Thank you for finding this post. I will send them this post when someone reaches out to me with an intention of a getting a role at Quora.

I do not think I would have received an interview opportunity with Quora based on my undergraduate resume alone. I happened to get lucky in a programming contest held by Quora.

Generally, I am not expected to refer people who I have not worked with. However, I still hope to extend this opportunity to candidates which I think is of great fit.

What is the purpose of referrals

My company has set up a referral process to find people who are a great fit for Quora. Statistics show that employees hired through referrals have longer retention and better performance.

This is how employee referrals has helped

  • Help to get candidates to consider roles at Quora, who otherwise would not have considered roles at Quora.
  • Help to identify candidates of great fit who otherwise won’t be identified by recruiters.
  • Help to provide additional context to referred candidates so that they know what they are signing up for.

In other words, the purpose of the referral process is to serve the company. I serve the company. I want Quora and the products to succeed.

What is included in a referral

This is what I need to fill up when I file a referral

  • Job
  • Name
  • Email
  • Phone
  • Current company
  • Current title
  • LinkedIn profile
  • Website
  • Resume
  • Cover letter
  • Referral or Lead
  • Rating
    • Best person I’ve ever worked with
    • Top 10%
    • Top 25%
    • Top 50%
    • Not in the top 50%
    • I’m not equipped to assess candidates for this position
    • I don’t know this person well enough to rate them)
  • Relationship type
    • From Work/Professionally
    • From school
    • Family
    • Socially (friend, friend of a friend, met at a networking event)
    • By their public reputation only
    • I don’t know this person
    • Other
  • Relationship rating
    • Direct, first-hand knowledge of their abilities, skills, and work
    • Casual or peripheral first-hand knowledge
    • 2nd-hand knowledge
    • Don’t know their work
  • When we contact
    • You may mention me
    • I wish to remain anonymous
  • Additional notes

Why do I usually decline to give referrals

Referrals are most effective when I have personally worked with the person I am going to refer.

Referrals are also effective when someone I closely work with (one of the closest 3~4 people that I work with in one of the years) refers someone that they closely work with.

If you are asking for referrals out of the cold, it does not belong to the above two categories.

Referrals are also effective when you don’t need the referral (your profile is similar to the profiles that we usually interview). In this case, I am still willing the give a referral so that I can serve as an alternative point of view. Of course, my observations may still be reported to the hiring manager.

I will decline to give a referral when I could not immediately identify something that I could appreciate. You are still free to apply through the typical application process, and you should.

What to include in your reach-out to me

I need to identify something which I think recruiters might not be able to easily appreciate.

Please include your resume and share at least one of the following. Note that you do not need to do ALL of these, you just need ONE.

  • A product feature or a demo that you shipped that I can access. Please specify EXACTLY what did you contribute to the feature. I should not be required to install anything or log in to anything. If there is a sign-up wall, please attach screenshots.
  • Github profile with a repository you think represents your work.
  • Kaggle profile and a useful resource that you have shared.
  • Knowledge-related social media profile on one of these platforms - Quora, YouTube, TikTok, Zhihu, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram. Share a piece of content that you have published that you think is great.
  • Poe profile with a bot you think is non-trivial.

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ONE OF THESE ALREADY, PLEASE DIRECTLY APPLY FOR THE ROLE. If you spend time working on one of these, it is very likely that we have already sourced sufficient candidates to interview by the time you are ready.

Please keep in mind that sharing your work with me does NOT guarantee a referral from me. If I am not able to immediately understand your work, I will decline to write a referral and share my general referral link.

In any case, the things I mentioned could also help with your application even for roles outside of Quora.

What to write when reaching out

I offer the following template.

I would like a referral for the role Senior Full Stack Software Engineer - Core Product, Poe (Remote).

I have made (demo) which you access in (url).

Please be concise in your communication.

Where to reach out to me

When you cold message me, I appreciate a LinkedIn message or Quora private message (if they happen to be enabled).

On LinkedIn, as of writing, it seems that free members can send up to 5 invites per month with at most 200 characters each.

Thanks for reading, and all the best!