Referring a friend?

Have a relatively close-ish friend who asked if I could help refer him to my firm's IB recruiting pipeline. Nice guy, but really doesn't make the cut in terms of past experience, technical knowledge, and soft skills. Does it look bad on you if you referred someone who did badly in interviews? My firm is small so higher chance of people remembering who you referred etc.

And if it does reflect badly on you, how would you weigh that with a friend asking for a favour? He's also polite about it, not pushy or anything.

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I would not refer anybody to my firm unless I 100% felt that they were qualified, interested and were going to interview well. I think it's a bad look on you if you refer someone that does poorly or is a bad fit.

More importantly, this means you're going to likely have to do something challenging. You'll have to tell your friend no and that you cannot refer them for the job. I know it's not fun, but this is an important social skill and being able to tell people no (even when you don't want to) will serve you well.

 

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