Shadowing Practice: How job referrals work when applying for a job - Learn English Speaking with Video

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In this video, I'm going to explain how job referrals work at a company when you are applying for a position.

Then I'm going to answer some commonly asked questions about referrals, and then I'm going to explain how you can maximize your referrals

so that you can get more interviews and more job offers this year.

If you are applying for a job, getting a referral from someone at the company will definitely increase

your chances of getting your resume in front of a recruiter or a hiring manager.

But what is a job referral and how does it typically work?

Well, basically, if you know somebody who works at a company that you want to work at, you would reach out to them and ask them

if they can refer you as a strong candidate for one of their positions.

Typically, you have to choose a specific job rec or job posting that you want to be considered for.

Then, on the back end,

most companies have some type of referral process or referral form that the employee who knows you will need to fill out.

Usually, this referral form will ask them to talk about what it's like to work with you

or what it's like when you were in school together.

Basically, they are going to be asked to rate you as a candidate

and they should be talking about why they think you should be hired at their company.

Then typically you would be asked for your copy of your resume, which then will be passed along to the recruiting team.

Usually you don't talk to anybody until they have confirmed you are a good fit

and they have headcount for you to be talking to a recruiter.

Just because you get a referral or your friend refers you at that company, it doesn't mean you always get to talk to a recruiter

because they may not have the headcount

or it turns out you may not be qualified for the role that you think you are interested in.

Then if your background does match one of the roles, that's when the recruiter will usually reach out to you and schedule a call,

or the hiring manager may want to speak with you right away.

Sometimes a referral does allow you to skip one or two rounds of interviews, which is a really great benefit.

But keep in mind, you are still going to be evaluated

and compared to other candidates who also may have referrals or don't have referrals.

So you're still going to want to make sure that your interviewing skills are on par and ready to go.

And if you want free interview tips, make sure you check out our playlist right up here

So now that you know what a job referral is

and how it works I want to answer some commonly asked questions that I get about it all the time

Now the first question is do I need to put that I have a referral on my resume?

And the answer is no

Generally a referral is something that happens in their ATS system or is done on the back end

You don't need to write anything about it or modify your resume just because you have a referral

Another question that I get is how recent does your referral have to be?

Sometimes it may be out of your control where someone

that you worked with five years ago is the only person working at that company.

And in that case, that's totally fine.

But if you do have a choice, try to pick someone who has worked with you most recently

because then they can give the most accurate picture of your current skill set, your current scope of work, and your current impact and level.

Does a job referral guarantee a job offer?

Now, of course, the answer is no.

but it does give you certain advantages where you may be able to interview for a job

that you may not quite fit 100 % of the job description for

because your referral or your friend at the company can vouch for you

or can explain how your untraditional experience may be still a perfect match for what they're looking for in their role.

Now, a referral may also give you a leg up

and make up for maybe a potentially bad interview

that you may have had because if your referral

or your friend can talk about how good you are as an employee

or why you were such a strong performer at your company together, they may be willing to cut you some slack

if your interview skills aren't quite there or if you may have bombed one interview.

But it is not enough to save you if you unfortunately bombed all of your interviews.

So while a job referral may not guarantee you a job offer,

it usually does guarantee you at least a view from a recruiter or hiring manager on your resume.

Because sometimes if you apply online for a job like through LinkedIn or Indeed or Monster or something like that, if you don't have a referral,

there is a chance that they may not even get to see your resume or your application because they have so many.

But companies will always prioritize folks who have referrals.

Another common question is if I have multiple contacts at a company, who should I be asking to refer me?

Should I ask all of them or should I just ask one of them?

My recommendation is

that you need to be asking the person who has worked with you the closest either as your manager

or as one of your direct teammates

because they will be able to give the best version of your skill set and your experience.

Now you also want to make sure that the person

that you pick to refer you thinks very positively and highly of you.

So make sure that the person who's referring you will be rating you very very good

and can explain exactly why they think you should be hired at their company.

And the last common question I get is that does getting more referrals increase my chances of getting a job offer?

And the answer is it depends.

If you get multiple positive referrals from people who have worked directly with you and can talk about your work product,

then it will most likely increase your chances of getting a job offer.

But if you have a lot of referrals and some of them have worked with you, some of them have not worked with you,

some of them are random people on LinkedIn, then it doesn't necessarily increase your chances.

You need to recognize that not all job referrals

or employee referrals are created equal

because the folks who can actually talk about what it's like

to work with you are obviously going to have the biggest amount of weight and sway in a particular hiring decision.

So now that you know the commonly asked questions about job referrals, how can you maximize your job referrals so

that you can be increasing your chances of getting a job offer or passing more interviews.

You need to be thinking about maintaining relationships with previous co -workers who have left your company and gone to other places.

You need to be maintaining relationships with your former managers, especially those who loved working with you.

You need to be thinking about your network constantly all the time.

You need to be making sure that everybody who can vouch for your work

and thinks positively about you is someone that you constantly keep in touch with

because they are going to be the most valuable people that will help you maximize your job referrals.

Next, don't just ask someone, hey can you refer me at your company?

There's a really cool position that I want to apply for.

You need to also ask them to take a look at your resume.

You also should be asking them for feedback about the job and your experience.

You should ask them, hey do you think I'm actually qualified for this role?

Or you should be asking them, okay you got a job here

so tell me what did you do on your resume

or how did you prepare for these interviews so that you can also follow their success.

Usually if they're happy to refer you then they are going to be getting some type of referral bonus

or payment if you get hired.

So they're probably going to be willing to go out of their way to prep you for interviews,

to review your resume, to give you all these insider tips and tricks so that you can also be successful.

When you do get a referral especially

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if they work in the same job function or even the same role

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that you want you should be asking them what were the specific interview questions

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that they had when they were interviewing as well.

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And then make sure you practice those and get your answers down perfectly.

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You can even ask them to do a practice

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or mock interview with you

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because there is no one who is better at giving feedback

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than somebody who was already successful in getting hired in the exact position that you want.

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Now another pro tip is that you should be asking the people who are referring you

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if they have done interviews for their company or for their job or for their team.

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You need to ask them what the interview process is like.

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What kind of questions do they like to ask?

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How do they evaluate and think about what's a good answer for a specific interview question?

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Now, this next tip is a small minor adjustment, but actually makes a huge difference when you are applying and getting these job referrals.

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And that is

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that you should be asking your friends at these companies to directly pass along your resume to the hiring manager.

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But you should only be doing this after you've asked them for feedback on your resume.

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Make sure that your friend agrees that the job you are applying for is a perfect match for what you want.

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Remember, your friend's reputation at this company is also at stake here.

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So don't just ask them to pass along your resume to the hiring manager

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if you haven't confirmed that it is the right role for you and that your resume is in a really good shape.

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Now, my last tip to maximize your referrals

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so you get more job offers and more job interviews is that you need to be asking your referrals for more referrals.

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If you are able to make a good connection with somebody

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or if someone that you've worked with is willing to provide you a job referral at their company,

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you need to be asking them if there are other friends

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that they have who are hiring or if there are other companies

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that they recommend you should be looking at working for and if they have any contacts there.

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This is the easiest way to expand your network with the least amount of effort and time.

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Don't just focus on the short term, which is getting this specific job at their specific company instead thinking about the long term,

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growing your network in a really easy and successful way

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and then leveraging your connections to get more connections and more job opportunities.

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All right, hopefully you found this video to be helpful in demystifying the referral process,

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answering some common questions and learning how to maximize these referrals and use it best to your advantage.

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If you want more career tips just like this,

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make sure you click subscribe to the channel below and I will see you in the next video.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “How job referrals work when applying for a job”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: referral, interview, resume, asking. This video has 135 sentences and 1995 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:41. The speaker talks fast, about 206 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
referral noun	/ɹɪˈfɜː.ɹəl/	The act or process of transferring someone or something to another, of sending by reference, or referring.
resume verb	/ˈɹɛz.ə.meɪ/	To start (something) again that has been stopped or paused from the point at which it was stopped or paused; continue, carry on.
hire verb	/ˈhaɪɹ/	To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.
refer verb	/ɹɪˈfɜː/	To direct the attention of (someone toward something).
recruit verb	/ɹɪˈkɹut/	To enroll or enlist new members or potential employees on behalf of an employer, organization, sports team, the military, etc.
maximize verb	/ˈmæksəmaɪz/	To make as large as possible.
skill noun	/skɪl/	A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate.
guarantee noun	/ˌɡæɹ.ənˈtiː/	Anything that assures a certain outcome.
commonly adverb	/ˈkɑmənli/	As a rule; frequently; usually.
feedback noun	/ˈfiːdˌbæk/	Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results.
confirm verb	/kənˈfɝm/	To strengthen; to make firm or resolute.
folk noun	/foʊk/	People, persons.
qualify verb	/ˈkwɑ.lɪ.faɪ/	To describe or characterize something by listing its qualities.
evaluate verb	/ɪˈvaljʊeɪt/	To draw conclusions from examining; to assess; to appraise.
positively adverb	/ˈpɑ.zɪ.tɪv.li/	In a positive manner.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
pass along verb		To deliver a message or item to its intended recipient.
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
fill out verb	/fɪl ˈaʊt/	To complete a form or questionnaire with requested information.
turn out verb		To end up; to result.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have confirmed · has worked · have worked
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	somebody who works · interviews, which is · someone who has
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	be considered · be asked · should be hired

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 21 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: reputation /ˌɹɛpjʊˈteɪʃən/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, preposition /ˌpɹɛpəˈzɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: positively /ˈpɑ.zɪ.tɪv.li/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, reputation /ˌɹɛpjʊˈteɪʃən/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like referral, resume, hire.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: How job referrals work when applying for a job - Learn English Speaking with Video

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