Am I right to think this is a bad sign in an interview?

[InterviewStress]

I had an interview this afternoon and at the end they said that they're interviewing over the next few weeks and that they usually have informal then formal interviews and they'll be in touch,

I'm autistic so I find it difficult to read nuances so this may not be obvious to me even if it's obvious to others but AIBU to think that we'll be interviewing over a few weeks means you aren't right for the job?

TIA

Not necessarily. They could have had a lot of applicants and want to interview several people to get the best candidate. And/or the interviews are taking place over a few weeks for scheduling reasons, for either the panel or the candidates.

Never heard of that

It's a Waiting game unfortunately

We generally are given a standard paragraph like this by HR and we have to say it to all interviewees to make sure it's fair.

I don't think it means anything, good or bad. It's normal for them to give some expectation of when you'll next hear from them. There's no reason why giving a longer timescale means you're not in with a chance.

I agree- it means nothing, other than saying you won't hear either way for several weeks.

Generally, we used to interview candidates on the same day, or at least within the same week. Its half term next week though, so maybe some candidates or the interviewees are off- hence the longer time scale to hear. Best of luck.

It's standard OP. Also even if you're really good they'll usually still interview everyone else before deciding whom to go for.
Interviewers have a day job too they don't sit around doing interviews all day so depending on the number of staff available and representation needed interviews could take place over a couple of weeks. Candidates have to be available too.

Good luck. I hope you get it.

It means they've booked in X amount of candidates to be interviewed. They might have a set amount of people to interview to get the right people. E.g. You're the third out of 20 candidates.

They tell you that so you know you'll be waiting a few weeks before you hear from them.

An example of interviews I've done- we had to interview 8 people, so over 2 weeks we did informal interviews, then over the next 2 weeks we did formal interviews with 4 of them, then we picked from those 4.

IME the informals are done to see how well you'll fit with the company (previous experience, personality, personal professional goals), and the formals are to see how well you'll fit in to your role (transferable skills, goals for growth)

Thanks all. It's reassuring to hear that this is all standard. I was almost the last interviewee of the day so I was worried that they'd already made their mind up, and perhaps they have but it's nice to hear that perhaps not all hope is lost.