My acquaintance is a superstar product manager at a tech startup, and they refer me to a job in another department at the startup.
I get the interview, but HR never sends me the materials they say I’ll need for the case-study parts of the interview.
Needless to say, the three-part (case study #1, case study #2, personality-fit screen with hiring manager) interview goes awkwardly. Considering the circumstances, however, I think I do okay. The interviewers say they appreciate my preparation and effort. The hiring manager says I have done a great job researching the company. But, they cancel the second case study after we have done the first one and had found out that HR hadn’t sent the materials.
At this point, the hiring manager says she is cancelling the second case study part only because the other person who is scheduled to interview me is busy. (Usually this is a red flag that the interview is going poorly, but the hiring manager reassures me that everything is going well.) So the interview ends up being the first case study, followed by the hiring manager just asking me the usual situational questions.
After interviewing, the decision goes up to the hiring committee, who rejects me in favor of another candidate. HR tells me it’s due to my lack of experience.
After getting the rejection for that position, I reach out to all the other teams in that department, and basically everyone I speak with (including hiring managers) offer to refer me for an interview. They tell me that the company is hiring basically anyone, as long as they seem like a cultural fit (happy, nice, enthusiastic, etc.)
I tell these people offering referrals that I have yet to interview, which I suppose is somewhat true?
Anyway, how do I leverage all these people enthusiastically referring me into actually getting another interview?
I’m sure HR will wonder how I’m getting referred again and may even try to reject me…or reach out to the hiring managers and tell them I already applied for another team and got rejected?
Advice?