The discussion was about the need for referrals. But isn’t that what I just said?

No I couldn’t pass any DS&A tech screen without a lot of preparation.

Yeah, but the discussion was about referrals. Referrals are for getting your foot in the door. You don't generally need them for FAANG. You just need a half decent CV.

The hard part is passing the interviews, but referrals don't help with that, from what I know.

An actual referral for an "industry rockstar" would catapult them past the first few rounds of interviewing.

And referrals for top management do the same. Why are we talking about something applicable to maybe 0.00001% of candidates out there?

Because far up the comment tree, referrals were confused with "some recruiter said I should interview for a job".

There was no “confusion”. The only purpose of a referral is to get the interview. If an internal recruiter reached out to you, a referral isn’t necessary.

Either way you still have to go through the same loop.

Yes, I “work for a FAANG” like many others do here.