Ask HN: When do you green light tech positions with management? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: When do you green light tech positions with management?

5 pointsbeebs934 comments

Quick backstory:

I applied for a Senior role with a medium-ish company and after 3 interviews and 3 successful code tests they said they thought I'd be a great fit and wanted to make me an offer.

A week goes by and I get the standard "we decided not to pursue this any further" email with no explanation. I emailed back and after a quick phone call discovered they wanted to hire me, but senior management was looking for a much more "junior hybrid role".

A quick meeting with senior management at the beginning would have avoided wasting my time of going through all those interviews and code tests.

So my big questions:

So is this normal practice? All but hire first THEN ask if the company even needs it? Do I really need to ask at the first interview if they've green lit this need with senior management?

Thanks for any feedback!

View on HN

I have found a fair number of companies don't have their hiring process figured out in any meaningful way. It sucks to feel like you've wasted a lot of time interviewing (not to mention any excitement about the opportunity and its possibilities), but you should take solace in the fact that you do not now work at a company where they have these kinds of issues. Keep your head up!

> but you should take solace in the fact that you do not now work at a company where they have these kinds of issues. Keep your head up!

It's still pretty frustrating, but this fact helps a bit knowing I may have indeed dodged a bullet. Thanks!

Yes I believe it's often very loose. Just because a position is open, not all those HAVE to be filled, and even if so, not immediately. The urgency isn't there. Also, the mgmt may not be in sync on the role.

A number of things need to fall exactly into place for them to pull the trigger on the offer. Smart technical people I think tend to think Sr. management and processes must be sensible and completely aligned. "How could they not be..". HR can have some of the biggest nut cases..

Not there is anything much to be done about it, although it is wrong to waste peoples' time. I tend to not put much stock in what I'm told about the reasons, in that situation anyway.

Sadly, some companies are disorganized. Many companies are more disorganized when hiring because they are short staffed.

Once, I went thru 3 rounds of in-person interviews. They weren't sure what they wanted me to do, so they tried to cobble together a role with 4 hats and touching almost every area of the business.

After meeting both CEOs, I realized there was a disagreement between the 2 CEOs and the Director of IT. The Director wanted to hire me, but the CEOs didn't see the need. And since I am not good at selling myself, the CEOs won the disagreement.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com