Referring near-strangers for a job: etiquette question

In My Humble Opinion
1

An acquaintance of mine, a few weeks ago, referred an acquaintance of his to me for some job-hunting advice in my general field. I talked to the guy on the phone for a bit, and he struck me as, well, sort of odd. (Plus he had recently been fired after a very short period by a firm where I have known all the partners in their professional capacities, and it’s a place I would never work because I believe they have questionable ethical practices. Long story.)

The guy had been out of work for a number of months, not even getting any bites from legal temp agencies, which seems odd for a litigation paralegal with several years of experience. I offered him whatever practical advice I could, although I really don’t know much about getting jobs in other sub-fields of paralegal work. He sort of thanked me and asked if he could forward his resume, in case I heard of any openings, but since he said he didn’t really want to work in my area (immigration) again, I didn’t think much of it.

I did glance at his resume when he forwarded it, and it’s not written very well; it has all sorts of inconsistencies in verb tenses, punctuation, and that sort of thing. Plus his overall background and experience weren’t terribly impressive, and there were some significant gaps in his work history and other things which just didn’t make sense. At that point I was actually glad I’d had no specific ideas for him.

In the meantime, we’ve had some turnover here, and (unbeknownst to me, because I haven’t been reading the job ads) we now have an ad in the local paper for a paralegal. (We tend to find out these things after the fact; although we in theory have an in-house referral bonus program, most of the time management neglects to tell us when they’re actively hiring, and for what positions.) So the guy e-mailed me again this morning, asking whether I needed another copy of his resume, and what he should do to apply for the job.

Honestly, even though I’d get a chunk of change if they hired him, I don’t want to recommend him, because a) I’m not impressed by his qualifications, and I wouldn’t interview him if I were the one doing the hiring; b) I think management will think the same; c) even if they did hire him, I don’t think he’d last, because his writing ain’t so hot; and d) if it didn’t work out, it would reflect negatively on me as the referrer. On the other hand, I don’t want to hurt his feelings, because even if he’s a bit odd, he’s still a human being. What can I tell him?

2

Is there any way he can apply without a referral? Or can you make a referral with some sort of disclaimer? That’s kinda weasly, I guess.

In your place, I’d tell him where to send his application and let it go at that. Since he wouldn’t be working for you, it should be easy enough to say that you have no input into the hiring process, right?

That’s all I’ve got.

3

I’ve been in this position before. I think that you can turn the resume in to HR and say an acquaintance asked you to drop it off, but explicitly you haven’t worked with him so you can’t vouch for him one way or another. It should be quite obvious that you’re not recommending the person. From your description of the resume, I doubt anyone would even interview, much less hire. I drop resumes with obvious grammatical errors or typos in the circular file. Then you can tell him you dropped it off, and you’re off the hook from both ends.

If it’s someone I actually want to recommend, I seek out the appropriate hiring managers and give the resume to them, as well as sending it to HR first, especially if there is a referral bonus.

4

Is he presuming that you are going to recommend him for the job? Faced with the same predicament I would inform him of the hiring procedure and wish him well.

5

Be sure that if he does apply, that you make it clear to whomever is in charge of hiring that you don’t know him, etc.
I got burned once because I met a total stranger on the street when I was working for a contractor, he wanted to know about my job because he was looking. I gave him my card and the fax number to send his resume, and told him to mention my name, since I would stand to get some money if he got hired and stayed for six months.
Unbeknownst to me, whatever the guy told my supervisor gave him the impression that I knew the guy and had recommended him! When he got fired a few weeks later for various offenses, the supe made a joke about my “friend.” When I had NO IDEA what he was talking about (I had actually forgotten the incident), we figured out what had happened. Very embarrassing. Don’t let it happen to you.