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I've applied to a few jobs at one place recently, and one of the questions that is asked is whether I have a family contact or social relationship contact within their company. I have a good friend there now, so they agreed to let me list them as my social contact.

I provided the name, title, and working group of my social contact, on the job application online.

What effect does this have on my application? Would I typically be given preference? Will my friend be contacted internally to help them evaluate my skills / personality?

This is the first job application in which I have encountered such a question, so I think it's interesting.

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    It also might be to make sure that some one you know Is not involved in the interviewing process.
    – Neuromancer
    Jul 15, 2018 at 11:59
  • What kind of job is it? There are some fields (finance, for example) where close relatives are kept apart in certain departments for risk/compliance reasons.
    – Laconic Droid
    Jul 15, 2018 at 13:12

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What effect does this have on my application? Would I typically be given preference? Will my friend be contacted internally to help them evaluate my skills / personality?

From experience your contact would be asked as any other reference would be if the rest of your CV looked positive for the role. There may also be a referral bonus for your contact, this is less prevalent in professional jobs though.

One positive thing about it is that in small locales a known and easily contactable person as a reference is much preferable to an unknown. In my own country a referral from an unknown person is just worth the toner used to print it.

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