How to Ask for a Referral: Getting Engineering Interviews in India

Many portal applications get no reply at all, and you cannot tell why. Learning how to ask for a referral fixes the biggest gap: no person at the company has looked at your name.

Picture a common setup. A final-year computer science student in Pune applies to 120 openings on job portals over six weeks and hears back from two. The setup is made up, but the pattern is one many students describe.

Each portal application lands in an applicant tracking system, or ATS. That is the software a company uses to collect and sort applications for each job. A popular opening can collect far more applications than anyone can read closely.

The student has done nothing wrong. They have simply used only one door, the most crowded one. This guide follows the same student as they add referrals, recruiters and project work, and as they learn to spot fake offers.

You need six words. Each one comes up again later, tied to the student's search.

• Requisition or job ID: the code a company gives one open position, such as R-10482 (made up). A referral is usually attached to one requisition.
• Applicant tracking system (ATS): the hiring software where every application, referral and interview note for a job is stored.
• Recruiter: a person whose job is to fill roles. An in-house recruiter works for the company; an agency recruiter works for a firm the company pays.
• Hiring manager: the person who will lead the team you join. They usually decide who gets interviewed after the recruiter's first screen.
• Referral: an employee formally submits you for a job through the company's system, usually saying how they know you.
• Referral bonus: money some companies pay the employee if the person they referred is hired and stays a set time. Rules differ by company.

Ask for one specific job, explain in one line why you fit it, and attach your resume. The person helping you should be able to submit you without writing anything themselves.

Many referral requests stall because they ask for a favour instead of making one easy. A message like "Hi, can you refer me to your company?" forces the employee to find a job, read your profile and guess your fit. Many people will not do that work for a stranger.

Here is the naive version the student sent first, and why it went nowhere. It named no role, gave no reason, and had no resume attached. It is shown here only as what not to send.

Hi sir, I am looking for a job. Please refer me in your company. Thanks.

Now the version that works. Every value in it is made up, including the job ID, the links and the project numbers. Replace NAME, YOUR NAME and the rest with your own details.

Hi NAME,

We were in the same college coding club in 2023 (made-up example).
I saw your team has an opening for Backend Engineer I, job ID R-10482:
careers.example.com/jobs/R-10482

Why I think I fit: I built a URL shortener in Go with PostgreSQL
that handled 2,000 requests a second in a load test, and I contributed
two merged fixes to an open-source logging library.

Would you be comfortable referring me for this role?
I have attached my resume and a three-line summary you can paste.
If it is not a good fit or you would rather not, no problem at all.

Thanks,
YOUR NAME
github.com/example-user

What just happened? The message names the link between you, the exact job and its ID, and one concrete reason with a number. It also gives the reader a polite way to say no, which makes yes easier.

1. 1

   Pick one job first

   Find the opening on the company's own careers page and copy its job ID and link. A referral for a named role is easier to submit than a general request.

2. 2

   Choose who to ask

   Prefer someone who knows you or your work: a classmate, senior, ex-colleague or project collaborator. A stranger can refer you, but expect fewer replies.

3. 3

   Write three lines of fit

   Match two or three items from the job description to things you have built or done. Use numbers you can defend in an interview.

4. 4

   Attach what they need

   Send your resume as a PDF and a short summary they can paste into the referral form. Ask whether their system needs anything else.

5. 5

   Make no easy

   End with a line that lets them decline. People who feel cornered tend to ignore the message instead.

6. 6

   Wait before applying yourself

   Ask the person how their company handles referrals before you apply on the portal. Some systems treat an earlier application differently, as explained later.

Because a person the company already trusts has vouched for you, so your application is more likely to be read. Research on a few firms supports this, with real limits on what it proves.

Here is an everyday picture. A referral is like a hostel senior vouching for a junior to the mess manager. The senior is the employee, the manager is the recruiter and the meal pass is a first look.

Where the picture breaks: the mess manager might just hand over the pass. A company still runs the full interview loop, and the referral only affects whether you get into it.

What the research found, exactly

A 2013 New York Fed staff report on one large US financial-services firm looked at 62,127 applications for 315 positions. Referrals were 6 percent of applicants, 21 percent of interviewees and 29 percent of hires.

By our own arithmetic on those rounded shares, a referred application was about six times as likely to end in a hire. That is a raw comparison, and the authors say the paper does not attempt any causal claims about referrals.

The same paper found referred hires stayed longer. They were about 85 percent as likely to leave as non-referred workers. Their small starting pay advantage disappeared by about the third year.

A larger study used data from nine big firms in call centres, trucking and high-tech, published in 2015. Referred applicants were more likely to be hired and to accept offers, even though their skills looked similar.

It also found referred workers were substantially less likely to quit. In call centres and trucking, they brought higher profits, mainly through lower turnover and recruiting costs.

Use all four, but put most of your effort where a person sees your name. For most engineers that means referrals first, recruiters second, then portals and project work in the background.

The table is advice from our mentoring, not measured data. Use it to decide where your next hour goes.

Recruiters: answer them, and be specific

Recruiters are paid by the company to fill roles, so they want a quick, clear match. Reply within a day or two, state the roles, cities and notice period you accept, and ask which team the role is in.

An agency recruiter may pitch you to several companies. Ask which company and job ID they will submit you to, so you do not end up submitted twice for the same job.

Open source and projects: make your work findable

Merged contributions to a real project show engineers how you write code, take feedback and finish things. They also give you something specific to mention in a referral message.

Start with small issues labelled for newcomers, read the project's contributing guide and keep each change small. A single merged fix you can explain beats ten unfinished side projects.

Start with people who know you a bit but are not your closest friends: classmates, seniors, ex-colleagues and project collaborators. Large network research suggests these looser links often help most with job moves.

A 2022 study in the journal Science ran randomised experiments on LinkedIn's connection suggestions, covering over 20 million members. It found moderately weak ties helped job mobility most, more than very close ties.

The effect differed by industry. Weak ties helped more in digital industries, including software, and stronger ties mattered more in less digital ones. The study measured one platform, so treat it as a direction, not a rule.

• Former classmates and seniors now working at the company: the easiest yes, because they can say how they know you.
• People you have worked with on a project, internship or open-source issue: they can speak about your work.
• Alumni of your college you have never met: send a shorter message and expect fewer replies.
• Engineers whose public posts or talks you read: only after you have something concrete to say, never as a first message asking for a referral.

Do not ask ten people at the same company for the same job. If one person refers you, the others add nothing, and the recruiting team may see the duplicates.

The employee fills a referral form in the ATS for a specific job, and your profile is tagged as their referral. A recruiter then reviews it, and if it fits, you join the same interviews as everyone else.

Rules differ by company, and most firms do not publish them. GitLab is one company that publishes its referral process in its public handbook, so it makes a useful real example. Its page was last modified on 14 October 2025, as checked on 26 October 2026.

• A referral must name a specific job: the handbook says general referrals are not accepted.
• The referrer must tell you and get your approval before submitting.
• The referrer explains how they know you and why you are qualified, and is asked to add a resume or profile link.
• The hiring team aims to review referrals within 5 business days, and referral interviews should be no more or less demanding than any other.
• A referral counts as that employee's for 6 months for roles in the same job family. After that you are treated as an ordinary applicant.
• Endorsements are not referrals. Recommending someone who already applied on their own is an endorsement, and it does not earn a bonus.

That last rule is the one that surprises people. At companies with a similar rule, applying on the portal first and then asking for a referral can turn your referral into a weaker endorsement. Ask your contact how their company treats it.

This is also why a referrer's reputation matters to them. In GitLab's process, each referral is tied to the employee who submitted it. That gives them a reason to be careful about referring strangers they cannot speak for. A clear message lowers that risk for them.

Send one short follow-up after about a week, then stop. This is advice from our mentoring, not a rule from any company, but it respects the other person's time.

Silence usually means busy, not no. A single reminder with the job ID gives them another easy chance. A second or third reminder starts to feel like pressure.

Hi NAME, a gentle nudge on my note about Backend Engineer I (R-10482).
The resume and summary are in my earlier message.
Totally fine if now is not a good time. Thanks!

• If they refer you, thank them and tell them the outcome later, even if it is a no.
• If they decline, thank them and ask whether another team or person would suit you better.
• Never send the same message to many people at once, and never tag strangers in public posts to ask for referrals.
• Keep a note of who you asked and when, so you never ask the same person twice for the same job.

Treat any request for money as the main warning sign. As of 26 October 2026, Infosys states it does not charge or accept any amount or security deposit from job seekers. The US consumer regulator's advice is simply never pay to get a job.

Fake offers often copy a real company's name and logo. They usually move fast, skip real interviews and ask for a fee for training, a laptop, verification or a joining kit.

• A fee of any kind before or after an offer: training, certification, equipment, security deposit or document verification.
• An offer with no real interview, or an interview only over chat with a person you cannot verify.
• An email from a free personal address instead of the company's own domain. Infosys warns that Gmail or Yahoo addresses on offers should raise suspicion, and that scammers can fake display addresses.
• A cheque sent to you with a request to send part of it back or buy gift cards. The US regulator says no real company does this.
• A job abroad offered on a tourist visa, or through an agent with no licence number. India's embassy advisories say to use registered recruiting agents only.

How to verify and where to report

Find the job on the company's own careers page, not through a link in the message. Some companies offer a check: Infosys links an offer validation page for Infosys Limited, India, from its fraud alert page.

For jobs abroad, India's Embassy in Bern advised in December 2023 to check an agent on emigrate.gov.in, under the list of active recruiting agents. It also said a valid job needs a contract signed by employer, agent and worker.

If you lost money or shared bank details, call the 1930 cybercrime helpline or report at cybercrime.gov.in quickly. The government's Sanchar Saathi site points financial fraud there.

For a suspicious call, SMS or WhatsApp message where no money was lost, use Chakshu on Sanchar Saathi. The site says Chakshu is not for reporting financial fraud or cybercrime, which go to 1930.

Track every application in one sheet and run the same small routine each week. A pipeline here just means the list of jobs at each stage, from found to offer.

It compounds because each week adds contacts and finished projects you can reuse. Polite messages to people you met, merged pull requests and a better resume all make next week's requests stronger.

Back to the student from Pune. Instead of 120 portal applications, they now track 15 target companies, ask for 5 referrals a week and spend two evenings on one open-source issue. These numbers are a made-up plan, not measured results.

1. 1

   Monday: list targets

   Add 3 to 5 openings from company careers pages. Record company, job ID, link, date found and why you fit.

2. 2

   Tuesday: find people

   For each opening, find one person you know or share a college or project with. Note how you are connected.

3. 3

   Wednesday: send requests

   Send each referral request using the template. Log the date sent and set a follow-up date one week later.

4. 4

   Thursday: build and share

   Spend time on one project or open-source issue. Write two lines about what you did, ready for future messages.

5. 5

   Friday: follow up and review

   Send any one-week follow-ups due. Apply directly where no contact exists. Note what got replies and adjust next week.

To check the pipeline works, count replies per stage, not applications sent. If referral requests get no replies, fix the message. If interviews never turn into next rounds, the problem is preparation, not search.

Say it plainly and give credit, then move quickly to why you fit. Interviewers often ask how you heard about the job, and a referral is a normal answer.

1. 1

   Name the route

   Say you were referred by a former classmate or colleague, or found the role on the careers page. Keep it to one sentence.

2. 2

   Link it to the team

   Mention one thing you learned about the team's work from your contact or their public material.

3. 3

   Bridge to your fit

   Give the same two or three reasons from your referral message, with the numbers you can defend.

4. 4

   Do not lean on the referral

   Never suggest the referral should count in your favour. The interview judges you, not your contact.

5. 5

   Close with a question

   Ask what success in the first six months looks like for this role.