I had a fourth interview for a position early this week (it was supposed to be three, but one of the interviewers was ill, so there was another tucked in). That’s my new high, but I see online that it’s nowhere near the top end of the scale. If it goes much (any?) further, I will be tempted to bail out, though the position is a good fit.
How many interviews is your personal high for a single position?
I had 8 interviews and 6 interviews for positions with two different fintech companies. I’m interviewing again with a new company and have had 1 interview and I’ve been waiting 2 weeks for them to provide dates/times for the 2nd interview. At the rate this is going now and considering my history of having 6 to 8 interviews in the fintech space for past positions, I should get an offer from this current company sometime in 2018.
For my current job I did one phone interview, about six in person interviews on one day, and two more with higher management on another. So nine total.
That was more than I have ever done before but based on interviewing I had done prior to that was not out of line in my industry (software engineering in the Bay Area).
The process didn’t take long. Everything happened within a week or two span.
Back in the 90’s, I interviewed with Fair, Isaac. Three interviews over two months, which is the most I’ve had anywhere. Then didn’t hear anything from them, took another job. Six months later, they come back and ask me to interview (#4) as one of the final candidates. Told them no, sorry, you took too long.
A couple of years later, they attempted to recruit me again. Told the HR person the story of the last time and said “No, thank you, I’m not interested in going through that long of a process again.” She explained that yes, a lot of people complained about that and they had fixed their process. I was hired that time within a month.
So I guess 3 times, but a 4th was offered and declined.
One. I can tell almost immediately if I’m going to take the job or not.
I had 11 once. First-round interviews with four people, second round all-day session with all of the first four again, plus three new interviewers.
Huh, normally I would count a day of interviewing with six people serially as just one interview.
On that note, five would be my max: 2 phone, 1 lunch, and two in person at the office.
If we counted everyone individually even if you saw them in the same day, a dozen easily, for a wide variety of companies.
For the job I have now, i had a phone interview with the company recruiter. Then she set me up for a full afternoon interviewing with three groups in 3 separate facilities as well as talking to her in person. I guess that counts as 5, right? I was pretty sure I was going to be hired - the multiple interviews were to give the bosses their chances to decide if they wanted me. As it happened, all 3 did, and I ended up in the facility that I’d told the recruiter I preferred.
Every other job, just one.
When we recruit for our group, we normally conduct interviews in the following process:
So that’s a total of 7-9 different people that a candidate would talk to. That’s pretty standard for large corps today.
Not quite what you are asking,
but I interviewed three times for the same position at the same agency.
The first time they hired somebody with more experience.
The second time they hired somebody with more education.
The third time I got hired and afterwards my boss told me she was so glad I had come in. She had wanted to hire me each time but the state being what it is, she had to follow the hiring rules.
I suppose I could have been insulted that I was second choice each time and not interviewed there again. Everybody told me I was making a fool out of myself by going back again.
It turned out to be a great job with an excellent training program.
I don’t mind if the thread goes in a direction toward general hiring/interviewing experiences.
Yeah, it’s not clear on how to count them, I guess. Eight hours of interviews seems like it should count as more than just one though.
Academic interviews take the cake, for me. They typically included flying out to the location, spending a night or two, interviewing with everyone in the department, plus a couple of administrators, and giving a talk and/or a demonstration class. You also eat most meals with your interviewers, sometimes in their homes, and might have to go out somewhere in the evening as well.
Five, I think, depending on how you count. One with the recruiter/HR guy, an online test, another with the recruiter, then with the client, then another where they offered me the job. There was a drug test and background check in there too.
My current job, only two. The consulting company recruited me and set up the first interview, then called me back in a couple days to say the client wanted me and could I meet to talk money and starting dates and benefits and such.
Regards,
Shodan
For academic positions, it’s always been “one” interview for each job. But that interview lasts from 1-2 days. This includes lunches, a dinner and often even a breakfast or two. So you can be in interview mode from 7am to 10+pm for one day and maybe 9am-2pm the next.
Lots of meetings with various faculty members, admins, maybe a group of grad students, giving a presentation, etc.
That’s gotta count more than a few hours here and there.
Another vote for academic interviews. I actually just came across my itinerary for an earlier one (there were a couple of breaks built in that aren’t specifically noted):
Day 0:
5:30 pm: flight arrives, dinner with Faculty 1
Day 1:
7:30 am: Breakfast with Department Chair (Faculty 2)
9:00: Meet with Dean
10:00: Meet with Search Committee Chair (Faculty 3)
10:30: Faculty 4
11:00: Faculty 5
11:30: Faculty 6
12:00: Lunch with undergrad students
1:00: Meet with grad students
2:00: Tour of the on-campus department facilities (Faculty 7)
3:00: Research talk and social
6:00: Dinner with search committee (Faculty members 2, 3, 8-10 plus grad student)
Day 2:
7:30: Breakfast and visit to off-campus field site with Faculty 1
10:00: Faculty 8
10:30: Faculty 11
11:00: Faculty 12
11:30: Faculty 9
12:00: Lunch with Department Chair and Promotions Committee (Faculty 3, 5, and 12)
1:30: Community tour with emeritus faculty
3:00: Faculty 10
3:30: Faculty 13
4:00: Wrap-up with Department Chair
6:00: Dinner with Faculty 12
My flight home left around 6:00 am on day 3, so I got out without having to have another breakfast. So that’s one interview, but it’s made up of 15 individual meetings, an hour-long public talk (by far the easiest part), and four group interactions. It was also preceded by a phone interview and an informal interview at a conference.
I have had shorter ones - for my current position I think I had fewer than 10 one-on-one meetings, but two talks. Whatever number you want to put on that itinerary, though, that’s the most interviews I’ve had for a single job.
On the other side, I once went in for an interview for contract position at Microsoft. The hiring manager asked me a few questions, and as I’m answering a question at the whiteboard he interrupted me and asked me if I wanted the job. 10 minute interview.
But–it was for a contract position. And he was hiring for 4 positions. So he didn’t need the best candidate out of the pack, he just needed people he knew could do the job.
I’ve never had more than one interview for any given job. And I’ve had A LOT of jobs.
Five, for the job I am currently in, including one that was three and a half hours long with no breaks or interruptions. For any previous job, I’ve never had more than two.
Most of the interviews were just repetition of questions and answers in the previous ones.
There was also this conspicuous stage-management thing where they would tell me about the peculiar and strong character traits of the next director they were about to bring in to the room, and how not to offend him.
Looking back, it should all have been red flags.
Two. I don’t think I’d go back if I didn’t get an offer after the second interview. However, I’m being recruited for a job right now that I have to consider carefully because it pays less than what I’m making currently and I’ll be interviewing them at least one more time before I could consider accepting their offer.