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.

Some of those meetings are not interviews though? Peer meeting isn’t an interview, discussing the exercise isn’t, the last ‘interview’ sounds like a sign-off which is usually a 5-10min chat. This is all standard in global, multi department companies. The chats in between your interviews is to ensure you have all the right support throughout the process.

It is really really normal in US company culture.

Fuck that. Anything over 2 or 3 is ridiculous.

Because it's a huge disrespectful waste of the candidates time, that's why.

I wouldn't agree with others who think this is emblematic of the culture. You should get a view on that with your conversations. Lots of the incredibly high performing companies have multiple interview rounds as they know the right hires make or break a company pretty quickly. Importantly, consider whether each interview has seen a different aspect of you. The red flag is if they repeat the same questions

Some of those don’t sound like separate interviews, I’d roll the technical exercise and discussion about it into one.

They sound disorganised. Are all of these in person or some/all online? Before Covid we’d have an assessment day or two of exercises, interviews with various people, meet and greets over lunch. So several interviews but in a condensed timeframe so it was clearer what was expected.

Now that all seems to get strung out into different stages over a lengthy period of time.

Christ! Last year I recruited a lawyer (admittedly a junior one), into my niche financial services team and that involved a grand total of one interview and a bit of routine pre-screening by the HR lot. And that's in an organisation that can quite often still be a bit too bureaucratic for its own good. 8 interviews for anything short of the head of MI6 seems insane, and it would have me seriously questioning what I was getting into.

Pretty standard for a US tech firm. Some of those stages are not what I would call interviews, in any case.

They are showing a complete lack of respect for your time and you're not even in the role yet. I'd have run a long time ago.

In 2022 I had a one (remote) 1.5 hour interview in a tech consultancy and got the job.
Difference was that the interview was with the right person who was empowered and trusted to make the right decision for the company.
8 interviews wastes both internal company and the interviewee time.

Pretty standard for US companies. I've recently gone through a similar process, including doing a presentation and a separate technical exercise. After going through the whole process, they decided they wanted to go in a slightly different direction... grr!

Is this a sign of the culture and they’re unable to make decisions quickly, or am I overthinking?
You know when you get to that bit in the interview where they ask "have you got any questions you would like to ask?" ...

Tech recruiter here. The red flag is the changing process more than the number of interviews - suggests an organisation that can't make decisions and in which people are scared to take accountability.
I suggest asking this of the global head. If they don't respond well to the question, you have your answer.

We are currently doing 4 for junior staff (around 60k), so looks ok to me.
There are a lot of people looking for jobs, and we want the best fit.

Agree. 3 would be my limit.

But listen to your gut OP - I once had a similar feeling about a woman I interviewed with and declined the position on the basis of some of the answers she gave to my questions. Previous 2 interviews had gone really well. The directors I'd interviewed with previously asked me to come in for a chat - I told them exactly why I'd come to the decision, turns out this woman had straight up lied to me!

I ended up taking the job and it was a mistake - she had it in for me from day 1 and I spent the next 4 years dodging bullets.

And the fact that candidates have actual lives and other interviews doesn't matter, obviously .

@TheSwarm only the final one is in person, the rest is online at the candidate’s convenience.
We have about 200 people applying per job, technically about 20-30 of them are equally good.
Interview 1: fact and employability check (30 min - reduces candidates to about 20)
Interview 2: technical check (30 min - down to 10 or so)
Interview 3: soft skill check (30 min - to the final 3-5)
Interview 4: we give a (almost) real life challenge for them to work on. this is in person and takes about 1 hour. Final selection.

Getting the fit wrong is bad for the company and the person. Putting effort int recruitment is well worth it.

It all depends on how much you want the job I suppose but that seems patently excessive. We do three for most roles. I’m not sure I’d be arsed if you had other options.

That seems ridiculous but I don't work in those areas.

My son had to go through 5 interviews for an apprenticeship to be a motor mechanic!

This seems reasonable. Clearly set out (assuming candidates know in advance there will be up to four interviews), limited time and clearly different aspects being explored each time. And almost all online with conveniently booked slots.

Even for the lowest level posts at living wage we do two rounds now, although the initial one is via phone or Teams to reduce numbers from about 15 down to about five.

i would see how the next one goes. Then if you feel as though you want the job, go through the contract very carefully.

Then, whether you turn them down or not, i would let them know that the number of interviews was excessive. (having said that: are you going for CTO or something? i would expect that to be very thorough)

It’s a lot but you’ve got this far and may as well go for it if you want the job.

I used to work for a big American multinational and we had a talk from a “senior” leader who had come in externally (which was quite rare, they tended to promote from within) and she had 32 interviews! Absolute madness. She said the more people she met the more she liked. I had 6 steps once for a senior role (but it wasn’t like I was in ex-co).

For tech it’s within normal but getting to too much

I wouldn't withdraw but I'd pull them up if this isn't the final stage.

I'd also be negotiating hard if they made me an offer as they've clearly seen you fight off many competitors.

However, this. Everyone will take forever. The company won't be responsive. Depends what your style is. I'd personally find it frustrating but for 140k I could manage!