A quarter of all hires made in France in 2025 came through employee referrals, according to the Apec's annual barometer. This channel, long seen as informal, has become a full-fledged part of companies' sourcing strategies - provided you know how to ask for one without looking like you're pulling strings.
What referral hiring is and why companies value it
Referral hiring means recommending someone from your network for an open position at your company, usually in exchange for a bonus paid if the referred candidate is actually hired and stays on past a probation period. For the employer, the appeal goes beyond simply saving on recruitment firm fees: an employee who makes a referral puts their own credibility on the line, which naturally filters out less serious applications.
According to the Apec study "Executive Recruitment Practices 2026" 🔗, referrals helped finalize roughly a quarter of executive hires in 2025, a channel used more by SMEs (28% of hires) than by large companies (13%), where sourcing processes rely more heavily on external intermediaries.
The sectors where referral hiring matters most
Some sectors lean on referrals more than others, particularly ones where skills are scarce and professional networks act as a natural quality filter: strategy and management consulting, where firms partly recruit on the recommendation of former consultants; tech and software development, where technical communities recommend each other; and certain niche finance functions - M&A, private equity, asset management - where the pool of experienced candidates remains limited and where specialized headhunting firms themselves rely heavily on referrals rather than unsolicited applications.
SMEs, more generally, use referrals out of necessity: their employer brand is often less well known than that of large groups, so word of mouth from a current employee becomes a decisive attractiveness lever.
How to build a network that leads to being referred
Referral hiring requires having contacts positioned to recommend you well ahead of time - it can't be improvised the day before applying. Keeping up with former classmates, staying active in your school's alumni association, or simply staying in touch with former colleagues after a job change forms the natural groundwork for future referrals.
🤝 To build this network methodically, our guide on networking in finance explains how to maintain useful professional relationships without the approach coming across as self-serving.
LinkedIn plays a growing role in this process: an active presence, regular posts on your area of expertise, and genuine interactions with your professional network mechanically increase the odds that a contact will think of you spontaneously when a position opens up at their company. Our article on how to get hired via LinkedIn details concrete levers for turning a passive presence into real opportunities.
How to ask for a referral without seeming opportunistic
Directly asking for a referral is a delicate move: bluntly asking "can you refer me?" puts your contact in an uncomfortable position, since they're putting their internal credibility on the line without necessarily knowing your recent work. The most effective approach is to re-engage the relationship before making the ask - a message catching up, mentioning a shared point of current interest (a project, a job change) - then expressing interest in the company in a specific way, citing a precise role or type of mission that appeals to you.
It's also more honest, and often more effective, to offer your resume along with a short message explaining your motivation, leaving your contact free to judge whether they genuinely want to recommend you. This approach respects their position and avoids putting them in a spot where they feel obligated to accept out of politeness.
Referral hiring versus a standard recruitment process: what changes
Being referred does not exempt you from the standard steps of recruitment - HR interviews, technical tests, sign-off from operational managers generally still apply. What referral hiring mainly changes is the entry point into the process: a referred resume rarely lands in the pile of hundreds of unsolicited applications, and often benefits from a faster first contact with a recruiter or manager.
⚠️ Watch out: a referral opens a door, it does not guarantee the job. A weak application or a poorly prepared interview will disqualify a referred candidate just as surely as any other - the recommendation speeds up the process, it does not replace preparation.
Showing up with a flawless resume therefore remains essential, including - especially - when you benefit from an internal recommendation that opened the door. FinanceCV helps you generate a structured resume compatible with recruiters' automated screening tools, turning this initial opportunity into a genuinely convincing application.
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