To think 8 interviews is just excessive

[BubblinTrouble]

Hi everyone

I’m currently interviewing for a role and I’ve had the following interviews already:

HR, hiring manager, peer meeting, technical exercise, call to discuss technical exercise, interview with an additional stakeholder, meeting with head of international team, meeting with head of North America.

This was supposedly the last stage but had an email Friday indicating that they want me to do a final, final interview with the head of the entire global team.

Am I being unreasonable to think this is just excessive. Do I sit through it and attend this final interview. Should I say something to HR? Is this a sign of the culture and they’re unable to make decisions quickly, or am I overthinking?

It is for a fairly senior role - not c suite or exec level for context.

Depends how much you think you will ever need to work there but I would set out the interviews you have had, ask how many other candidates are in the running and ask them to clarify if the next meeting is an interview or just a meet and greet. I agree with others - who has the authority to make the decision and why have they not made it already? It doesn't speak well to how they are run as an organisation.

this. How much do you want the job?

what other offers do you have on the table, is it a big increase in salary, why are you job hunting?

Basically how much do you want THIS job? I would assume at this point the decision is made and it’s just final sign off. Our CFO only ever interviewed the favourite candidate when the FD had already chosen, just to give the final approval. Could be similar.

For a job in a supermarket as store assistant, a friend had to do a recorded video interview, then a live video interview, then in person with area manager which I think was about 20 minutes, then an hour with the store manager which was a walk round the entire store. All on different days over about a fortnight.
So in comparison to what you're describing, having double that number of interviews/hiring assessments for a much more senior role seems to fit.
Both your experience and my friends are worlds apart from how we hire at our place, presentation to peers followed by formal interview, both on the same day, and all done online.

No, don’t withdraw. Attend the interview. Unfortunately it’s pretty standard to have multiple interviews for a senior role - although eight is admittedly madness.

It’s really normal for senior roles at US firms. They really really invest so much in checking they are hiring the right person. If you think about it it does make sense. It’s a huge decision and it is worth getting it right. The fact they want to bring one more super senior person out prob means they want to be involved in the hiring decision rather than it being a reflection on you. Def do it. It really really is very very normal.

It depends entirely on how much you want the role?

How much do you want or need it?

I work for a North American company. This process is standard where I work

It does sound mad as a process but I actually ca really see the sense in it. Hiring someone is actually a really big decision. Why not invest in it.

I think it's normal for a US firm. DH had 8 interviews for 1 role over 4 months and then didn't get the job- went to an internal candidate.
I had 3 interviews for a junior level job including a project. I thought that was excessive.

One advantage of so many chats across the business is that all the more senior people you will have contact with will be on board with your recruitment - they had a voice and they will be invested in your success. Meeting the team is something we do, our candidates thought it demonstrated openness, meeting all the people you work with before you accept the job means you have more information too - it's quite democratic - maybe people and relationships mean a lot to this firm. Difficult people are bloody annoying to work with.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

The ultimate goal is to find the best people and this type of process puts candidates off. Partly because it's a drain on their own time - OP must have given 2 days+ to this interview process and that's before prep time. Partly because it makes the organisation look complicated and indecisive.

It can be workable if you're an employer the best people are really keen to work for. But for the vast majority won't fall into this category and are trying to attract candidates not deter them.

I had an interview last week with an HR manager, he set out that there would be three further interviews and that set the alarm bells off for me. I get if you are having trouble deciding between candidates having an extra meeting. But to set out saying we are going to make someone jump through hoop after hoop is just toxic.

Unless you really want this Id bin it off as poor culture

That’s madness. What a waste of the company’s and your time.

That’s nuts. I was on a staff engagement panel for a very senior role recently. What that meant was staff of all grades got to review the applicants CV’s, ask them questions, listen to their presentation and give and overall score. We had to recommend our ‘favourite’ to the final interview panel and suggest any further questions they could ask (individually to each candidate)

Point being, for a £140k pa role, all they had was a CV sift, engagement panel and final interview. Any more is just silly.

OP I am in a similar level role to you (different industry). I had interviews with:

1. the recruiter, 2. the hiring manager, 3. the recruiter (again, but different content), 4. the hiring manager plus another colleague, 5. two of C suite, 6. head of business and head of operations, 7. senior people in the department I would be head of, 8. Director level folk in other departments, 9. the CEO

When it eventually got to the offer stage, I had conversations with the recruiter, the hiring manager and HR (all separately).

It's a bit excessive, but not necessarily a bad thing!

I started a new job a few months ago.

It was a step down, part-time and mostly admin, and it involved 3 interviews plus an online test.

so I guess in that context 8 interviews for your level of job is ok, but I agree it’s a lot.

You’vw come this far though, so makes sense to do it.

rememeber interviews are a two way process though, you need to be interviewing them as well to see if they are a good fit for you.

My Ds has been doing 3-4 interviews after getting through online psychometric and maths/English tests, just for his first grad position!

Unfortunately, you would not believe the number of grads who can't write, spell or do basic numeracy. They haven't had a job before, so they don't even know what their strengths/weaknesses are in a working environment - hence why they need to spend more time being assessed. No one wants to employ a dud - even at a junior level, they waste everyone's time and no one wants to do the sacking either - so it's worth putting in the time to make the right choice.
I have read somewhere that after 18 months, 50% hiring managers have regrets about their decision.

Ridiculous! They need to get over themselves

My old manager used to stick in a load of 'unnecessary' interviews with various team members to make sure the candidate was sufficiently likeable to spend time with day-in day-out, as it was long hours in an open-plan space, and there's no escape if it turns out you've hired someone who is competent but just puts everyone's back up.
We did skip the process once and the hire was a total nightmare. He offended pretty much everyone before leaving about a year after he arrived. Maybe if you didn't quite gel with the last person you saw, but everyone else was keen, this is a quick check-in for the boss to make the call.

Personally I would be concerned about the company culture, where no one is prepared to make a decision and defend it.

8 interviews is completely ridiculous.

I wouldn't expect to have 8 interviews for any job. It would ring massive alarm bells for me that nobody is capable of making a decision or collaborating properly.

When I was the manager of a large new multidisiplinary health centre and was hiring staff, there were three interviews: me and my deputy manager , the director of clinical care and finally some of the service users. The latter group were the most useful.

How much do you want the job?

Also, how clear were they at the beginning? Did you know it would be multiple interviews?
If they made it clear this was the process then I’d be okay I guess. However, previous roles where I’ve been on the other side of the recruiting fence it’s been obvious to me that the company is fannying around and treading water in the hope a better candidate will come along.

From what you’ve said, this is the second red flag so don’t keep that in mind if offered the job. I’ve ignored red flags at my peril!