A former colleague offered to refer me for a distributed product role, but I had already submitted an application through the company’s careers page two days earlier. They said they forwarded my resume internally, yet my application portal has not changed and I have not heard from recruiting.
Should I ask my colleague to check whether the referral was attached to my existing application, or wait for the recruiter to respond?
1 Answer
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Ask your colleague to check, but frame it as an administrative question, not a request to chase the recruiter. A referral submitted after an application may sit in a separate internal system, so the portal often won’t show any change.
If your colleague has a recruiter or hiring-manager contact for this role, ask them to confirm your name and requisition were included. That can prevent your application from being reviewed as an unreferenced submission.
If they only forwarded your resume generally and don’t know the role’s process, don’t ask them to escalate. Wait about a week from your application date, then send recruiting a concise follow-up mentioning that a former colleague referred you and including the job ID.
Send your colleague the job link and requisition number, and ask whether they can confirm the referral was tied to it.
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