I’m kinda not feeling the love in my present position. I applied for an internal job posting and just got notified of a three hour interview. This is for an internal position!
Now mind you, my company employs some 3,000 people, but a three hour interview really seems excess.
I guess I better study a whole shit-lot before going into this.
What’s your opinion of a three hour internal job interview?
It sounds like you’re going to have one-on-one meetings with everyone on your potential team. Of course, most of those meetings won’t last anywhere near as long as their scheduled for, so you’ll talk for five minutes, and then wait for 15 minutes for the next person to be available.
You’ll spend a lot of time checking email on your phone.
Ha, my last interview (not internal) was scheduled for an hour and went at least three. That behavioral interviewing STAR response stuff.
There’s no reason to treat an internal interview different than an external one, from a hiring point of view.
I suppose, and if other individual one-on-ones are part of the process (as kunilou suggested) then I could see it lasting three hours. I’ve been through that externally before and got the job but never expected it internally.
Internally there’s a shit load of information they already have on you.
ETA: And how do you disappear from your own desk for three hours without your manager (who sits across the hall) noticing you’re gone. And no, regardless of what you think, I’m not fucking telling him that I’m interviewing for another job.
Most likely they’ve already contacted your supervisor. At my company we discuss all internal candidates with their existing supervisors. How else would you be able to determine how they are currently performing?
It’s worth asking whether there will be any testing or practical problems in the interview, because 3 hours allows scope for such a thing.
But most likely it’s just because you will be interviewed by multiple people.
I had an interview that lasted a whole working day for my internal transfer (although it was a move to an office in another country).
9am to 6:30pm, with just a couple coffee breaks and a 1 hour lunch. Each hour or hour and a half was another interviewer.
It actually wasn’t that demanding as interviews go, as each interviewer had to introduce themselves and their role, and at least 30 mins would essentially be me interviewing them 
And I got asked the same questions a few times.
Hope it goes well, Leaffan!
Unless it’s a long, leisurely interview over a lunch featuring a flight or two of assorted beers I’d be less than thrilled.
I agree with others that it appears there will be multiple interviews and a lot of waiting.
To cheer you up, here’s a true story. My newly-qualified mate was applying for a job and did so well in the interview that they sent for the big boss who asked “How much do we need to offer you so you don’t go to any other interviews?!”
Sure there is. With an internal candidate I have a wealth of information available about performance, attendance, attitude, etc. that I don’t have for an external candidate. The internal candidate has direct knowlege of company culture, benefits, payscales, etc. and likely knows about me and my management style.
Access to that info may not make the interview shorter, but it will certainly make it different.
I’ve been on the hiring side of the table for several three hour interviews. They are typically not a single interview, but a range of interviews and other selection techniques, including:
When selecting from internal candidates, I always like to see candidates taking it really seriously. Dressing as they would for an external interview. Using language like “I discussed with my line manager” rather than “I had a chat with Jane” as an example.
So, we agreed on a date and now it’s down to one hour: thank God!
Three hours. Bring some lube, just in case.
No. That’s why I want out of this job.
I may be biased by the fact that I once did an all-day interview, but 3 hours doesn’t seem so long to me, and in the UK at least is not so unusual.
How many hours are you likely to work in the new job role? It’s worth everyone investing the time up front to make sure the role is mutually suitable.
If you don’t mind me asking - what is the position? Good luck, by the way.
Those times I had internal interviews that were truly internal (that is, with the person from the company and not an external agency), it was during my work hours, so in the worst case I was wearing safety shoes, jeans and a lab coat. But for interviews where there wasn’t a risk of being interrupted by production workers bearing samples, I absolutely agree with that part.
There were occasions in which we knew each other and they knew I was familiar enough with the position that we skipped a lot of the usual procedure - interviewer’s decision, not mine. But when they didn’t know me, we went through all the checkboxes except “history of the company”. Between individual interview, side visit (if applicable) and meet-the-team, it can run three hours easily even without tests or multiple individual interviews.
Hmmm. It has to do with operational quality assurance in a nuclear facility. Don’t want to say much else.
Now I’m kinda thinking three hours isn’t that bad of an idea 
Glad you got it down to an hour and good luck.