Can you speak to my friend who is looking for a job? Please!?

The moment you become a high-ranking official in a company, you start getting recommendations and references for employment of people from

• friends of relatives
• relatives of relatives
• friends of friends
• relatives of friends
  

Initially you accept to at least speak to the candidates, to not disappoint your relatives or friends.

Once you speak to them you will realize that you are now requested to speak to the candidate's friends or relatives, and then it dawns to you that there will never be an end to this thread if you start encouraging it.

It is very important to understand why you are in a business. And it is always better to set the right expectations immediately.

And by the way it is not only you who gets pushed. It is your wife, father, mother and other close friends and relatives. You will need to start setting expectations early on, or be rest assured that you will spend a lot of time in these tactical activities with result in no beneficial business outcomes.

And lets not forget that there will always be exceptions, when you will speak to the candidates. But those need to be a few. Very Few!

Wish you all the best!