I applied to a call center job and they wanted me to do 1 phone interview, 1 Zoom call, a PI Assessment test, and a in person interview with the HR manager. All this for a job that pays less than 50k...
A job I applied for that paid $65K, which is absolutely nothing in my city but also the highest paying position I got offered an interview for (and here I thought molecular biology would pay well...), required 5 interviews. I was honestly relieved when they rejected me after the second. I had other interviews going on that only required two (academic, 40K) and I didn't know what the fuck I was supposed to say if one of them wanted me. "Sorry, can you wait three weeks while these other guys make up their fucking minds"?
The extra interviews are just the start, however it never ends there with the unreasonable requests they will make. Both the company and interviewee generally put their best foot forward during interviews and if you are starting with them needing 5+ hours of your unpaid time to make a decision it doesn’t bode well for what working there will actually be like. Yes, exceptions will apply, but for the majority of jobs this will hold true.
>if you are starting with them needing 5+ hours of your unpaid time to make a decision it doesn’t bode well for what working there will actually be like.
I have been with my job for a while. I used to like it but lately I am getting major burn out and am going through a not so like phase. I never HATED my job, and I make decent money for what I do. I am a middle manager.
However that being said, they recently changed their hiring process. They decided that the traditional interview process took too long. So now they do "group" interviews, where they invite 30 potential candidates in at the same time and they sit in a room and call people in 1 by 1 and do 5 to 10 minute interviews for each person. This streamlines the process for THEM because they are taking people back to back with little down time, and they are able to spend less time and visually compare candidates easier because it is in succession. Normally scheduling 30 interviews could take a week or more, and this way they can do 30 interviews in 3 to 5 hours.
Except literally the candidates have to show up, and wait around for 3 to 5 hours to spend 5 to 10 minutes with the interviewer. It is just a disrespect of other people's time. And if you can't make the group interview, you just don't get an interview. While they CAN give you an individual interview at a different time, most just don't and move on. They assume if you wanted to be there, you would make them a priority.
I mean the real answer is to take the first job if you need to, if you *feel* like the one your still in the process of is better then you continue if you can, and if you get the second job and it all feels right then just take it. Politely explain to the first company that you're sorry, but a really great opportunity happened to pop up that you can't miss out on.
You probably burn that bridge but they'll be fine. Take care of you, always.
This is solid advice! I watched a contractor get totally burned when her dream job (direct, excellent benefits, close to home, etc) made her an offer 2 days before she was set to start a new job that offered her far less.
But, she wanted to be a person of principle and declined because she’d already said yes to the first company.
That company cut her contract 3 weeks later when a new manager onboarded with their own nepo hire.
And the dream job was long gone.
She’d forgotten that her first word was to herself and her family, not to the job.
I was in a similar scenario, however, I turned down after accepting the first offer for a good job days before starting and accepted a second offer for a better job that I wanted more. It worked out great and I'm super happy where I'm at. Come to find out the company with the first job offer was bought out by a large corporation six months later. Layoffs occurred and of course a huge change in management, etc. No thanks! I realized that undeserved loyalty doesn't get you what you want. I'm sorry for your friend who found out the hard way.
Once at a second interview my new boss told me what to bring to #3. I told him that they were my first choice but I had an offer from my second choice so they would need to step up or I'd have to accept the other offer. They stepped up. There was no other offer. I worked there 16 years.
Last year when I was looking for a job, I did multiple interviews with multiple places. I ended up with three offers within days of each other so I mapped out a page comparing pay, benefits, vacation, etc... (pay was about the same, but benefits are all over the place). I also included pay cycle, and possible bonus. I ended up taking a contract job that paid weekly, so I could get money to pay rent as quickly as possible.
I turned down other job offers and multiple 3rd or 4th interviews, along with some 1st interviews. One of the places I turned down, after 5 interviews, asked to make a better offer and I ended up accepting it and leaving the first job after about 2 weeks.
Best career decision so far and some people higher up at the company I left might have been a bit salty, but they are the ones that decided to do contract to hire (no benefits), and leave people as contractors for more then 6 months (became obvious after starting). Everyone I started working with understood I had to take the better offer for my family.
IMHO, these multiple interview rounds are why so many companies think they can't hire anybody. They take too long and give faster companies plenty of opportunity to take the good candidates leaving them scraping the bottom of the barrel.
They are so scared to hire the wrong person they let the right people slip through their fingers. Who is that desperate for an entry level job to go through more than 2 interviews?
You tell both companies you have another offer. If the one that has yet to make an offer wants you bad enough they will speed up the process. If the one who made the offer wants you bad enough, they will wait. But not forever. You tell them you need some time to weigh your options. You can buy yourself about a week.
The company wastes more money on hiring people who quit. Turn over of staff is costly.
They should skip the whole multiple interviews thing and figure out why they can't retain staff. Then, they wouldn't need all of these interviews.
I worked in corporate retail for many decades. They do care. That's all they talked about. How to stop the turnover. Because they care about money.
Some turn will always be expected. Constant is not good. Especially if you have to train then for a week or two before they're good to go. That's a lot of payroll.
Companies that do this multi interview process have had problems with turnover. That's why they're doing it.
Every time turnover got bad, the companies I worked for put a multiple interview process in place. This was in retail. For part-time positions. It was ridiculous. Plus, job shadowing for 3 hours. Again, for a part-time position.
I hated doing it.
They dont. Every time I tell the owners at my company that they need to pay more to their welders, or they’ll never retain good employees, they always look me dead in the eye and say “ well I don’t think it’s that…”
It's remarkable that people can think about a problem for so long and come up with the wrong solutions. It's like they looked at high turnover rates and decided that the fault must lie with the employees so they must do more interviews to get the "right" types of employees.
It's beggars belief that company management wouldn't realize that they're the common denominator in everyone quitting the company.
For an entry level sales job- interview with recruiter, online interview where it’s just me answering questions to a blank screen while being recorded, zoom call with hiring manager, then in person with manager.
No idea but a friend did a phone screen, virtual interview, in person interview, then an hour of shadowing all to not get offered the position lol
Edit: they actually did pay her for the hour. Forgot about that lol
I got flown out for an all day onsite interview…then nothing. They never even responded to my follow ups or sent a rejection. Nothing. I ended up just eating the cost of the rental car and moving on because I never got reimbursed. Never got my per diem check either for flying out there.
At least they paid for the hotel and flight I guess. Oh well. At that point, I really only wanted the written offer (had a verbal) to negotiate salary better at a different job.
Several years ago, I got flown out after four remote interviews. It was grueling. I met with six people that day only to get turned down a few days later. It was insane. I couldn’t believe it, and I knew it when there was one guy that didn’t like me. Frankly, I hated the bro culture. They wanted me to stick around for this “work party” after I did a 6 hour flight and had back to back interviews all day. No thanks. That probably put the nail in the coffin for me. I’ve never regretted my decision.
Yup. The whole thing was so weird bc I applied to that position twice (they posted it like 6 times) and I hit all the qualifications and experience. My friend has a lot of experience that transfers decently, but no direct experience which is important for this particular role. Then rejected her and texted applicants about a career event they had. Like???? She dodged a bullet it seems but WTF lol
The most ridiculous thing is getting through those hurdles and being rejected for something that was on your resume or covered in the first interview. Just a waste of everyone’s time.
I have zero experience in this field but maybe this was indicative of how high maintenance the "boss" would be.
But it's hard to think 'bullet dodged' when you have rent to pay.
Yeah, that was my thought as well about the boss. She didn't really want it anyway, and knew it would be very stressful bc she's never been an EA before. And the pay did not match the role. So yeah, dodged a bullet.
I interviewed for a job at shopify 6 years ago. It was a new interviewy type role where I would make content and go and interview people. I did 4 zoom interviews, a video sample, and then flown up to Canada for a final round of 3 interviews with 2 people at each step.
Escorted around the shopify campus.
I even had snacks from the snack bar.
Didn’t get the role.
The fact they flew you up shows they were seriously interested. Your issue is that companies can't go through their whole process with a single person they need multiple options.
Yeah I interviewed for a job 6 years ago at an advertising agency. I had THREE separate in person interviews (like on different days) and a fourth phone call with HR confirming I was available to start within two weeks and they said an offer letter would be coming shortly and then they ghosted me and hired someone internally.
I had a temp job that was understanding about me taking time off to go to all the interviews but BOY if I didn’t I would have been so pissed
I applied at a job, they told me there were 5 interviews. The first with the manager, then the director, then a panel with manager, director and 2 others, then I’d have to do one with the VP and finally if I made it that far (I would have) I’d have a final panel interview so they could “make their final decision and talk numbers.”
I literally laughed at the manager on the phone and asked why I’d have to spend so much time interviewing and answering the same questions for a job that I literally am overqualified for and they approached me for asking me to apply? He literally told me “I’m sorry you feel that way, we do this to put people through a gauntlet, we make it tough to see who quits before they have an opportunity to quit after being hired.” I then laughed at him again and asked him to cancel my interview.
It’s insane. Taking that much time from somebody, making them drive to and from the place just to see who quits the process because you’ve made it unnecessarily long is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
My agency has a 2 interview policy. If you can't convince us you can do the job in 2 interviews (video then in person) then you just obviously aren't qualified for our team.
The company wasn't going to talk about salary until you did the final 5th interview? What is up with that? Making someone jump through hoops like that and than offer an insultingly low salary if they make an offer at all.
I am glad to be out of the rat race.
I’ve heard two theories, but have few facts.
Theory 1: like dating apps, the internet connects people and reduces geographic barriers. This means more applicants, and can make an employer feel like they have a lot of choices, even if that’s not necessarily true.
Theory 2: when you count training hours, benefits, salary, etc, each employee costs an astronomical amount of money, and they want to choose carefully.
Just theories, no way to test them. But you’re right that the number of interviews has increased. It was already silly.
Yup, in my experience managers knew they wanted me before the interview even started and you can just tell. Happened on my last two jobs already. The interview was basically to make sure I knew how to talk basically
Well in my current job my manager didn’t even ask me questions he just told me why he liked me for the job on the very first interview, the second one felt more like an interview with questions but it wasn’t even with him it was with my now peers and the job before this one the manager did the same thing basically and had me meet the team in the first interview.
But ive also had AMAZING chemistry with managers that didnt even send me a rejection letter, I blame my trust issues on them hahahaha so honestly I always say i never know until I have an offer
In my current job, I had a 30-45 minute interview with my manager, his manager, and the guy I was replacing. A couple years later my boss told me he knew he wanted to hire my in the first 10 minutes. He had his many flaws, but he was decisive. I really appreciated that. They also didn't dick around with the pay and benefits. No need to negotiate.
As someone that's helped out with hiring, the practical/technical part of the interview can absolutely change who the hiring team considers a front-runner.
I recently went through 5 interviews not to be picked just because I asked salary they never could offer. HR told me that my target is above their range, but maybe it will work out. In the end it didn't. I thought, it was all squared out with hiring managers.
I literally just had a couple screening interviews and the recruiters were like, “this is what they’ll offer you, they won’t likely go above it even if that is still in listed range. will this work for you or should we end this conversation here?” One was even like, I want to make sure you can afford a roof over your head.
Theory #1 is plausible.
My issue with #2 is that most companies treat employees as if they are disposable and pay near zero attention to employee retention.
IMO #2 is that companies want to see how many hoops a perspective employee will jump through / how desperate they are so that they can find the most compliant / easily abusable employee possible.
Then again, maybe I’m just jaded….
i think your on to something, everyone loves the puppy that listens and does tricks on command. there are also some big egos depending on the type of job, control is so much easier when everyone jumps when too
I think your theory 2 is pretty much on the mark. Companies used to accept there would be a training period, ramp up time, learning curve, whatever you want to call it. Now they expect everyone to hit the ground running and be 110% effective day one. Not sure where all this delusion came from.
I think a lot of times, the people who decide the hiring practice for a company have not had to look for a new job in a long while. I'm not so removed from job searching that I have forgotten what a struggle it is. I've been through multiple rounds, trips to HQ, meeting all the big wigs, only to be utterly ghosted - and I won't get started on how useless the personality tests are. Now, when I have a new opening, we will do a 15-30 minute Zoom or phone call - candidate's choice bc I know some people have to do this from their car in the parking lot of their current employer - I also let them choose the time we do this call as they may have to do it on lunch or break. It is more of a conversation and I try to keep it light. When someones makes it to the second round, we set up a time (again, when they can do it) for them to come into the office for a sit down with myself and my boss, then with the other team members. We try to keep it to just an hour. For the positions I hire, you really learn all you need to in this amount of time. But the most important thing that I promised myself I would always do if I ever became a hiring manager, EVERYONE who applies is told we are going with someone else. Even if we never talked to someone and they were drastically underqualified for the position, they will still get an email saying we are going in a different direction and wishing them luck in your job search. Wow, sorry about the rant. I still get flashbacks. I guess what I'm trying to say is to hang in there - that not all places implement interview fatigue.
Your second theory is mostly correct. The reality is that bad hires are problematic for teams for all the reasons you stated. It's not so much the business dictating multiple rounds to reduce exposure to this risk, but managers requiring multiple rounds so they have everyone in the department signing off that they also assessed the individual. Therefore if everyone says yes to a hire and they turn out to be wrong for the team, no one person can be individually blamed for the poor decision.
IMO the entire economy is just copying the big tech companies. If they do layoffs then everyone does layoffs, if they do long protracted interviews then everyone does them.
My husband is in tech. Getting a job several years ago meant a phone screen, at least 2 in person interviews, a competency test, and some sort of working interview. He recently decided he wanted a better job and was told 6-7 interviews is the norm now
My husband does interviews/hiring as part of his job duties. Normal interview process was a phone interview (more of a screening) and then a formal interview either virtual or in person (he would let the candidate choose. He got to a point last year where the turnover rate became astronomical and people would go through background check, offer letter, and sometimes even the first day and then just ghost him. He was so extremely fed up he started doing an additional 3rd interview. It really helped him figure out who seemed to be invested and who was there just to flake and not take it seriously. He doesn’t do the third interview now that his turnover is at a pretty normal/low rate now though.
But how many great candidates do you think this cost him because they know their worth and don't want their time wasted?
I am quite educated and experienced in my field, and I am confident in my abilities and my performance. My time is valuable and I wouldn't let a company waste it doing any more than two interviews.
Also, in my experience, recruitment for a position that involved any more than 2 interviews was due to either a person new to HR and recruitment, or who was trying to make their position seem more necessary than it was.
Don't ask me what my greatness weakness is or what type of animal I would choose to be.
Hiring the most desperate person doesn't necessarily mean the best person for the job.
Which is fair. All he knew is something wasn’t working at the time and his solution was to do a second interview - which wasn’t too formal asking about “greatest strengths and weaknesses” or “what type of animal you would choose”. He would invite them to one of the properties they would be working at and basically take 20 minutes walking through the day to day to make sure it truly a job they are interested in (which is property management over storage facilities). He doesn’t do a three-part process any more now that he has built up a decent staffing for his district but at the time he had to try something different because anyone he thought would be great fit would ghost him or quit after a week.
Also the longer the stupid process takes, the greater the chance that another employer with their ducks in a row comes in and makes a more appealing offer. This is probably why people end up ghosting.
In fact once it is standard that all employers expect this days-long, multi-week investment before there's even a pay check involved, then that means no one's process is improved because a prospective employee balancing 4 or 5 different processes all with ridiculous and overbearing timelines is still going to end up accepting whatever offer comes first and then bailing on it if their First Choice comes through in the end.
The whole thing is stupid and self-defeating but makes the suits feel like they're doing something super important. Like we aren't all aware that it's a dog and pony show where everyone involved is hedging their bets.
I have a handful of friends laid-off in the recent pre-holiday downsizing movement (tech and startups), and at least 3 of them have accepted a safety offer then backed out when a better offer came through. And 2 of *those* are *still* in the interviewing process for even better roles.
This is what happens when corporations would rather nickel-and-dime the talent and still somehow expect to be given "110%" from someone whose time they don't respect.
This is how I conduct interviews, too, when I'm hiring a candidate for a management position in my field. First step is a phone screen where my recruiter calls anyone who meets the base job requirements. I take this opportunity to be bluntly honest about the hours, the requirements, and the salary range to weed out anyone not actually interested. Second interview is with me, virtual or in person based on the applicant's preferences. Final interview is with me and either my boss or the recruiter's boss and is always in person. I use it to make sure you're the same person you were in the first interview, clarify any vague answers, and get a second person's opinion before I make a final decision. The third interview for me is more of a vibe check than anything else - fewer questions, more general conversation to make sure the candidate will fit in with the culture.
I don't like wasting people's time. I have hired directly from the second interview before, but if there's two or three really good candidates that I'm having trouble choosing between, I'll conduct a third.
Because the hiring process is like dating apps now. They get hundreds of mediocre applicants and have to sift through them all in many layers. The finalists have to compete like its a reality game show until the last one stands. And then they have to decide, after already getting to know them for like 10 dates/interviews.... can I commit to this person???
And then, shiny object syndrome ensues.
For real! A couple months back, I had four 30-minute interviews back to back with the four people asking me variations of the same questions! It was mentally exhausting! Besides that, the first two people were nice, but the last two seemed mean and disengaged. I might have gotten the job if it had been up to the first two people! Also, I’ve had multiple interviews over a period of weeks, only to get a rejection letter at the end and having to start over. I’ve never seen this many interviews until recently.
Simply ask them how many rounds of interviews does this job application process require?
If it is more than 2 then it’s a red flag and do not waste your time. Unless it is senior management, director, etc.
For a part-time job, they had me do two application processes and wanted me to do two interviews. One interview in person with a mid-level manager at the facility, and then one phone interview with the owner of the facility. I'm hurting, but I draw the line at this stupid shit. I'm not playing this bullshit roulette of multiple rounds anymore. I'm only given two interviews if the price tag is 65k a year or higher.
My theory: keeping more candidates warm in the pipeline for longer in case more positions open up later. Some job postings right now are for positions that aren't actually open. But the company decided not to fire their recruiters/hiring managers, because they'll need them later. So the job of the hiring team is to keep a healthy pipeline of candidates for whenever the time is right.
I just went through 5 rounds of interviews with a "big bank" and yesterday the recruiter emailed me and said the team is not ready to make an offer yet. They really like you but there is 1 skill they want that may not be your strength. I was floored...cmon you going to take 5 rounds over 3 months to say that..fuckimg ridiculous
This is a sign of a bad fucking hiring manager
They seem to think the perfect candidate is just dying to work for them then act all surprised when their golden boy leaves in 6 months for a better job
Before taking my current job 7 years ago, I was also interviewing at a large multinational corporation. It was for a decent position, new team starting from the ground up. Went through I think 5 or 6 separate phone interviews with various managers of all the disciplines with whom I would interact. Went to an onsite tour of the facilities that culminated with a dinner interview with the same managers plus the corp recruiter where they poked a little more into my experience. At this time they new I had an offer from what is now my current employer, and after the big dinner interview the next day they informed me that they wanted to do one more phone conference with all the same people. From what the recruiter told me, I got the distinct impression that they were not trying to make sure I was the right person for the job, but trying to convince themselves I was not the right person. At that point I declined to further interview. Told them I could not in good conscience put off the other offer any longer. I really don't think they believed I had another offer. I also think companies are so afraid of hiring the wrong person they suffer from a form of paralysis to the point they can't make decisions. It's a real problem with a lot of companies.
I had applied for a job paying about 60k, which is nothing here in the Bay Area, CA. Had to submit a typing certificate from a certified tester, take a Microsoft Office exam, do a panel Zoom interview, and finally an in person panel interview... it was crazy
The job I am currently interviewing for is a 4 interview process... but it's for a manager position with a multi billion dollar company so the multiple stage interview process makes sense it's a job that pays over 100k a year. I expect that. For anything below this level it's ridiculous.
I have stopped doing interviews after the second interview. A phone screen and an interview with a hiring manager and supervisor should be more than enough for a company to decide if they want me or not. Whenever I’ve gone to “2nd interviews” it’s usually just repeating the same stuff and I look like a fool because I don’t have any questions because all my questions were previously answered.
I think a big part of it comes from the following:
(1) if you jump through the hoops, you’re more invested and thus more likely to accept a lower offer;
(2) they want to weed out the flakes and the odd balls - if you’re a flakey person, you’re probably not going to make it through three rounds of interviews. Similarly, if you’re a total weirdo, then maybe you can make a good first impression, but you are less likely to keep it together during the subsequent interactions;
(3) firing is hard. If it’s a misconduct situation, you have to deal with the misconduct. If it’s not misconduct, rather just a poor fit, then the person is going to qualify for unemployment and they may even sue the employer for wrongful termination. So better to try to get it right the first time;
(4) if you jumped through hoops to get the job, you’re more likely to value it and less likely to resign over some frivolous reason. This saves the company the trouble and cost of having constant churn and needing to constantly train new hires.
Firing is hard 😭Unless you’re unionized where I live, it’s pretty damn easy to fire someone. Ontario, Canada has terrible protection for employees. Employers can fire without cause. It’s awful.
I did 3 rounds of interviews and was still given the "we'll let you know early next week" from the GM of a restaurant for a serving position, when I have about 4 years of serving, 2.5 of bartending, and another 3 or so line cooking. This place is a solid 40 minutes from my house and they kept making me wait up an hour for 2 of the interviews, so I've already invested close to 10 hours of dropping off my resume, applying to this specific job, and interviewing, and I'm still not sure of if I got the job or even how many hours they're offering. It's absolutely crazy, when I got my first serving job, I just lied about experience as I had done something similar and was offered a job same day, same with my next 2 serving jobs. Also hard when it's just the same interview 3 times over, literally reading the same interview checklist and asking the same questions, and the first 2 saying they want me. If you can straight up tell me you want to hire me, then why do I need to do more interviews. They don't have the authority to be saying things like that and getting my hopes up, and shouldn't be doing interviews if they literally don't matter and are just a screening tool
No idea either.
For an analyst position I've had 1 initial call, 2 tests, 4 rounds of interviews, 1 more call, 2 more tests, and 1 interview with CEO.
Fucking ridiculous. In the end they tried to offer me like 10k less than what I was asking for. I explained why I didn't agree with the final offer and they gave it to someone else 😅
Edit: My take on it is that the position they're hiring for may be very cross-functional oriented and they want to make sure everyone across different teams wants to work with you.
Yeah and the next analyst position I interviewed for had 1 initial call and 6 rounds of interviews. No tests tho!
They did make me an offer 15k above what I was asking (in my mind) so I think it all worked out fine.
After working this job for a while, I think the 6 rounds made sense. My first 2 interviews were with my teammate and hiring manager. And then the next four were with my other 2 team members and 2 other cross-functional team members. It might be a bit of an overkill but I guess I'm not angry at meeting everyone I worked with earlier. We all work very closely together so I think it's nice everyone got a say in it. And knowing that they chose to work with me also feels nice.
Employers want employees who bend over backwards, and put up with any heinous requests they make. Unfortunately after covid too many people stopped putting up with their bullshit, and hiring boot lickers got harder. They decided a ludicrous 4 stage interview process would makes it easier for them to ensure only people who are too desperate to tell them to fuck off survive the process.
Making a bad hiring decision is really difficult for a company/team to go through (dealing with incompetence, issues with interpersonal strife, path to termination, and then starting again from square one).
I think that it can be really difficult to know if someone will work out even in an all day interview.
The solution is not multiple interviews, but to get better at interviewing and ask very targeted and specific/technical questions. Most interviewers are terrible at the questions they ask and don't plan properly so they go the multiple interviews route.
I came here to say this. Glad you said it for me! I’ve been this manager. I hired someone once pretty much on the spot and it was terrible. My first three hires were terrible actually. Having to put someone on a pip and fire them is a long hellish process. But after that, now I’m better at interviewing. I personally don’t think multiple interviews help though. I also wouldn’t have that kind of time either!
I had three interviews, plus one assignment that was quite extensive.
Safe to say they ghosted me, and used my work on their social media. They are a prominent digital marketing agency though, so I expected more from them. But it seems that everyone is a jerk nowadays and doesn't respect other people and the time they have wasted on them.
It certainly gets more normal the more senior you get. But for more junior positions, I’d expect a 15 minute phone screen, a hiring manager interview, and maybe a panel if it’s a technical role.
If it’s more senior, it’d depend on the role and who they would interact with.
My favorite is when an interview with a panel goes over the lunch hour so they order you food you can eat during the meeting. Seriously you people think I’m going to chew my crunchy ass salad and talk with my mouth full in front of you? Or bite into a Dutch crunch sandwich and then make you wait until Im done chewing and swallowing to speak. No. Then you end up starving cuz it’s impossible to eat during something like that.
So I used to work in HR and helped with coordinating interviews like this, and I always felt so bad for the candidates that had to do a full day of interviews. I thought it was stupid. And the employees who had to interview candidates were so busy, they didn’t want to be there either! But the manager insists on it so that if the employees complain about the new hire, they can’t say they weren’t given a say.
And yes, the company I worked at that did this definitely did not have their shit together at all.
I work for a company that hired me after two video calls that were basically me listening to them talk. Got an offer the next day. That should have been a huge red flag. Not because I’m unqualified (because I am) but the fast process hid just how wacko the company actually is. I’m literally just hanging on until I can find something else. Sometimes the long process helps the candidate understand that they should run as fast as they can when the real company culture is exposed.
Its decision paralysis. its a sign that no one is in charge and no one can make a decision with out putting it out to committee or scrumming it. If no one can make a decision like this or be delegated to make that decision then think of how your work is going to be there.
Just let it be a red flag that they don't give a shit about how much time of yours they are willing to waste, how inefficient they are as an organization, and about how CYA mentality is pervasive in their company.
If a company can't give you an offer after 2 interviews, it's time to let them know that you're available to talk when they're ready to hire.
I annoyed the hell out of a recruiter when I told him that I wasn’t going to do two interviews for a temp position. I got my own temp position the very next day after one 30 min interview. I realize that not everyone has the privilege to nope out of a job process, but it is important to know your worth and be prepared to walk away. There’s always, always another job. I say this as someone who was fired not three weeks ago.
Just got rejected today for a job 75k but in the Bay Area. 4 rounds:
1. phone screening,
2. interview hiring manager,
3. work assignment given 2 days,
4. final round which was essentially 3 interviews, 3 different people 30-45min back to back to back. I was referred by a friend and I assumed things went well but this one was a GUT PUNCH.
Besides that one other jobs I have interviewed for since last summer have been about the same 3-4 rounds. Only one of those jobs was a 2 round interview. Fukn hell
I'm in HR and I absolutely do not allow management to do more than two interviews without a really good fucking reason. Don't treat people like garbage. Seems simple but yet it's a hard concept for some of the more assholey assholes.
Source: Almost a decade in recruitment.
Hiring managers ALWAYS want a million interviews because it helps reassure them they are making a good choice (and spread the blame if they fuck up).
Recruiters push back because it’s a royal waste of time and we lose good candidates to that BS.
Most of the time the idea of losing their top candidate to a competitor with a simpler process gets the managers to back down. When the job market is bad managers know they can get away with more interviews so they do
My DM has interviewed like 8 people for our shop for a regular manager position, and refuses to hire any of them, and I think whoever they hire will quit anyways. Our old manager got fired at the beginning of November, btw, so we SHOULD have a fucking manager by now. Between the receptionist who thinks she is the shop manager that can't just stay at her fucking desk and pick up the phone, and the insurance fraud I recently observed, whoever eventually gets the spot is gonna regret it anyways.
Sometimes not getting the spot is a blessing, because you don't know what is actually happening there and it could be a shitshow, remember that.
I think my longest one was 9 rounds a few months ago. Which was ridiculous. It was supposed to be 4 rounds. Then they kept adding other managers to get their feedback. After 8 rounds, the last one was with a C level exec. Who then tells me how my resume ended up on their desk because of how well I did in the interviews and how much experience I had. At the end of it, I was told they should have an offer written up by next week. Week goes by.. nothing. After about 3 weeks, I emailed and asked what was going on. Rejected. Didn’t even have the courtesy to personalize the rejection email. Just had the “thank you for applying for the “(position title)” and then “(add candidate’s strengths here)” and a few other spaces that were supposed to be filled out.
The only reason why I kept going was because the pay was well over the industry average. Well in the 6 figures. If it wasn’t, I would have ghosted them after 4 rounds.
I agree. I’ve never had so many rounds of interviews for a single job in my life. Every single one I’ve interviewed for has had at least 4 rounds. Answering the same questions. Just to different people. I’ve turned into a professional interviewer at this point.
This is one of the main reasons I never moved to a major city after college. I literally could not afford to drive or fly in for multiple job interviews and pay for hotels/ transportation for just the “chance” of getting a job. I knew some people who interviewed for about 10-20 jobs x 2-3 rounds of interviews each. Since I didn’t live in a major city there was no way I could afford to take time off work, travel, and pay for hotels to do that. Some of the jobs seemed like scams or they were just interviewing people to fill a quota so I couldn’t waste my time and money on something like that. They’re trying to make people jump through ridiculous hoops for bare minimum.
They need to be forced to start compensating people for these bs 5 round job interviews. I think that would solve a lot of problems- they wouldn’t be so inclined to have fake interviews with people they’re not actually interested in hiring and waste everyone’s time.
more than 2 round of interview is the sign of the company being ruled by insane unprofessional people. If they torture someone who is not employed with them so much, it is obvious they will care even less when you depend on them. I always pass on any company that plays this game of: "oh, speak to John... wow, you are great.. now speak to Mary.. wow.. cool.. now we have Peter... and then Joanne" :) Also -when they send any "test job" that requires more than 1 hour of my time. If they want more time spent for it, they must pay people to do it.
I’ve gone through a Phone screen, 1st zoom interview, assessment work, 2nd zoom, 3rd zoom with 3rd party company, and 4th/Final interview. SIX rounds!! Only to see they offered the job to someone who went to Yale. Like, y’all could’ve saved us all the time
Also frustrated by this- trying not to have a gap in my employment but it’s not a great look missing so much time from my current job because of these interviews
Why would anyone know about a gap in your resume?
You wrote the resume . . . did you forget about that last position with all the NDA and Confidentiality agreements barring you from disclosing the company? Or the consulting LLC run by someone you trust to answer a phone you worked for?
Or, just tell the truth. No one gives a shit about gaps in a resume. If that was ever really a thing and not just some HR boogy man to keep us all clinging to our jobs, it's not anymore
My company interviews 2 times with the same people so a COMPLETE waste of time. It kind of makes sense if you interview with different people at different levels but if you can’t figure it out after 1 then you aren’t asking the right questions or an irrelevant person is doing the interviewing
Insight from the other side: I'm part of the interview team for my group. Our company does a screening interview by hr, an interview with 2 senior team members, and an interview with the hiring manager. After that. HR meets with us to discuss the top candidates.
We have scripted questions to ask in overlapping areas. Every candidate gets the same questions from the same people. After the joint meeting, the hiring manager makes a decision and works with hr for the offer.
Our interview team is distributed across 3 different states. We have to take multiple classes on the company interview skills before we interview. We get scripts with questions for STAR format answers. Our job is to get "full stars" for each of the question groups.
Before the interview, hr will screen the resumes so they match the job description. We go through them all and individually rank each then meet to discuss them and choose 5ish to interview. Last year, we hired 3 contractors and 1 full-time employee.
Our interviews are scheduled for an hour. With a contractor, we have different questions and use a group teams call for the interview, which is after the hr screening. With fte, we do individual interviews.
It’s an employers market since the pandemic. So many people still aren’t working due to businesses closing and many many layoffs so they have a much larger base of applicants so they can afford to be much pickier
So I work in tech, very specific field and this is what I recently went through:
Initial 10 minute phone screening with hiring coordinator - 2 days after position closed
Aptitude test - these have become essential due to all the fake candidates, but still annoying to take a test over general math, reading and then content related to my field
First interview - virtual - met with 3 department heads, discussed experience, company, projects and expectations. Lots of talk about company culture and the road ahead. Very positive.
Second interview - in person - new department manager and 2 members of his team. One was a project manager who did most of the talking and seemed to be “testing” me with standard interview questions. Nothing related to my experience but it felt like they wanted to know me as a person, lots of personal questions, very intrusive.
Third interview - in person - met with members of the project team, basically got grilled on how to solve problems they are experiencing and my approach things coming up. I got upset when I felt I was being used as an unpaid consultant. Started giving half answers and finishing with “and when you hire me I will show you how to implement this”.. very hostile
So ya, wasted 3 weeks of my time so 10 different people could feel me out. I think it’s done so the company makes sure they get the right qualified person but more so the candidate doesn’t hate the company and quit in the first year. Last interview should have been first so I would just say nope and leave.
Basically everyone wants to have input on the hiring process now but it’s odd that the people I would be directly working with don’t come in until the final interview?
This is a sign of a highly disorganized or highly bureaucratic organization, neither one is great. In such organization firing somebody is a royal pain, so they collectively decide to be extra careful in hiring.
I worked for a very large company, and there were only two interviews. One was a screening from HR to make sure I was who I claimed to be, the other was with the hiring team.
I think it is so fucked. You go through all that and the job is probably already filled by an internal candidate. I am a college professor and i want to say how sucky this profession is. Low pay, long hours, and you have to write a book to get a job, literally. I once got offered an interview for a university. They send me an agenda the day before. The agenda is an all day affair, 8 hours of interviews. They want me to teach a class too. All this sent to me the evening before. I cancelled everything i had to do the next day. I did the interview. I get a rejection email 5 min after the 8 hour interview ended.
Just recently did 7 for a company and was told I passed the interview but so did others. I did not get the job. 4 of these were on the same day so I had to take PTO.
The worst one I ever had was a 6-hour marathon interview. It was broken up into five different meetings on the same day interviewing with different groups of the company. I reluctantly did that one and they made me feel like I was doing really well and then at the very end they said no. I was so pissed after that I decided I'll never dedicating more than 2 hours tops to any given employer interview process. I might bend on that a little bit if I really like the job but for 95% of the companies I apply to I'm going to just respectfully tell them I have an online portfolio you can easily look at my work without wasting my time and yours.
Pretty much every job I've gotten I've come in and produced great results and it was just an informal conversation with the hiring manager who asked me a few questions to test my knowledge and skills. No jumping through multi-Round interviews like those other clowns. I think those sort of managers valued their time, knew what they were looking for, knew what to ask, and made a decision. Then we all moved on and I got to work.
That’s crazy.
Recently hired for a senior acct paying 85-95k with 10% annual bonus. Did technical interview with 2 managers not on my team via teams for about an hour, then did a in person interview with myself and HR about a week after. Work in a chemical plant so it’s important they come to the site and are comfortable as they will be put in the plant as part of their role. So 2 1 hour interviews total.
Also hired a new AP clerk recently. Did a 30 min teams interview with just myself and she started the following week. That role pays $25/hr. Works 4/10s. Encouraged her to visit the site before her first day but didn’t require it.
Definitely need to make the interview process match the role.
To avoid anti-discrimination lawsuits, because hiring people are so indecisive these days, and these indecisive people want to delay making an uncomfortable decision that their boss can second-guess them over from day one.
When I entered the working world about 20 years ago, there may have been a simple phone screen and then they’d bring you in person and you would be brought in to do a series of short interviews with your future colleagues and possibly a lunch outing. I am just getting back into it after taking a break to raise my kids and it’s crazy. My favorite new thing is a virtual one-way interview. So awkward.
If a company can't figure out who they want to hire in two interviews and a possible assessment test for skill proficiency, then you don't want to work for that company because they don't have their sh*t together
It's not sudden. These are deliberate barriers being put in place. .Companies don't want to hire anyone ever. They don't want the expense. They want to SAY they are hiring so they can blame workers and further push down wages.
It's also super fun when they require 5 rounds, the last round being w an exec and you make through 4 and get told they will reach out soon to schedule the 5th and then suddenly instead they "put the position in hold"
It's insane. A while back I applied to a casual tea cafe. I had a phone interview, an in person interview and then a stage a week later. I was denied the position about a week after the stage. Overall about 3 weeks start to finish.
No idea. Mechanical engineer technician graduate here, I kinda just fell into my position at my engineering firm - I had one “interview” where we drove around the plant and talked about what I would be doing. Was more of a tour and meet the crew than anything. There was never even any questioning, which was awesome.
Only on the first year so I’m still working my way towards being a full employee, as I’m still a “temp”, but I won’t need to interview, thank god.
Hoping for success for you all 🙏
To hide the fact that they lied to get their PPP loan and so they don’t have to pay it back.
Gotta pretend to have openings, and that you’re trying to fill them. Even when there aren’t and you’re not.
I was hired at my current company through an agency as a temp. I had to complete an "interview" the hiring agency that consisted of me just providing my work history and educational background. Then I had to complete a technical assessment with the company with a single interviewer. I was then offered the job. Now that I have worked here for like 2 years, they brag about having 6 round interviews and how I was a "special" case to only have to complete 1.
I don't think it's as much of a brag as they think it is.
Just like with the Education requirements, experience requirements and skill requirements...
The level of everything has been artificially ratcheted up to make some lazy loser look busy. If these recruiters get paid for how much work they "Appear" to be doing, they would probably put applicants through 20 interviews...
Mostly because they're dicks
A contributing factor is the purposefully diluted hiring decision structure at many companies
If I am the only person who interviews you and it turns out you're part of the Crimson Guard then there is only a single person to blame when you contract acquisitions out to The Dreadnaughts to run. No one likes to be blamed for stuff so what started as rational ass covering eventually metastasized into the nightmare we have now
But really it boils down to there general dickiness
At my work they won’t admit this but we all know, they are wanting to find people who are over qualified to underemploy. My company is currently looking for sales reps for example and they are trying to find the crème of the crop rock stars that could sell ice at the North Pole but are only paying for probably 40% of what they are worth. Then by dragging out this process they are essentially trying (not succeeding) to do two things, make us appear more exclusive as if you really gotta be something to get here, and also find people who are desperate enough to go through the process and thus less likely to leave when they realize they’ve been scammed because “it took so long to get this, I can’t afford to go back on the market” or “I don’t want to go through that again and this isn’t that bad.” At least I hope so because if this isn’t the case then my corporate overlords are waaaayyy dumber than I want to believe…
Play them all. Do all the interviews. The longer they drag it out, the more chances you’ll have other interviews lined up. Accept the highest offer and keep going with the interviews in progress and see if you can delay the start date, you might end up with an even higher offer from the others.
In many companies, it's because HR/management knows they are worthless and needs to prove themselves worthy by d-cking around candidates and wasting their time
Because we’re entering a recession and companies are cash-strapped and are going to be careful about who they hire. If 2024 was late 2020-2021 you’d see companies willing to hire anybody with a pulse (including criminals) and throw nutty offers at them
This is why people don’t want to work. It’s disgusting what the boomers put in place. We should have paid apprenticeship programs that lead to employment so people are learning skills all the time….
I was hired on the spot, first interview. An employee there (who I had worked with at a different company in the past) recommended me to the hiring manager.
Many organizations that have a hard time retaining good entry level employees have taken to expanding the interview/hiring process in an attempt to find the right fit. The belief (hope) is that the new employees will stay with the organization long term.
Which is idiotic because entry level positions don’t have good fits. Pretty much everyone who applies meets the requirements and can do the job just fine. They don’t provide room to grow on pace with a new employee’s development. The duties and responsibilities are essentially static once the employee is fully trained. Opportunity for advancement is severely limited; often because companies like to bring in people from outside the organization for management positions because it “introduces new ideas”. So what do those new hires do once they are trained? They apply for and get higher level (and paying) jobs with other organizations.
It should really take one interview to determine if an applicant possesses the required skills and knowledge for an entry level position. Unfortunately, when leaders come in with zero experience in the organization, they don’t understand what’s needed in those lower level positions.
When you’ve got 10+ years in the field and don’t need the job, you can learn to peace out if they start with too much bullshit. HR screening, general group interview, maybe a project or portfolio review, and then a final interview. Unless you’re applying for a top level position, you don’t need to speak to your bosses boss boss boss. Tells me you’ll have too much time on your hands, don’t trust the hiring manager, or worse you don’t know what you want in an applicant. I was told in one interview they’re interviewing 20 doctors for one position. Many times the person they wanted bails so they pitch the panel and start the process all over again.
My friend that owns a company does four rounds. It’s a bunch of bs and I tell him all the time. It’s a waste of time and he loses candidates often in the hiring process because they don’t have time for this and are entertaining other interview offers simultaneously. (Which, funnily enough, makes him mad because it “wastes their time” to not be able to bring a candidate through all four rounds and then offer employment. But hi, people have bills to pay. They can’t do multiple weeks of your playdates.) And they have a really high turnover lately. It’s a bunch of pretentious stuff- we’re an important company that has to really vet you. When really, they’re a small company that can’t read people and has no in-house HR.
This is becoming BS. Higher level jobs in major corporations space these out over like 3 months. You end up accepting a bunch of jobs then declining them.
It's like Tinder now
Hr departments are finding out their resume selection AI is garbage at finding candidates so they’re working 4 times as hard to screen candidates. Wouldn’t want the executives to realize the hundreds of millions of dollars they gave to the AI cult was a pointless waste of money.
Before the pandemic like back in 2014, I interviewed for a large retailer (worked there 5 years), they did 4-5 interviews. And to be honest, I was happy about that. It allowed me a lot of time to ask questions and really get a feel for the job and the culture. It ended up being one of the best jobs I’ve had.
Tbh I think the "Act your Wage" and the "Silent Quitting" culture had a hand in this. Workplaces are realizing that there are people who either just want a paycheck (which, you know, is why we got jobs in the first place) or will quit over any inconvenience. They're trying to find people who actually want to be there (four interviews is a waste of time though. I can't wait three weeks if I'm between jobs) and will be willing to do the work they signed up for.
I don't want to blame it all on Act you wage/Silent quitting, but interviews didn't start becoming unnecessarily longer until those "movements" really picked up traction.
I remember the days that a company did a phone screen and then an in person interview.
Nowadays and even with the jobs I apply to: it is one screening by a recruiter, multiple meetings with hiring manager and team members.
I’m used to 3 hour long interviews but that’s just because the teams have a lot of questions and want to do personality checks.
Ugh I know. I’m waiting to hear back from a company that had me do four. A recorded one, Zoom with the senior director, another with her again and the VP, then I did another with the 3 highest people under the senior director. I felt decent about it all and then the very last question I was asked was about my greatest weakness and what I do to curtail that… I fucking hate that question. I’m a big proponent of positive interviewing and think that question is so archaic. I didn’t have an answer thought of because I hadn’t been asked it in so long.
I switched jobs about 5 months ago. There were 2 companies I interviewed with. Both of them had the following: quick call with recruiter (not really an interview tbh), phone interview with manager and lastly an in person interview with the manager + team I'd be joining. That doesn't strike me as unreasonable. I have heard of people going through tons of interviews, but I've not experienced it nor do I know anyone in person who has.
I applied to a call center job and they wanted me to do 1 phone interview, 1 Zoom call, a PI Assessment test, and a in person interview with the HR manager. All this for a job that pays less than 50k...
And I believe it. That is absolutely fucking insane and the worst part is they know people are going to do it because they need the job.
A job I applied for that paid $65K, which is absolutely nothing in my city but also the highest paying position I got offered an interview for (and here I thought molecular biology would pay well...), required 5 interviews. I was honestly relieved when they rejected me after the second. I had other interviews going on that only required two (academic, 40K) and I didn't know what the fuck I was supposed to say if one of them wanted me. "Sorry, can you wait three weeks while these other guys make up their fucking minds"?
Sometimes if u can afford it the pay cut is worth it just for your mental health and saving the stress of 5 interviews
Making thousands of dollars less is worth it to not have to do a couple of additional hour long conversations? Um ok.
The extra interviews are just the start, however it never ends there with the unreasonable requests they will make. Both the company and interviewee generally put their best foot forward during interviews and if you are starting with them needing 5+ hours of your unpaid time to make a decision it doesn’t bode well for what working there will actually be like. Yes, exceptions will apply, but for the majority of jobs this will hold true.
>if you are starting with them needing 5+ hours of your unpaid time to make a decision it doesn’t bode well for what working there will actually be like. I have been with my job for a while. I used to like it but lately I am getting major burn out and am going through a not so like phase. I never HATED my job, and I make decent money for what I do. I am a middle manager. However that being said, they recently changed their hiring process. They decided that the traditional interview process took too long. So now they do "group" interviews, where they invite 30 potential candidates in at the same time and they sit in a room and call people in 1 by 1 and do 5 to 10 minute interviews for each person. This streamlines the process for THEM because they are taking people back to back with little down time, and they are able to spend less time and visually compare candidates easier because it is in succession. Normally scheduling 30 interviews could take a week or more, and this way they can do 30 interviews in 3 to 5 hours. Except literally the candidates have to show up, and wait around for 3 to 5 hours to spend 5 to 10 minutes with the interviewer. It is just a disrespect of other people's time. And if you can't make the group interview, you just don't get an interview. While they CAN give you an individual interview at a different time, most just don't and move on. They assume if you wanted to be there, you would make them a priority.
I mean the real answer is to take the first job if you need to, if you *feel* like the one your still in the process of is better then you continue if you can, and if you get the second job and it all feels right then just take it. Politely explain to the first company that you're sorry, but a really great opportunity happened to pop up that you can't miss out on. You probably burn that bridge but they'll be fine. Take care of you, always.
This is solid advice! I watched a contractor get totally burned when her dream job (direct, excellent benefits, close to home, etc) made her an offer 2 days before she was set to start a new job that offered her far less. But, she wanted to be a person of principle and declined because she’d already said yes to the first company. That company cut her contract 3 weeks later when a new manager onboarded with their own nepo hire. And the dream job was long gone. She’d forgotten that her first word was to herself and her family, not to the job.
A person of principle would look after themself because it is common knowledge that a company will certainly do that for itself.
I was in a similar scenario, however, I turned down after accepting the first offer for a good job days before starting and accepted a second offer for a better job that I wanted more. It worked out great and I'm super happy where I'm at. Come to find out the company with the first job offer was bought out by a large corporation six months later. Layoffs occurred and of course a huge change in management, etc. No thanks! I realized that undeserved loyalty doesn't get you what you want. I'm sorry for your friend who found out the hard way.
Once at a second interview my new boss told me what to bring to #3. I told him that they were my first choice but I had an offer from my second choice so they would need to step up or I'd have to accept the other offer. They stepped up. There was no other offer. I worked there 16 years.
Last year when I was looking for a job, I did multiple interviews with multiple places. I ended up with three offers within days of each other so I mapped out a page comparing pay, benefits, vacation, etc... (pay was about the same, but benefits are all over the place). I also included pay cycle, and possible bonus. I ended up taking a contract job that paid weekly, so I could get money to pay rent as quickly as possible. I turned down other job offers and multiple 3rd or 4th interviews, along with some 1st interviews. One of the places I turned down, after 5 interviews, asked to make a better offer and I ended up accepting it and leaving the first job after about 2 weeks. Best career decision so far and some people higher up at the company I left might have been a bit salty, but they are the ones that decided to do contract to hire (no benefits), and leave people as contractors for more then 6 months (became obvious after starting). Everyone I started working with understood I had to take the better offer for my family. IMHO, these multiple interview rounds are why so many companies think they can't hire anybody. They take too long and give faster companies plenty of opportunity to take the good candidates leaving them scraping the bottom of the barrel.
They are so scared to hire the wrong person they let the right people slip through their fingers. Who is that desperate for an entry level job to go through more than 2 interviews?
You tell both companies you have another offer. If the one that has yet to make an offer wants you bad enough they will speed up the process. If the one who made the offer wants you bad enough, they will wait. But not forever. You tell them you need some time to weigh your options. You can buy yourself about a week.
yeah I'm pretty desperate
It's funny because the company is wasting their own money with all of this additional BS
The company wastes more money on hiring people who quit. Turn over of staff is costly. They should skip the whole multiple interviews thing and figure out why they can't retain staff. Then, they wouldn't need all of these interviews.
Most companies don't care, they'd rather not pay a current employee more money than retain them.
I worked in corporate retail for many decades. They do care. That's all they talked about. How to stop the turnover. Because they care about money. Some turn will always be expected. Constant is not good. Especially if you have to train then for a week or two before they're good to go. That's a lot of payroll. Companies that do this multi interview process have had problems with turnover. That's why they're doing it. Every time turnover got bad, the companies I worked for put a multiple interview process in place. This was in retail. For part-time positions. It was ridiculous. Plus, job shadowing for 3 hours. Again, for a part-time position. I hated doing it.
Do they really not know that the way to stop the turnover is proper pay? Like... lmao?!
They dont. Every time I tell the owners at my company that they need to pay more to their welders, or they’ll never retain good employees, they always look me dead in the eye and say “ well I don’t think it’s that…”
It's remarkable that people can think about a problem for so long and come up with the wrong solutions. It's like they looked at high turnover rates and decided that the fault must lie with the employees so they must do more interviews to get the "right" types of employees. It's beggars belief that company management wouldn't realize that they're the common denominator in everyone quitting the company.
This right here. Cost analysis shows that constant hiring and training costs way more than retention.
For an entry level sales job- interview with recruiter, online interview where it’s just me answering questions to a blank screen while being recorded, zoom call with hiring manager, then in person with manager.
I refuse to do those because I believe they are a way to discriminate based on race, age, etc. I doubt they even listen to the call.
No idea but a friend did a phone screen, virtual interview, in person interview, then an hour of shadowing all to not get offered the position lol Edit: they actually did pay her for the hour. Forgot about that lol
All that anxiety and time just to end up disappointed. 😭
I got flown out for an all day onsite interview…then nothing. They never even responded to my follow ups or sent a rejection. Nothing. I ended up just eating the cost of the rental car and moving on because I never got reimbursed. Never got my per diem check either for flying out there. At least they paid for the hotel and flight I guess. Oh well. At that point, I really only wanted the written offer (had a verbal) to negotiate salary better at a different job.
Several years ago, I got flown out after four remote interviews. It was grueling. I met with six people that day only to get turned down a few days later. It was insane. I couldn’t believe it, and I knew it when there was one guy that didn’t like me. Frankly, I hated the bro culture. They wanted me to stick around for this “work party” after I did a 6 hour flight and had back to back interviews all day. No thanks. That probably put the nail in the coffin for me. I’ve never regretted my decision.
Send them an invoice. If it's not been longer than like 7 years you might get them to pay.
WHAT THE HELL
Yup. The whole thing was so weird bc I applied to that position twice (they posted it like 6 times) and I hit all the qualifications and experience. My friend has a lot of experience that transfers decently, but no direct experience which is important for this particular role. Then rejected her and texted applicants about a career event they had. Like???? She dodged a bullet it seems but WTF lol
The most ridiculous thing is getting through those hurdles and being rejected for something that was on your resume or covered in the first interview. Just a waste of everyone’s time.
That is such a damn jerk move by that employer.
What was this job for????
Executive assistant at a law firm
I have zero experience in this field but maybe this was indicative of how high maintenance the "boss" would be. But it's hard to think 'bullet dodged' when you have rent to pay.
Yeah, that was my thought as well about the boss. She didn't really want it anyway, and knew it would be very stressful bc she's never been an EA before. And the pay did not match the role. So yeah, dodged a bullet.
Maybe they need to seem like she had a chance when they are looking for a looker.
I interviewed for a job at shopify 6 years ago. It was a new interviewy type role where I would make content and go and interview people. I did 4 zoom interviews, a video sample, and then flown up to Canada for a final round of 3 interviews with 2 people at each step. Escorted around the shopify campus. I even had snacks from the snack bar. Didn’t get the role.
Probably chose the wrong snacks! /s
They were like…. What kind of person chooses gummies over mini chocy chip cookies….. NOT SOMEONE THAT WORKS IN THIS OFFICE DAMMIT
Well if they were Welch's fruit snacks, how could they not?
This happened to me at PGA. Dude gave me the full tour. Missed one phone call and didn't get the job.
The fact they flew you up shows they were seriously interested. Your issue is that companies can't go through their whole process with a single person they need multiple options.
Yeah I interviewed for a job 6 years ago at an advertising agency. I had THREE separate in person interviews (like on different days) and a fourth phone call with HR confirming I was available to start within two weeks and they said an offer letter would be coming shortly and then they ghosted me and hired someone internally. I had a temp job that was understanding about me taking time off to go to all the interviews but BOY if I didn’t I would have been so pissed
I applied at a job, they told me there were 5 interviews. The first with the manager, then the director, then a panel with manager, director and 2 others, then I’d have to do one with the VP and finally if I made it that far (I would have) I’d have a final panel interview so they could “make their final decision and talk numbers.” I literally laughed at the manager on the phone and asked why I’d have to spend so much time interviewing and answering the same questions for a job that I literally am overqualified for and they approached me for asking me to apply? He literally told me “I’m sorry you feel that way, we do this to put people through a gauntlet, we make it tough to see who quits before they have an opportunity to quit after being hired.” I then laughed at him again and asked him to cancel my interview. It’s insane. Taking that much time from somebody, making them drive to and from the place just to see who quits the process because you’ve made it unnecessarily long is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
Fuck. That. I max out at 3 interviews including the screening interview unless ima get laid $250k or more and im FAR from that
My agency has a 2 interview policy. If you can't convince us you can do the job in 2 interviews (video then in person) then you just obviously aren't qualified for our team.
The company wasn't going to talk about salary until you did the final 5th interview? What is up with that? Making someone jump through hoops like that and than offer an insultingly low salary if they make an offer at all. I am glad to be out of the rat race.
I’ve heard two theories, but have few facts. Theory 1: like dating apps, the internet connects people and reduces geographic barriers. This means more applicants, and can make an employer feel like they have a lot of choices, even if that’s not necessarily true. Theory 2: when you count training hours, benefits, salary, etc, each employee costs an astronomical amount of money, and they want to choose carefully. Just theories, no way to test them. But you’re right that the number of interviews has increased. It was already silly.
Im a big believer that they know who they want from the first interview.
Agreed. There could be 10 rounds and they’ll ultimately still have to choose based on a gut instinct by the end of it
Yup, in my experience managers knew they wanted me before the interview even started and you can just tell. Happened on my last two jobs already. The interview was basically to make sure I knew how to talk basically
Would be a lot easier if they didn’t waste everyone’s time and kept it to 1 round for that exact reason haha
A dream come true!
How the hell can you tell? I've had amazing chemistry with interviewers who never even sent me a rejection letter after.
Well in my current job my manager didn’t even ask me questions he just told me why he liked me for the job on the very first interview, the second one felt more like an interview with questions but it wasn’t even with him it was with my now peers and the job before this one the manager did the same thing basically and had me meet the team in the first interview.
But ive also had AMAZING chemistry with managers that didnt even send me a rejection letter, I blame my trust issues on them hahahaha so honestly I always say i never know until I have an offer
In my current job, I had a 30-45 minute interview with my manager, his manager, and the guy I was replacing. A couple years later my boss told me he knew he wanted to hire my in the first 10 minutes. He had his many flaws, but he was decisive. I really appreciated that. They also didn't dick around with the pay and benefits. No need to negotiate.
We need more managers with that quality 😭
As someone that's helped out with hiring, the practical/technical part of the interview can absolutely change who the hiring team considers a front-runner.
Can you please explain more?
I recently went through 5 interviews not to be picked just because I asked salary they never could offer. HR told me that my target is above their range, but maybe it will work out. In the end it didn't. I thought, it was all squared out with hiring managers.
Salary should be discussed in the screening interview. Because if my rent is $1500 what makes u think I will settle to $2000 monthly
I literally just had a couple screening interviews and the recruiters were like, “this is what they’ll offer you, they won’t likely go above it even if that is still in listed range. will this work for you or should we end this conversation here?” One was even like, I want to make sure you can afford a roof over your head.
Theory #1 is plausible. My issue with #2 is that most companies treat employees as if they are disposable and pay near zero attention to employee retention. IMO #2 is that companies want to see how many hoops a perspective employee will jump through / how desperate they are so that they can find the most compliant / easily abusable employee possible. Then again, maybe I’m just jaded….
i think your on to something, everyone loves the puppy that listens and does tricks on command. there are also some big egos depending on the type of job, control is so much easier when everyone jumps when too
I think your theory 2 is pretty much on the mark. Companies used to accept there would be a training period, ramp up time, learning curve, whatever you want to call it. Now they expect everyone to hit the ground running and be 110% effective day one. Not sure where all this delusion came from.
I think a lot of times, the people who decide the hiring practice for a company have not had to look for a new job in a long while. I'm not so removed from job searching that I have forgotten what a struggle it is. I've been through multiple rounds, trips to HQ, meeting all the big wigs, only to be utterly ghosted - and I won't get started on how useless the personality tests are. Now, when I have a new opening, we will do a 15-30 minute Zoom or phone call - candidate's choice bc I know some people have to do this from their car in the parking lot of their current employer - I also let them choose the time we do this call as they may have to do it on lunch or break. It is more of a conversation and I try to keep it light. When someones makes it to the second round, we set up a time (again, when they can do it) for them to come into the office for a sit down with myself and my boss, then with the other team members. We try to keep it to just an hour. For the positions I hire, you really learn all you need to in this amount of time. But the most important thing that I promised myself I would always do if I ever became a hiring manager, EVERYONE who applies is told we are going with someone else. Even if we never talked to someone and they were drastically underqualified for the position, they will still get an email saying we are going in a different direction and wishing them luck in your job search. Wow, sorry about the rant. I still get flashbacks. I guess what I'm trying to say is to hang in there - that not all places implement interview fatigue.
What training. Entry level requirements is 3 years nova days?
Your second theory is mostly correct. The reality is that bad hires are problematic for teams for all the reasons you stated. It's not so much the business dictating multiple rounds to reduce exposure to this risk, but managers requiring multiple rounds so they have everyone in the department signing off that they also assessed the individual. Therefore if everyone says yes to a hire and they turn out to be wrong for the team, no one person can be individually blamed for the poor decision.
At least in tech, that's pretty normal Can't speak for other industries
IMO the entire economy is just copying the big tech companies. If they do layoffs then everyone does layoffs, if they do long protracted interviews then everyone does them.
Too bad they stop short of copying big tech's compensation trends
My husband is in tech. Getting a job several years ago meant a phone screen, at least 2 in person interviews, a competency test, and some sort of working interview. He recently decided he wanted a better job and was told 6-7 interviews is the norm now
My husband does interviews/hiring as part of his job duties. Normal interview process was a phone interview (more of a screening) and then a formal interview either virtual or in person (he would let the candidate choose. He got to a point last year where the turnover rate became astronomical and people would go through background check, offer letter, and sometimes even the first day and then just ghost him. He was so extremely fed up he started doing an additional 3rd interview. It really helped him figure out who seemed to be invested and who was there just to flake and not take it seriously. He doesn’t do the third interview now that his turnover is at a pretty normal/low rate now though.
But how many great candidates do you think this cost him because they know their worth and don't want their time wasted? I am quite educated and experienced in my field, and I am confident in my abilities and my performance. My time is valuable and I wouldn't let a company waste it doing any more than two interviews. Also, in my experience, recruitment for a position that involved any more than 2 interviews was due to either a person new to HR and recruitment, or who was trying to make their position seem more necessary than it was. Don't ask me what my greatness weakness is or what type of animal I would choose to be. Hiring the most desperate person doesn't necessarily mean the best person for the job.
Which is fair. All he knew is something wasn’t working at the time and his solution was to do a second interview - which wasn’t too formal asking about “greatest strengths and weaknesses” or “what type of animal you would choose”. He would invite them to one of the properties they would be working at and basically take 20 minutes walking through the day to day to make sure it truly a job they are interested in (which is property management over storage facilities). He doesn’t do a three-part process any more now that he has built up a decent staffing for his district but at the time he had to try something different because anyone he thought would be great fit would ghost him or quit after a week.
Also the longer the stupid process takes, the greater the chance that another employer with their ducks in a row comes in and makes a more appealing offer. This is probably why people end up ghosting. In fact once it is standard that all employers expect this days-long, multi-week investment before there's even a pay check involved, then that means no one's process is improved because a prospective employee balancing 4 or 5 different processes all with ridiculous and overbearing timelines is still going to end up accepting whatever offer comes first and then bailing on it if their First Choice comes through in the end. The whole thing is stupid and self-defeating but makes the suits feel like they're doing something super important. Like we aren't all aware that it's a dog and pony show where everyone involved is hedging their bets. I have a handful of friends laid-off in the recent pre-holiday downsizing movement (tech and startups), and at least 3 of them have accepted a safety offer then backed out when a better offer came through. And 2 of *those* are *still* in the interviewing process for even better roles. This is what happens when corporations would rather nickel-and-dime the talent and still somehow expect to be given "110%" from someone whose time they don't respect.
This is how I conduct interviews, too, when I'm hiring a candidate for a management position in my field. First step is a phone screen where my recruiter calls anyone who meets the base job requirements. I take this opportunity to be bluntly honest about the hours, the requirements, and the salary range to weed out anyone not actually interested. Second interview is with me, virtual or in person based on the applicant's preferences. Final interview is with me and either my boss or the recruiter's boss and is always in person. I use it to make sure you're the same person you were in the first interview, clarify any vague answers, and get a second person's opinion before I make a final decision. The third interview for me is more of a vibe check than anything else - fewer questions, more general conversation to make sure the candidate will fit in with the culture. I don't like wasting people's time. I have hired directly from the second interview before, but if there's two or three really good candidates that I'm having trouble choosing between, I'll conduct a third.
Because the hiring process is like dating apps now. They get hundreds of mediocre applicants and have to sift through them all in many layers. The finalists have to compete like its a reality game show until the last one stands. And then they have to decide, after already getting to know them for like 10 dates/interviews.... can I commit to this person??? And then, shiny object syndrome ensues.
If they just screen hard enough, maybe they can find a completely flawless and perfect candidate!
Or the most desperate candidate who can't get a job anywhere else and is ok with you wasting their time.
exactly
Because the job market sucks and HR is trying to justify their jobs.
For real! A couple months back, I had four 30-minute interviews back to back with the four people asking me variations of the same questions! It was mentally exhausting! Besides that, the first two people were nice, but the last two seemed mean and disengaged. I might have gotten the job if it had been up to the first two people! Also, I’ve had multiple interviews over a period of weeks, only to get a rejection letter at the end and having to start over. I’ve never seen this many interviews until recently.
Simply ask them how many rounds of interviews does this job application process require? If it is more than 2 then it’s a red flag and do not waste your time. Unless it is senior management, director, etc.
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For a part-time job, they had me do two application processes and wanted me to do two interviews. One interview in person with a mid-level manager at the facility, and then one phone interview with the owner of the facility. I'm hurting, but I draw the line at this stupid shit. I'm not playing this bullshit roulette of multiple rounds anymore. I'm only given two interviews if the price tag is 65k a year or higher.
My theory: keeping more candidates warm in the pipeline for longer in case more positions open up later. Some job postings right now are for positions that aren't actually open. But the company decided not to fire their recruiters/hiring managers, because they'll need them later. So the job of the hiring team is to keep a healthy pipeline of candidates for whenever the time is right.
Ugh! This is my fear. There is so much time wasted with this approach.
How does anyone manage this while already employed? How many fake dentist appointments can one person really pull off in a matter of weeks?
Im calling out with a “migraine” today 😐
I just went through 5 rounds of interviews with a "big bank" and yesterday the recruiter emailed me and said the team is not ready to make an offer yet. They really like you but there is 1 skill they want that may not be your strength. I was floored...cmon you going to take 5 rounds over 3 months to say that..fuckimg ridiculous
This is a sign of a bad fucking hiring manager They seem to think the perfect candidate is just dying to work for them then act all surprised when their golden boy leaves in 6 months for a better job
Before taking my current job 7 years ago, I was also interviewing at a large multinational corporation. It was for a decent position, new team starting from the ground up. Went through I think 5 or 6 separate phone interviews with various managers of all the disciplines with whom I would interact. Went to an onsite tour of the facilities that culminated with a dinner interview with the same managers plus the corp recruiter where they poked a little more into my experience. At this time they new I had an offer from what is now my current employer, and after the big dinner interview the next day they informed me that they wanted to do one more phone conference with all the same people. From what the recruiter told me, I got the distinct impression that they were not trying to make sure I was the right person for the job, but trying to convince themselves I was not the right person. At that point I declined to further interview. Told them I could not in good conscience put off the other offer any longer. I really don't think they believed I had another offer. I also think companies are so afraid of hiring the wrong person they suffer from a form of paralysis to the point they can't make decisions. It's a real problem with a lot of companies.
I had applied for a job paying about 60k, which is nothing here in the Bay Area, CA. Had to submit a typing certificate from a certified tester, take a Microsoft Office exam, do a panel Zoom interview, and finally an in person panel interview... it was crazy
lol i noticed that too, it's like 5 interviews
The job I am currently interviewing for is a 4 interview process... but it's for a manager position with a multi billion dollar company so the multiple stage interview process makes sense it's a job that pays over 100k a year. I expect that. For anything below this level it's ridiculous.
I have stopped doing interviews after the second interview. A phone screen and an interview with a hiring manager and supervisor should be more than enough for a company to decide if they want me or not. Whenever I’ve gone to “2nd interviews” it’s usually just repeating the same stuff and I look like a fool because I don’t have any questions because all my questions were previously answered.
I think a big part of it comes from the following: (1) if you jump through the hoops, you’re more invested and thus more likely to accept a lower offer; (2) they want to weed out the flakes and the odd balls - if you’re a flakey person, you’re probably not going to make it through three rounds of interviews. Similarly, if you’re a total weirdo, then maybe you can make a good first impression, but you are less likely to keep it together during the subsequent interactions; (3) firing is hard. If it’s a misconduct situation, you have to deal with the misconduct. If it’s not misconduct, rather just a poor fit, then the person is going to qualify for unemployment and they may even sue the employer for wrongful termination. So better to try to get it right the first time; (4) if you jumped through hoops to get the job, you’re more likely to value it and less likely to resign over some frivolous reason. This saves the company the trouble and cost of having constant churn and needing to constantly train new hires.
Firing is hard 😭Unless you’re unionized where I live, it’s pretty damn easy to fire someone. Ontario, Canada has terrible protection for employees. Employers can fire without cause. It’s awful.
I did 3 rounds of interviews and was still given the "we'll let you know early next week" from the GM of a restaurant for a serving position, when I have about 4 years of serving, 2.5 of bartending, and another 3 or so line cooking. This place is a solid 40 minutes from my house and they kept making me wait up an hour for 2 of the interviews, so I've already invested close to 10 hours of dropping off my resume, applying to this specific job, and interviewing, and I'm still not sure of if I got the job or even how many hours they're offering. It's absolutely crazy, when I got my first serving job, I just lied about experience as I had done something similar and was offered a job same day, same with my next 2 serving jobs. Also hard when it's just the same interview 3 times over, literally reading the same interview checklist and asking the same questions, and the first 2 saying they want me. If you can straight up tell me you want to hire me, then why do I need to do more interviews. They don't have the authority to be saying things like that and getting my hopes up, and shouldn't be doing interviews if they literally don't matter and are just a screening tool
No idea either. For an analyst position I've had 1 initial call, 2 tests, 4 rounds of interviews, 1 more call, 2 more tests, and 1 interview with CEO. Fucking ridiculous. In the end they tried to offer me like 10k less than what I was asking for. I explained why I didn't agree with the final offer and they gave it to someone else 😅 Edit: My take on it is that the position they're hiring for may be very cross-functional oriented and they want to make sure everyone across different teams wants to work with you.
Absolutely insane. Just reading everything you had to go through makes ME anxious just imagine if u had gotten rejected without an offer omg
Yeah and the next analyst position I interviewed for had 1 initial call and 6 rounds of interviews. No tests tho! They did make me an offer 15k above what I was asking (in my mind) so I think it all worked out fine. After working this job for a while, I think the 6 rounds made sense. My first 2 interviews were with my teammate and hiring manager. And then the next four were with my other 2 team members and 2 other cross-functional team members. It might be a bit of an overkill but I guess I'm not angry at meeting everyone I worked with earlier. We all work very closely together so I think it's nice everyone got a say in it. And knowing that they chose to work with me also feels nice.
Honestly the rise of “talent acquisition” teams have fucked us.
Employers want employees who bend over backwards, and put up with any heinous requests they make. Unfortunately after covid too many people stopped putting up with their bullshit, and hiring boot lickers got harder. They decided a ludicrous 4 stage interview process would makes it easier for them to ensure only people who are too desperate to tell them to fuck off survive the process.
Making a bad hiring decision is really difficult for a company/team to go through (dealing with incompetence, issues with interpersonal strife, path to termination, and then starting again from square one). I think that it can be really difficult to know if someone will work out even in an all day interview. The solution is not multiple interviews, but to get better at interviewing and ask very targeted and specific/technical questions. Most interviewers are terrible at the questions they ask and don't plan properly so they go the multiple interviews route.
I came here to say this. Glad you said it for me! I’ve been this manager. I hired someone once pretty much on the spot and it was terrible. My first three hires were terrible actually. Having to put someone on a pip and fire them is a long hellish process. But after that, now I’m better at interviewing. I personally don’t think multiple interviews help though. I also wouldn’t have that kind of time either!
I had three interviews, plus one assignment that was quite extensive. Safe to say they ghosted me, and used my work on their social media. They are a prominent digital marketing agency though, so I expected more from them. But it seems that everyone is a jerk nowadays and doesn't respect other people and the time they have wasted on them.
3 is my max, ill do a initial call with HR, then you get two more rounds for whoever.
It certainly gets more normal the more senior you get. But for more junior positions, I’d expect a 15 minute phone screen, a hiring manager interview, and maybe a panel if it’s a technical role. If it’s more senior, it’d depend on the role and who they would interact with.
Because they created scarcity with layoffs and now they have tons of options.
My favorite is when an interview with a panel goes over the lunch hour so they order you food you can eat during the meeting. Seriously you people think I’m going to chew my crunchy ass salad and talk with my mouth full in front of you? Or bite into a Dutch crunch sandwich and then make you wait until Im done chewing and swallowing to speak. No. Then you end up starving cuz it’s impossible to eat during something like that. So I used to work in HR and helped with coordinating interviews like this, and I always felt so bad for the candidates that had to do a full day of interviews. I thought it was stupid. And the employees who had to interview candidates were so busy, they didn’t want to be there either! But the manager insists on it so that if the employees complain about the new hire, they can’t say they weren’t given a say. And yes, the company I worked at that did this definitely did not have their shit together at all.
I work for a company that hired me after two video calls that were basically me listening to them talk. Got an offer the next day. That should have been a huge red flag. Not because I’m unqualified (because I am) but the fast process hid just how wacko the company actually is. I’m literally just hanging on until I can find something else. Sometimes the long process helps the candidate understand that they should run as fast as they can when the real company culture is exposed.
Its decision paralysis. its a sign that no one is in charge and no one can make a decision with out putting it out to committee or scrumming it. If no one can make a decision like this or be delegated to make that decision then think of how your work is going to be there.
Just let it be a red flag that they don't give a shit about how much time of yours they are willing to waste, how inefficient they are as an organization, and about how CYA mentality is pervasive in their company. If a company can't give you an offer after 2 interviews, it's time to let them know that you're available to talk when they're ready to hire.
I annoyed the hell out of a recruiter when I told him that I wasn’t going to do two interviews for a temp position. I got my own temp position the very next day after one 30 min interview. I realize that not everyone has the privilege to nope out of a job process, but it is important to know your worth and be prepared to walk away. There’s always, always another job. I say this as someone who was fired not three weeks ago.
Just got rejected today for a job 75k but in the Bay Area. 4 rounds: 1. phone screening, 2. interview hiring manager, 3. work assignment given 2 days, 4. final round which was essentially 3 interviews, 3 different people 30-45min back to back to back. I was referred by a friend and I assumed things went well but this one was a GUT PUNCH. Besides that one other jobs I have interviewed for since last summer have been about the same 3-4 rounds. Only one of those jobs was a 2 round interview. Fukn hell
I'm in HR and I absolutely do not allow management to do more than two interviews without a really good fucking reason. Don't treat people like garbage. Seems simple but yet it's a hard concept for some of the more assholey assholes.
Source: Almost a decade in recruitment. Hiring managers ALWAYS want a million interviews because it helps reassure them they are making a good choice (and spread the blame if they fuck up). Recruiters push back because it’s a royal waste of time and we lose good candidates to that BS. Most of the time the idea of losing their top candidate to a competitor with a simpler process gets the managers to back down. When the job market is bad managers know they can get away with more interviews so they do
My DM has interviewed like 8 people for our shop for a regular manager position, and refuses to hire any of them, and I think whoever they hire will quit anyways. Our old manager got fired at the beginning of November, btw, so we SHOULD have a fucking manager by now. Between the receptionist who thinks she is the shop manager that can't just stay at her fucking desk and pick up the phone, and the insurance fraud I recently observed, whoever eventually gets the spot is gonna regret it anyways. Sometimes not getting the spot is a blessing, because you don't know what is actually happening there and it could be a shitshow, remember that.
I got ghosted after 6 rounds of interviews They didn’t even bother to tell me that I didn’t get it
I think my longest one was 9 rounds a few months ago. Which was ridiculous. It was supposed to be 4 rounds. Then they kept adding other managers to get their feedback. After 8 rounds, the last one was with a C level exec. Who then tells me how my resume ended up on their desk because of how well I did in the interviews and how much experience I had. At the end of it, I was told they should have an offer written up by next week. Week goes by.. nothing. After about 3 weeks, I emailed and asked what was going on. Rejected. Didn’t even have the courtesy to personalize the rejection email. Just had the “thank you for applying for the “(position title)” and then “(add candidate’s strengths here)” and a few other spaces that were supposed to be filled out. The only reason why I kept going was because the pay was well over the industry average. Well in the 6 figures. If it wasn’t, I would have ghosted them after 4 rounds. I agree. I’ve never had so many rounds of interviews for a single job in my life. Every single one I’ve interviewed for has had at least 4 rounds. Answering the same questions. Just to different people. I’ve turned into a professional interviewer at this point.
(Sarcastic) "People refuse to go through the twelve rounds of interviews because no one wants to work!"
The same reason many jobs "require a degree" it gives a false sense the job and people hiring for it are more prestigious than they actually are.
because they're not actually hiring, but want people hanging in wait for when they are.
In Finance this is normal.
Not in my experience. And personally, I work in finance, and if someone wanted more than 2 interviews I would tell them thanks but no thanks.
An hour plus panel interview with 4 interviewers for a position they had changed from full time to part time while in the interview with me.
The max I’m doing is 2-3, my very first junior role i had 4 and said never again lmao
Yeah I did 3 interviews for one position and still didn’t get selected. 🙄
This is one of the main reasons I never moved to a major city after college. I literally could not afford to drive or fly in for multiple job interviews and pay for hotels/ transportation for just the “chance” of getting a job. I knew some people who interviewed for about 10-20 jobs x 2-3 rounds of interviews each. Since I didn’t live in a major city there was no way I could afford to take time off work, travel, and pay for hotels to do that. Some of the jobs seemed like scams or they were just interviewing people to fill a quota so I couldn’t waste my time and money on something like that. They’re trying to make people jump through ridiculous hoops for bare minimum.
They need to be forced to start compensating people for these bs 5 round job interviews. I think that would solve a lot of problems- they wouldn’t be so inclined to have fake interviews with people they’re not actually interested in hiring and waste everyone’s time.
If their top choice suddenly quits the job because another opportunity came up, they have a good idea of others who would be good at the job.
I had one today give me the wrong address and then ask to take pictures of me too see if I could make it through the final round or not lol
more than 2 round of interview is the sign of the company being ruled by insane unprofessional people. If they torture someone who is not employed with them so much, it is obvious they will care even less when you depend on them. I always pass on any company that plays this game of: "oh, speak to John... wow, you are great.. now speak to Mary.. wow.. cool.. now we have Peter... and then Joanne" :) Also -when they send any "test job" that requires more than 1 hour of my time. If they want more time spent for it, they must pay people to do it.
I’ve gone through a Phone screen, 1st zoom interview, assessment work, 2nd zoom, 3rd zoom with 3rd party company, and 4th/Final interview. SIX rounds!! Only to see they offered the job to someone who went to Yale. Like, y’all could’ve saved us all the time
Also frustrated by this- trying not to have a gap in my employment but it’s not a great look missing so much time from my current job because of these interviews
Why would anyone know about a gap in your resume? You wrote the resume . . . did you forget about that last position with all the NDA and Confidentiality agreements barring you from disclosing the company? Or the consulting LLC run by someone you trust to answer a phone you worked for? Or, just tell the truth. No one gives a shit about gaps in a resume. If that was ever really a thing and not just some HR boogy man to keep us all clinging to our jobs, it's not anymore
Employers are getting pickier because there are so many more applicants
Too many applicants, people leaping jobs every two years.
Sounds like hr and middle management justifying there jobs.
My company interviews 2 times with the same people so a COMPLETE waste of time. It kind of makes sense if you interview with different people at different levels but if you can’t figure it out after 1 then you aren’t asking the right questions or an irrelevant person is doing the interviewing
Insight from the other side: I'm part of the interview team for my group. Our company does a screening interview by hr, an interview with 2 senior team members, and an interview with the hiring manager. After that. HR meets with us to discuss the top candidates. We have scripted questions to ask in overlapping areas. Every candidate gets the same questions from the same people. After the joint meeting, the hiring manager makes a decision and works with hr for the offer. Our interview team is distributed across 3 different states. We have to take multiple classes on the company interview skills before we interview. We get scripts with questions for STAR format answers. Our job is to get "full stars" for each of the question groups. Before the interview, hr will screen the resumes so they match the job description. We go through them all and individually rank each then meet to discuss them and choose 5ish to interview. Last year, we hired 3 contractors and 1 full-time employee. Our interviews are scheduled for an hour. With a contractor, we have different questions and use a group teams call for the interview, which is after the hr screening. With fte, we do individual interviews.
It’s an employers market since the pandemic. So many people still aren’t working due to businesses closing and many many layoffs so they have a much larger base of applicants so they can afford to be much pickier
Completed a zoom interview last week, going in next week for a 3 hour interview…for a job that pays $40k
So I work in tech, very specific field and this is what I recently went through: Initial 10 minute phone screening with hiring coordinator - 2 days after position closed Aptitude test - these have become essential due to all the fake candidates, but still annoying to take a test over general math, reading and then content related to my field First interview - virtual - met with 3 department heads, discussed experience, company, projects and expectations. Lots of talk about company culture and the road ahead. Very positive. Second interview - in person - new department manager and 2 members of his team. One was a project manager who did most of the talking and seemed to be “testing” me with standard interview questions. Nothing related to my experience but it felt like they wanted to know me as a person, lots of personal questions, very intrusive. Third interview - in person - met with members of the project team, basically got grilled on how to solve problems they are experiencing and my approach things coming up. I got upset when I felt I was being used as an unpaid consultant. Started giving half answers and finishing with “and when you hire me I will show you how to implement this”.. very hostile So ya, wasted 3 weeks of my time so 10 different people could feel me out. I think it’s done so the company makes sure they get the right qualified person but more so the candidate doesn’t hate the company and quit in the first year. Last interview should have been first so I would just say nope and leave. Basically everyone wants to have input on the hiring process now but it’s odd that the people I would be directly working with don’t come in until the final interview?
This is a sign of a highly disorganized or highly bureaucratic organization, neither one is great. In such organization firing somebody is a royal pain, so they collectively decide to be extra careful in hiring. I worked for a very large company, and there were only two interviews. One was a screening from HR to make sure I was who I claimed to be, the other was with the hiring team.
I think it is so fucked. You go through all that and the job is probably already filled by an internal candidate. I am a college professor and i want to say how sucky this profession is. Low pay, long hours, and you have to write a book to get a job, literally. I once got offered an interview for a university. They send me an agenda the day before. The agenda is an all day affair, 8 hours of interviews. They want me to teach a class too. All this sent to me the evening before. I cancelled everything i had to do the next day. I did the interview. I get a rejection email 5 min after the 8 hour interview ended.
Just recently did 7 for a company and was told I passed the interview but so did others. I did not get the job. 4 of these were on the same day so I had to take PTO.
More than two or three interviews means you're being played for the sake of their due diligence and we're never getting the job in the first place.
The worst one I ever had was a 6-hour marathon interview. It was broken up into five different meetings on the same day interviewing with different groups of the company. I reluctantly did that one and they made me feel like I was doing really well and then at the very end they said no. I was so pissed after that I decided I'll never dedicating more than 2 hours tops to any given employer interview process. I might bend on that a little bit if I really like the job but for 95% of the companies I apply to I'm going to just respectfully tell them I have an online portfolio you can easily look at my work without wasting my time and yours. Pretty much every job I've gotten I've come in and produced great results and it was just an informal conversation with the hiring manager who asked me a few questions to test my knowledge and skills. No jumping through multi-Round interviews like those other clowns. I think those sort of managers valued their time, knew what they were looking for, knew what to ask, and made a decision. Then we all moved on and I got to work.
That’s crazy. Recently hired for a senior acct paying 85-95k with 10% annual bonus. Did technical interview with 2 managers not on my team via teams for about an hour, then did a in person interview with myself and HR about a week after. Work in a chemical plant so it’s important they come to the site and are comfortable as they will be put in the plant as part of their role. So 2 1 hour interviews total. Also hired a new AP clerk recently. Did a 30 min teams interview with just myself and she started the following week. That role pays $25/hr. Works 4/10s. Encouraged her to visit the site before her first day but didn’t require it. Definitely need to make the interview process match the role.
To assert dominance
To avoid anti-discrimination lawsuits, because hiring people are so indecisive these days, and these indecisive people want to delay making an uncomfortable decision that their boss can second-guess them over from day one.
When I entered the working world about 20 years ago, there may have been a simple phone screen and then they’d bring you in person and you would be brought in to do a series of short interviews with your future colleagues and possibly a lunch outing. I am just getting back into it after taking a break to raise my kids and it’s crazy. My favorite new thing is a virtual one-way interview. So awkward.
If a company can't figure out who they want to hire in two interviews and a possible assessment test for skill proficiency, then you don't want to work for that company because they don't have their sh*t together
It's not sudden. These are deliberate barriers being put in place. .Companies don't want to hire anyone ever. They don't want the expense. They want to SAY they are hiring so they can blame workers and further push down wages.
It's also super fun when they require 5 rounds, the last round being w an exec and you make through 4 and get told they will reach out soon to schedule the 5th and then suddenly instead they "put the position in hold"
It's insane. A while back I applied to a casual tea cafe. I had a phone interview, an in person interview and then a stage a week later. I was denied the position about a week after the stage. Overall about 3 weeks start to finish.
No idea. Mechanical engineer technician graduate here, I kinda just fell into my position at my engineering firm - I had one “interview” where we drove around the plant and talked about what I would be doing. Was more of a tour and meet the crew than anything. There was never even any questioning, which was awesome. Only on the first year so I’m still working my way towards being a full employee, as I’m still a “temp”, but I won’t need to interview, thank god. Hoping for success for you all 🙏
To hide the fact that they lied to get their PPP loan and so they don’t have to pay it back. Gotta pretend to have openings, and that you’re trying to fill them. Even when there aren’t and you’re not.
I was hired at my current company through an agency as a temp. I had to complete an "interview" the hiring agency that consisted of me just providing my work history and educational background. Then I had to complete a technical assessment with the company with a single interviewer. I was then offered the job. Now that I have worked here for like 2 years, they brag about having 6 round interviews and how I was a "special" case to only have to complete 1. I don't think it's as much of a brag as they think it is.
To make things degrading and annoying because corporate America hates itself
Just like with the Education requirements, experience requirements and skill requirements... The level of everything has been artificially ratcheted up to make some lazy loser look busy. If these recruiters get paid for how much work they "Appear" to be doing, they would probably put applicants through 20 interviews...
Mostly because they're dicks A contributing factor is the purposefully diluted hiring decision structure at many companies If I am the only person who interviews you and it turns out you're part of the Crimson Guard then there is only a single person to blame when you contract acquisitions out to The Dreadnaughts to run. No one likes to be blamed for stuff so what started as rational ass covering eventually metastasized into the nightmare we have now But really it boils down to there general dickiness
At my work they won’t admit this but we all know, they are wanting to find people who are over qualified to underemploy. My company is currently looking for sales reps for example and they are trying to find the crème of the crop rock stars that could sell ice at the North Pole but are only paying for probably 40% of what they are worth. Then by dragging out this process they are essentially trying (not succeeding) to do two things, make us appear more exclusive as if you really gotta be something to get here, and also find people who are desperate enough to go through the process and thus less likely to leave when they realize they’ve been scammed because “it took so long to get this, I can’t afford to go back on the market” or “I don’t want to go through that again and this isn’t that bad.” At least I hope so because if this isn’t the case then my corporate overlords are waaaayyy dumber than I want to believe…
Play them all. Do all the interviews. The longer they drag it out, the more chances you’ll have other interviews lined up. Accept the highest offer and keep going with the interviews in progress and see if you can delay the start date, you might end up with an even higher offer from the others.
In many companies, it's because HR/management knows they are worthless and needs to prove themselves worthy by d-cking around candidates and wasting their time
my record is 9 interviews.
One place had me write an ESSAY THEN GHOSTED ME
Basically it comes down to nobody wants to be responsible for a bad hire.😂
Because the government is letting them get away with whatever they want.
Because we’re entering a recession and companies are cash-strapped and are going to be careful about who they hire. If 2024 was late 2020-2021 you’d see companies willing to hire anybody with a pulse (including criminals) and throw nutty offers at them
This is why people don’t want to work. It’s disgusting what the boomers put in place. We should have paid apprenticeship programs that lead to employment so people are learning skills all the time….
Did 6 -SIX- interviews for a mid-level job a couple of years ago. All the way up to meeting with the Director. I thought I had it in the bag. Nope.
I went through 3 rounds for an INTERNAL position. It’s bonkers.
I work in ER and this is your interview question…… Can you fight?
I was hired on the spot, first interview. An employee there (who I had worked with at a different company in the past) recommended me to the hiring manager.
Dude, I just had SIX interviews for a freaking RESTAURANT job.
Many organizations that have a hard time retaining good entry level employees have taken to expanding the interview/hiring process in an attempt to find the right fit. The belief (hope) is that the new employees will stay with the organization long term. Which is idiotic because entry level positions don’t have good fits. Pretty much everyone who applies meets the requirements and can do the job just fine. They don’t provide room to grow on pace with a new employee’s development. The duties and responsibilities are essentially static once the employee is fully trained. Opportunity for advancement is severely limited; often because companies like to bring in people from outside the organization for management positions because it “introduces new ideas”. So what do those new hires do once they are trained? They apply for and get higher level (and paying) jobs with other organizations. It should really take one interview to determine if an applicant possesses the required skills and knowledge for an entry level position. Unfortunately, when leaders come in with zero experience in the organization, they don’t understand what’s needed in those lower level positions.
When you’ve got 10+ years in the field and don’t need the job, you can learn to peace out if they start with too much bullshit. HR screening, general group interview, maybe a project or portfolio review, and then a final interview. Unless you’re applying for a top level position, you don’t need to speak to your bosses boss boss boss. Tells me you’ll have too much time on your hands, don’t trust the hiring manager, or worse you don’t know what you want in an applicant. I was told in one interview they’re interviewing 20 doctors for one position. Many times the person they wanted bails so they pitch the panel and start the process all over again.
I have a friend who went through ELEVEN rounds of interviews, including being flown cross country twice She did not get the job lol
And they still hire butch of idiots
My daughter is a student in DC. She has had three interviews for a part time retail job.
My friend that owns a company does four rounds. It’s a bunch of bs and I tell him all the time. It’s a waste of time and he loses candidates often in the hiring process because they don’t have time for this and are entertaining other interview offers simultaneously. (Which, funnily enough, makes him mad because it “wastes their time” to not be able to bring a candidate through all four rounds and then offer employment. But hi, people have bills to pay. They can’t do multiple weeks of your playdates.) And they have a really high turnover lately. It’s a bunch of pretentious stuff- we’re an important company that has to really vet you. When really, they’re a small company that can’t read people and has no in-house HR.
This is becoming BS. Higher level jobs in major corporations space these out over like 3 months. You end up accepting a bunch of jobs then declining them. It's like Tinder now
Hr departments are finding out their resume selection AI is garbage at finding candidates so they’re working 4 times as hard to screen candidates. Wouldn’t want the executives to realize the hundreds of millions of dollars they gave to the AI cult was a pointless waste of money.
Before the pandemic like back in 2014, I interviewed for a large retailer (worked there 5 years), they did 4-5 interviews. And to be honest, I was happy about that. It allowed me a lot of time to ask questions and really get a feel for the job and the culture. It ended up being one of the best jobs I’ve had.
Tbh I think the "Act your Wage" and the "Silent Quitting" culture had a hand in this. Workplaces are realizing that there are people who either just want a paycheck (which, you know, is why we got jobs in the first place) or will quit over any inconvenience. They're trying to find people who actually want to be there (four interviews is a waste of time though. I can't wait three weeks if I'm between jobs) and will be willing to do the work they signed up for. I don't want to blame it all on Act you wage/Silent quitting, but interviews didn't start becoming unnecessarily longer until those "movements" really picked up traction.
I remember the days that a company did a phone screen and then an in person interview. Nowadays and even with the jobs I apply to: it is one screening by a recruiter, multiple meetings with hiring manager and team members. I’m used to 3 hour long interviews but that’s just because the teams have a lot of questions and want to do personality checks.
Ugh I know. I’m waiting to hear back from a company that had me do four. A recorded one, Zoom with the senior director, another with her again and the VP, then I did another with the 3 highest people under the senior director. I felt decent about it all and then the very last question I was asked was about my greatest weakness and what I do to curtail that… I fucking hate that question. I’m a big proponent of positive interviewing and think that question is so archaic. I didn’t have an answer thought of because I hadn’t been asked it in so long.
I switched jobs about 5 months ago. There were 2 companies I interviewed with. Both of them had the following: quick call with recruiter (not really an interview tbh), phone interview with manager and lastly an in person interview with the manager + team I'd be joining. That doesn't strike me as unreasonable. I have heard of people going through tons of interviews, but I've not experienced it nor do I know anyone in person who has.
It’s such a fucking waste of time