Depends on the company . I hear often about people with extensive networks of friends , excoworkers , exmanagers , etc . that can slide easily into a new job via those connections , with interviews just being a formality . However unless you ' re at the level of a renowned superstar rockstar many people have heard about , I can ' t help to think that most of those jobs are ones that aren ' t very desirable in the first place . Or at least maybe extremely tiny startups where the CEOCTO doesn ' t have a formal process they have to put every candidate through . I doubt , for example , you ' d get a job at any of the Big 4 mainly through the power of your connections . They ' d still put you through the technical interview circus and if you failed to impress that one guy who ' s in a foul , foul mood because his dog just died that day , not even your friend the senior director of the known universe could probably get you in correct me if I ' m wrong . Even in my lowly bank job , we recently failed a lot of candidates that came recommended from various people in our department because they couldn ' t get past our relatively easier technical interview .