Search your network. Don’t hand it the decision.

In Search for people, not applicants, I argued that the current job market has a matching problem rather than a talent shortage or job shortage. Companies cannot find senior people. Senior people cannot get a reply. Both are true at the same time.

I also articulated that one of the most reliable places to solve a matching problem is a pool where the matching work is already done. That pool is your network.

You already admire their work; you already know how they work. How these people think under pressure. What they do when a project slips, whether they tell you bad news early, or bring solutions early. What kind of work environment and manager they need to thrive. This knowledge cannot be easily vetted through a job interview loop. The best hires I have seen came from relationships that were already years old when the role opened. The goal is not to hire friends. The goal is to use better information to find stronger matches.

So keep talking to people whose work you respect during the stretches when you have nothing to offer them. Build the map before you need it.

And here is where it gets uncomfortable and potentially dangerous.

The same thing that makes network hiring accurate makes it dangerous. The better you know someone, the easier it becomes to stop evaluating them objectively. You know this person, so you trust your read. You trust your read, so you push. And if you are the hiring manager, your push is not a normal push. It is the boss’s push, landing on a team that may not know you well enough to say no.

That is how a good practice turns into a bad hire.

The fix: Name the candidate, but don’t force the decision.

Easier said than done. Let’s dig deeper into the case for network hiring, the specific failure modes, and the practices that can yield a good match.