HACKER Q&A
📣 shsachdev

How much have you made from your company's referral bonus program?


With these bonuses often going up to $10-20k per hire, curious if anyone has made >$50k or even as high as the six figures.


  👤 giantg2 Accepted Answer ✓
Wow, our referral program is $1500 for most roles. Managerial and higher is $3500. I haven't referred anyone.

👤 venkii
Huh, I've generally seen smaller referral bonuses (<$5k). I referred someone I knew from college at my last role, and got a $5k bonus.

If you're able to consistently source great candidates, you might want to lead a team instead where you'll be better evaluated / rewarded on that though ;)


👤 claudiulodro
I got a framed company poster once! That's about the extent of it.

👤 hnthrowaway0315
I know a director in my SO's company is getting a constant flow of $$ from the program.

Love it.


👤 quickthrower2
Zero. I referred one person. After their interview I got politely questioned why because they did badly. Referals now become staking your rep on an unpredictable process for a chance to win $1000. I prefer to buy a scratch card.

👤 schwartzworld
45k

👤 JohnFen
I don't think I've ever worked for a company with such a referral program (including a couple of large tech companies). Or maybe I just wasn't told about them. Although they wouldn't make any difference in terms of encouraging me to bring in new hires.

If I enjoy working at the company, then I will do that regardless (assuming I know a qualified dev who's looking for work, which is pretty rare), and if I don't enjoy working at the company, then I won't.


👤 codegrappler
I worked for a company that did 5k bonuses and I snagged it once for a referral. The next company had a similar bonus but when I sent someone in and applied for the bonus I was told management didn’t qualify as lead referral was “part of our job”. I’m over it…I promise ;)

👤 m0d0nne11
As a subcontractor I've worked for various pimps (headhunters, agencies, job shops, contract houses, etc) all of which make obscene amounts of money for doing essentially nothing. I don't make referrals because they generally offer insultingly small amounts of "bonus" money even though a (hired) candidate will generate a revenue stream in the 6 or 7 figures. My last contract even had a desperate sounding clause in it saying that I was effectively obligated to refer anybody who I even thought might be available. Yah, right...

👤 Ndymium
Zero. A referral bonus is essentially a bonus on being social and I don't fit that category. My few friends have all been employed quite happily, so there's nothing I can do.