In my experience, the places that have a grueling, multi-step interview process are poorly-run once you get there. Leadership is not smart, indecisive, etc. That's why they don't run a good interview process. They also tend to think very highly of themselves and think they are making people prove themselves to work with the best of the best, or something. I have regretted the places I worked that had interviewed processes like that. Also anywhere that has a long writing exercise. Walk away.

Anonymous wrote:I've never had a serious external interview process that was one and done. It's usually two interview rounds at a minimum. One screen and one onsite.

This is more what I consider the norm. —Op

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our research department at UMD used to do that when looking for research profs. Grueling all-day interviews - every tenured prof wanted a shot of the interrogation, etc... It was just bad politics at play.

And now you do 5 rounds over 2 months or …?

Oh, I left years ago. The atmosphere was terrible. I'm sure they didn't get any better!

I've never had a serious external interview process that was one and done. It's usually two interview rounds at a minimum. One screen and one onsite.

Anonymous wrote:Our research department at UMD used to do that when looking for research profs. Grueling all-day interviews - every tenured prof wanted a shot of the interrogation, etc... It was just bad politics at play.

And now you do 5 rounds over 2 months or …?

Our research department at UMD used to do that when looking for research profs. Grueling all-day interviews - every tenured prof wanted a shot of the interrogation, etc... It was just bad politics at play.

Anonymous wrote:I did four rounds for my current position. And the team ended up being terrible. The individuals are fine but the office culture and management are the worst I’ve experienced. Waste of time for me.

Now I have to look for another job.

I’m so sorry to hear this. What a waste of everyone’s time. What are these companies think they’re getting out of 5 rounds that they couldn’t get out of one or two? I mean, you could have multiple rounds of a sort all on the same day at least. In some ways extending the process over two months hampers jobseekers ability to find a job in a more timely manner. No one is likely winning this way — not the jobseeker, not the project team needing more staff, and not the company.

I did four rounds for my current position. And the team ended up being terrible. The individuals are fine but the office culture and management are the worst I’ve experienced. Waste of time for me.

Now I have to look for another job.

Anonymous wrote:You can say no to an interview any time you want to.

I’m not looking. My company had success bringing in people one day for interviews. We really had great staffing and had very, very few people who didn’t fit. The hoops people have to go through today are ridiculous. I assume these 5-rounders do not do a good job screening in the first place (eg, HR and their software tools don’t understand the kinds of people they need to hire).

You can say no to an interview any time you want to.

My company does that sort of thing. They are very, very picky about who gets hired. They have a very employee-centric philosophy and take good care of us, so they don’t want to make mistakes in hiring. I’m okay with it.

This has been going one for awhile (that is, pre-Trump). Can someone explain it? It seems even costly to hire people. Is the cost for 5 rounds really worth it?