Social networks have made it easy for people whom I don't know to find out that I work at a well-known design agency. Friends of Facebook friends, connections of LinkedIn connections, and other distant acquaintances occasionally contact me to help them avoid having their resume lost in the shuffle.<p>I don't mind helping very close friends or other people I would feel comfortable vouching for. But I do mind advancing someone's resume if I've only met them once and/or they weren't particularly impressive.<p>It'd be nice to say, "Sure, here's the email of our HR guy. Good luck." - but people will always start the email to the HR guy with, "I'm a friend of [My Name], and he told me to send you my resume for the so-and-so position." I want to avoid this implied endorsement, because my professional reputation suffers when sub-par applicants don't get the job.<p>I also don't want to have to tell people not to use my name, because it comes off as rude or unwilling to help.<p>Maybe I'm hoping for too perfect a solution or trying to avoid the natural complexities of human interaction. If so, I can make a decision and deal with the consequences. But I wanted to check if anyone here has experience or advice in handling situations like this.<p>Thanks.
I was in the same situation recently. I asked the person to send me his resume. I forwarded it to the HR recruiter so I could honestly tell this person I had forwarded his resume. At the same time I added a caveat to the recruiter that I was not familiar with this person or his work and that based on the resume he did not look particularly impressive.
To avoid the "I'm a friend of [x] ..." email, I always say:<p>"Send me your resume, and I will make sure it gets to the right person."<p>I won't actually forward the resume on, but I usually look at the resume for curiosity - and if it's a friend I might send them a few pointers on how they could improve their resume. Pick the "Don't eat where you shit", "Don't mix business and pleasure", or whatever cliche you prefer.<p>Are you lying when you do this? Maybe. If they're not a good candidate, you might as well be the "right person" to discard their resume.<p>Alternatively, you could say something like:<p>"I had a bad experience recommending a friend, so I make it a personal rule that I don't do it anymore."<p>(I would probably make an exception for exceptional people.)
As a quick fix you could chat with the HR guy and let him know that when you want to vouch for someone you will do so directly. Also ask for a $reward if they hire someone you recommend!