Isn't meeting with 15 people enough??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here: my DH has actually been in talks for 3 MONTHS, with multiple interviews every single week during that time, for one position!!! A rather important one, but still...
For his current post, he had to do more than 3 rounds of interviews, one on Skype because he was out of the country. The whole thing took months.

So play along OP, especially if you really want the job. Hiring in many fields is getting much more difficult than 5 or 10 years ago.

That's nuts. They could have hired him and had him doing the actual job by now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's normal at Google. It's normal at law firms.

OP again. Could you elaborate on Google and law firms? How many interviews is "normal"?

I do want to work at this company, which has a good reputation. It's a place where people stay for a long time. It pays well, and is supposed to be a decent place to work.

But this lengthy interview process is new to me. It's tough to impress 15 people (now more!). I fear I'm going to invest yet another day interviewing at this place, and then end up their #2 choice!!

Why does HR have so much power these days? At this company, HR is an active part of the process, which is new to me too. HR is just administrative at my current employer. They don't have any input as to who is hired.

I interviewed at Google. I think I met with about 9 people in two rounds of interviews. They also asked for a writing sample on a topic that they supplied (so a new sample done just for the purpose of the interview, rather than a sample from a previous job). And IIRC (this was a few years ago), it was also customary to send the final candidate out to Menlo Park before making the final offer. Multiple people told me during the interview process not to take offense to how long the process took. One person told me that Google had recruited him for the job, and the hiring process still took 6 months.

For most law firms I've interviewed with, it's 2-3 rounds of interviews (3 if there's an initial interview with HR, which is often over the phone). You do meet with a lot of people, but often it's also so you can get a sense of the personalities at the firm as much as for their benefit. Interviews are usually only 20-30 minutes with each person, so they're very easy. Law firms tend to hire off of the resume, and the interview is more about assessing personality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Goldman Sachs does this.

No they don't. Ex GS employee here.

[Anonymous]

Most I've ever done is 10 people over 4 visits, mostly due to schedules (CEO one day, coo the next). If you've met with15 people already, I'd say its fair to ask for some information around what to expect.

[Anonymous]

i went through more people in a multi-day, multi-month process at a major nonprofit. the best part was being grilled by an entire team of about a dozen people at once with the most questions coming from their INTERN. in this case, it was as one of the pp's said... it was insight into an organizational culture that has a hard time making decisions and working efficiently.

[Anonymous]

I got a law firm off after one round of interviews. It just depends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's normal at Google. It's normal at law firms.

OP again. Could you elaborate on Google and law firms? How many interviews is "normal"?

I do want to work at this company, which has a good reputation. It's a place where people stay for a long time. It pays well, and is supposed to be a decent place to work.

But this lengthy interview process is new to me. It's tough to impress 15 people (now more!). I fear I'm going to invest yet another day interviewing at this place, and then end up their #2 choice!!

Why does HR have so much power these days? At this company, HR is an active part of the process, which is new to me too. HR is just administrative at my current employer. They don't have any input as to who is hired.

Agree about the HR involvement in the process. I once interviewed for a very specialized position with a huge corporation. The last interview was with the HR person, who had been in the Washington office for about a month, and clearly had no freakin' idea what actual work would be done in the position they were interviewing for and what might make a person qualified to do it. She kept asking me questions that might have been relevant for a position in the office that she just came from. When I tried to figure out how to make my experience (which was perfect for the job) fit the questions she was asking, she just looked confused. I decided then and there that I didn't want to work for a company that gave that much power to someone who didn't even know what the people in the office were actually trying to do.

[Anonymous]

How do you get time off your current job for all this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you get time off your current job for all this?

^^agree--this sounds really bizarre. If you are currently working full-time, how do you manage multiple interviews over entire mornings spread out over 3-4 months? I call BS. Esp on the whoever is saying Google does this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you get time off your current job for all this?

^^agree--this sounds really bizarre. If you are currently working full-time, how do you manage multiple interviews over entire mornings spread out over 3-4 months? I call BS. Esp on the whoever is saying Google does this.

I have heard of the "names that will instantly impress people" firms doing that sort of stuff.

I guess if Google or some BigLaw (tm) firm comes a-calling, then you could suspend (the rest of) your job search.

If this isn't a firm that is going to immediately wow people and impress anyone that reads your resume, this might be the wrong fit for you at this time. I also assume this isn't a C-level position, or some division manager with 100s reporting ultimately to you ... for some office drone job paying between 50k and 150k a year there really shouldn't be more than 1-2 in-person interviews at least IMO