Refer a friend to a job site, earn big bucks

Job referral portals are the latest in online recruitment, especially among IT and IT-enabled services. The concept that started as an experiment on corporate campuses has taken off with flying colours, reports Soubhik Mitra.

For Kabir Singh (name changed) a Delhi-based banking executive, information technology (IT) is as good as Greek. Last month he saw an online advertisement saying ‘Get paid for job referrals’.

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“Initially, I thought it was spam,” said Singh. Nonetheless, he registered on the website and recommended 10 friends for a lucrative IT job on offer. Last week, his bank balance turned fatter by Rs 40,000. It was a reward from the IT firm that hired one of his friends.

Job referral portals are the latest in online recruitment, especially among IT and IT-enabled services. The concept that started as an experiment on corporate campuses has taken off with flying colours online.

Reffster, a five-month-old job referral portal, has a membership of 50,000 and 195 jobs on offer. It offers rewards from Rs 10,000 to Rs 2,50,000.

“It is a cheaper. Earlier, for every recruitment corporate houses paid 8 per cent of the cost to company (CTC) to consultants. We charge only 3 per cent,” said Arjun Yadav, founder of Reffster.

Delhi’s Yellojobs.com has incorporated this feature with Rs 65 crore of reward money for people who successfully refer friends or relatives. “Networking for career options is increasing and Yellojobs.com is an extension of employee referral programmes of many organisations,” said Vikramjit Singh Sahaye, who heads the portal in India.