. Then there's the section about outsourcing this internal contact mining and impersonating a VP in recruiting emails. If you're starting out the process with outsourcing and fake personal touches chances are you are not going to treat my network with care. The most important question doesn't even get asked here, does an employee want to refer his or her network to the company. Some people are just not going to feel comfortable with doing that at all, or maybe they don't trust the company enough yet. Being aggressive with someone that feels that way could elicit quite a negative reaction. I do think working the networks of employees could bear great referrals but I think a delicate and thoughtful touch needs to be applied.

general_failure 13y ago

That's the thing. TalentBin is not for engineers. It's for HR and CEOs and recruiters. They don't care if it's scummy. On a side note, the line about lowballing and refusing decent equity resonates with me.