To be put off by recruitment process ?

This sounds v similar to the process my DH recently went through (5 interviews, including a presentation and technical interview). Senior role. The company look great and the people he spoke to seemed smart and nice; he’s accepted the job.

It does feel OTT to me but seems to be the norm, particularly now with online interviews! Hopefully it’ll mean a really strong team where people are suited to their jobs and are competent…

I’ve had a presentation be part of the interview process a few times but I admittedly was interviewing for ‘Head of’ level roles with higher salaries. If a significant part of the role involves you needing to effectively engage with, and present to, the exec team/board, I’d say it’s fair enough (its baffling the number of mid/senior level professionals I have come across over the years with absolutely no idea how to craft or deliver a fit for purpose presentation. If this isn’t a key aspect of the role then it does seem like overkill.

Ultimately, only you can decide if the time and energy required for this recruitment process is worthwhile. But don’t forget this is a two way interaction; you’re interviewing them too! And one advantage of multistage interviews (especially when meeting different people who work at the company), is that you get more chances to do some due diligence on them, the culture, personalities at play etc. That insight can be invaluable when it comes to making your decision on next steps.

Good luck with the job hunt!

How much does the other role pay?

You ought to see what headteachers have to go through! Presentation, round robin interviews, staff grilling over lunch, meet the pupils and then final interview if selected after first day.

Employers need to remember that you are also assessing them and if you want to work for them. This is complete overkill and very time consuming!

My goodness, I’d withdraw from that; who could be bothered?!?

The last 4 roles I’ve interviewed for were all Exec level and 3 were 2 stages, and 1 was 3 stages. I pulled out of the 3 stage one which was a panel including the Chair, Audit Committee Chair and Chief Exec as it was going to be held 6 weeks after the stage 2 interview, and I had another great offer on the table, so I accepted that.

They probably want to check your spelling.

Seems mad to me. When I first applied for a job, I just saw an advert outside, walked in, chatted to the manager, started the next week. Now, when I hear people talk to me about applying for the same kind of job, they have to fill in forms, attend interviews, do maths/literacy tests, and fill out all kinds of quizzes "A customer wants to buy X but it is out of stock. Do you so a, b, or c", which is stupid, because (then as now) if you're hired, the manager tells you what the basic procedures are before you start. And then you have more interviews, all for a minimum wage job, the kind anyone my age got with no hassle. And friends who do those jobs tell me that retention/quality of staff isn't any better with these crazy procedures.
Other friends, in professional jobs, tell me of HR processes which put the best people off applying-and actually are far worse in terms of getting the right people than if they had no HR.
The problem is that there are far fewer jobs available. The idea that anyone can get a job, and if they don't they're just lazy, isn't true.

Im in the private sector and anything over a 65k role is points 1-3. At point 3 the founders also attend and ask questions on the presentation.

You can just email and say you’ve decided to withdraw without giving a specific reason. I personally would be honest and would say that on reflection over the weekend I have decided the level of engagement required of the recruitment process is more than I’m willing to commit, but you may choose to withhold if you wanted to keep things neutral for future opportunities. Not that anyone should be bitter about truthful and fair feedback, it’s your call really.

A 10-15 minute presentation is perfectly reasonable and a good way of sifting out candidates who have poor Powerpoint skills and/or presentation skills. A 1-hour presentation is ridiculous, I can’t imagine the interviewers actually paying full attention throughout.

It’s the private sector so paperwork is much much lighter (I assume!) It wasn’t a huge salary but it was for a big global name that having on your cv would set you up for the future.

It’s more than I would be willing to do, our directors don’t have to go through anything like that and that would be more senior than a £70k finance manager role. I would have to be very excited to put in the effort for that, particularly the 1 hour presentation, the other interviews wouldn’t bother me.

My god that’s insane, not just for the candidates but for the employees who have to run that! I go out of my mind with the paperwork around 1 interview (public sector so we do manage to really kick the arse out of paperwork) Can I ask what kind of salary a successful candidate likely would have got at the end of that process?

Well when I had 8 interviews they were mainly held after work (so 6-9pm) so they still made sure everyone got their work done. No escape for the wicked (or otherwise). 😉 Of course this was in the days of interviews being an actual physical meeting rather than via Teams etc so it was a much bigger investment for everyone. Nothing like doing a full day’s work followed by 3 back-to-back hour long interviews to show what you’re like when you’re not at your best. 😂It was exhausting. And dehydrating! I didn’t get the job that time but the irony is that my current employer took over that company recently so now I get to put their internal applicants through case study interviews to see if they’re good enough to join our global team so I like to think it proves karma always gets you in the end. 😛

I wouldn't engage with anyone who wanted 5 or 8 interviews.

8 interviews 😱😱 how do they get any work done interviewing candidates EIGHT times?!