Would VP level help?

Not a close friend, but do have a close associate who was VP level at Google. We were having coffee and he offered to refer me, but said I'd still have to go through the whole standard interview loop - even the phone screen in fact.

Depends on the company. I think the FAANGs basically all require jumping through the same hoops. Optimistically it prevents nepotism, but I think that's less of a worry in tech circles, and the times I've seen interviewers overridden because of connection between tech people, it's generally worked out. Of course, for non-tech (product, marketing and the like), it's been hilariously bad.

I was recently interviewed by a Google bet with a referral from a well-liked VP level employee for a job I was well qualified for (IMO) and didn't make it past the phone interview. /shrug I just blame it on Covid.

It's very different at smaller companies where the whole interview might be waived (or just no leetcode) if you worked with one of the technical leaders or founders before.

One of my ex-coworkers/now-friend is what I call a master networker. His network casts wide across the tech departments of a huge number of small hedge funds in NYC. If he wants a job, he can just call up any of his friends/ex-colleagues at these places and odds are several of them will simply just give him a job at their firm. If an opening doesn't exist, sometimes they'll literally create an opening for him.

The downside is that he has to be very un-picky on what the role entails whether it be working with some super unsexy legacy technology (Excel VBA! Legacy ASP.NET webforms!) or doing devops or even helpdesk duty too. Hedge funds being hedge funds, small as they are, they all pay pretty well, though not at the level of a top tech company.

It's a combination of these places being pretty small shops and having friends there in high places. Including, from what I hear, a billionaire hedge fund exec or two.