It used to work. Not anymore.
Currently the market is saturated with experienced immediate joiners. Recruiters and HM’s are bombarded with referrals as soon as a job is posted.
Best bet to get a prominent role now is a direct referral to the hiring manager by someone they trust or atleast someone who’s working in their company. The person who refers you has to put in effort to follow up with the HM and recruiter to get you that interview.
e.g If you have a referral from a googler(the online click a button type) then your profile is sent to a 3rd party recruiter to review. These reviewers only understand keywords and are clueless about the job req. And mostly they chose to put ahead the profiles of folks where they understand most of the keywords and can align them to the JD. Now on the other hand, if the person who referred you followed up with the hiring manager and recruiter nd also made an effort to sell your profile, then you have a chance of being interviewed.
TLDR: It don’t work. Get a personal referral for the job you want. Getting hired is more about your network now.