Why interview so many candidates?

[selfieshell]

I had a job interview today. It went okay (I think!) but I was told I was one of NINE candidates being interviewed for this first round. It's a fairly senior role that requires pretty niche experience, so I was a little surprised.

Equally, DH is just in the process of recruiting a new person onto his team. He works for a big corporate, and apparently his HR department are quite firm that they need to see multiple candidates. This is for a junior position - and, having now interviewed quite a few people, DH was saying quite a few of them weren't right for the role at all!

It got me wondering - why are companies doing this now? I think it's a good thing in a sense (you never know what someone might truly offer unless you talk to them), but on the other hand - it seems very time consuming for the interviewers themselves? Not to mention a waste of time for candidates who probably aren't qualified?

Not sure I would like to interview more than 5 people for 1 role

I’m guessing because so many people look good on paper, as in they have all the right qualifications, but many are totally unsuitable irl, and by meeting them F2F you can get a better measure of a person and their fit for the company.

@topcat2014 - exactly. It's been a while since I was on the other side of the hiring table, but standard for us was 4-5 for a first round and 2 for final interviews. Just wondered why this seems to have changed.

Often people withdraw before/just after the interview or back out after offer. Then you have the ones who are good on paper but it falls away in conversation. It's better to interview all who might be suitable to keep options open. But nine is a very high number.

For junior roles it is good to see more people as you can go back to them if another gap comes up soon after.

People drop out of interviews more than they used to, in my opinion, and it's less effort now to look good on paper than it used to be and therefore more likely people won't be suitable IRL.

my company won’t let us ask for cover letters, just CVs, so it’s often hard to differentiate between candidates…

I interviewed 5 for the last role after 4 dropped out. 3 of the candidates who attended were unsuitable but that was only clear after we had spoken in person. It’s common to have cancellations now

Is it a Disability Confident employer? If so, they might interview any candidates declaring a disability and meeting the advertised criteria.

Though I did have a manager once who liked to interview as many candidates as possible, which he saw as being rigorous, and it was quite tiring and unproductive.

Thanks for thoughts everyone. Both employers (the ones I'm hoping for and DH's) are Disability Confident so that might explain it possibly.

Interesting to hear about candidates dropping out after interview or pulling out before too - I wonder why this is on the increase?