Job interviews are a nightmare – and only getting worse
vox.com
vox.com
In 2019, i was looking for a job as a software developer and experienced something quite similar to what Jessica (the protagonist of the article) experienced.
There's so much ritualistic bs that has absolutely nothing to do with the job that we have to put up with when interviewing! Why does my employer need to know my thoughts on those weird sophisticated-sounding questions? What value do these ridiculous "team games" they make us play with other candidates bring? It shows "team work" capabilities, some might say, but the games feel like games you play at Kindergarten and seem to be confusing and awkward for no reason
I have a feeling this process isn't going to help you hire the "right candidate"; rather, the candidate that bullshited their way through thr process and manipulated the HR employees the best.
Doing job interviews seems to have become a skill of its own. Maybe we should start putting "can manipulate HR effectively" on our CVs
Fortunately, my current employer was the exact opposite; they only gave me one interview with HR and then one interview with who became my boss, and there was no bs involved. I am so happy with them and our HR department.
I can tell you that even when the recruiters said they wanted it, and my bosses said they wanted it, and I got great feedback… there was still a lot of friction before I could actually make it happen.
We are very vested into the “prove you want it” mindset, and there is a lot of ego in believing that you are so important and distinguished that you need 20 interviews to make sure you only get the best of the best.
I feel much more loyal to the employer I ended up with (still my current employer since 2019), who has a no-bullshit hr department
They don't, but they make the hiring manager feel like it does. It calms the lizard part of the brain.
I was broken by the end of it. I understand that companies need to do their due diligence but honestly there was so much repetition in the interviews it could all have been slimmed down to 2 1hr interviews
* 15+ minute chat with a recruiter
* 15 minute technical screen with fizz-buzzy like questions to just validate you can convert simple requirements into working code
* 1 hour technical screen with a senior/staff engineer that’ll probably be on team you’re working on. Explicitly non-adversarial and friendly: just pros talking shop, working thru problem(s)
* 1 hour follow-up with the engineering manager whose team you’re joining (more process-oriented, also understanding you as a person)
it’s like 2.5 hours all-in spread across 3 meetings (it’s remote over zoom so it’s all flexible).
If you need more time you probably aren’t asking the right questions, or just trying to push someone until they are way out of their depth and decide whether or not that’s a dealbreaker. Hate that crap, so I refuse to do it.
Most job candidates aren't looking for a temporary contracting gig, they're looking for a permanent job.
States should mandate that time spent at a job interview must be paid proportional to the average rate of the position you are applying for. This includes take home work!
The reason for this is that if I know you are spending as much as you might spend for an employee on interviewing me, then I know that you are serious about this being a possibility.
This also means you can't send a take home to 1000 candidates, review a few tens of them, and then hire 1. A process I think is rather common at many shops.
Beware of unintended consequences. One of the reasons mentioned in the article for why interviews were so long is that companies are risk adverse and don't want the risk of being saddled with a bad employee. If you mandate that interviews must be paid, the same dynamic would apply. Specifically, companies would care even more about your resume/linkedin/experience, because they don't want to waste money on marginal/inexperienced candidates.
They can.
Since there is no preexisting contract supporting the invoice, it will never be paid or have any other effect except to guarantee that they aren’t hired, but they can invoice all they want.
That's not my experience. Smaller companies have plenty of bullshit hiring practices too.
That being said, I did go through the canonical 15-minute slides presentation once. That should be a red flag to any job seeker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRZAJY23xio&t=1550s
=)
Specifically, he observes the dynamic-range of technology people being vastly different from most other business roles. Additionally, how large mature tech firms often liquidate the goodwill previously earned with consumers.
While he was a controversial character in some ways, much of what he observed remains true to this day.
Good luck, =)