Most tech companies now do around 4-5 interviews. It has been like that for at least 7-8 years (probably more) but I just found out that not all companies are like that. After being subjected to these demeaning Leetcoding interviews I went through a refreshingly pleasant experience. It was an interview with just one person. They gave me a technical open-ended problem and two weeks time. After two weeks I had to do a presentation to them how I would solve that problem. Not much more was required. I could choose to do as little or as much as I'd like. I did have to spend around 30 hours researching that problem as it was an unfamiliar problem space for me. The presentation was just 1 hour session with the hiring manager where he and I had a technical discussion about my solution. No more interviews of any kind (not even behavioral). I had an offer three days later. I thanked the manager for his meaningful and humane interview process. I can't believe I have wasted hundreds of hours doing LeetCode when there are companies out there that treat candidates respectfully rather than code churning machines.
Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?
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Re: Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?
#32> How is a process like this in any way shape or form efficient or productive? Because hiring the wrong person becomes a colossal waste of time and money.
That’s the standard excuse but how much less of a chance do you really think there is to hire the wrong person after 7 interviews vs say 3 or even 1 done well vs the time you’re spending trying to reduce that risk? More opinions isn’t always better. You can’t eliminate risk entirely and I don’t think it’s as as much of a waste as companies often claim it is.
Re: Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?
#33I got 5 interviews add 1 online coding test. But 3 of the 5 are team member interviews and I actually enjoyed a lot. I think it's a lot better than the hierarchical, traditional 5 interviews in which one meets a person higher in hierarchy each time.
Re: Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?
#34I entered the software industry as a developer about 4 years ago, and I have been running interviews for the past 2 years or so. Interview hell is all I have ever known. Could you elaborate on how things worked differently in the past? I legitimately have no idea what a developer interview "loop" would look like without 5 to 7 interviews, but I desperately hope it can exist.
The thing I've noticed is that there's not many group interviews any more. So it's a lot of telling the same story 5 times to 5 different people.
I think 3 interviews is probably reasonable. A leetcode style tech screen, a design one, and then a general work style/culture fit interview.
Also, I don't know why more companies don't record interviews. Probably a legal and/or HR thing. But it'd definitely cut down on the need for repeated questions.
Re: Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?
#35Not really true, there are plenty of jobs with just two interviews. I have withdrawn from some applications where they said 5 or more interviews. The job market is too hot for that bullshit.
Re: Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?
#36Do you mean 7 counting all the 5 or so different sessions during an on-site? Or are you counting the whole on-site day as one?
I’m used to phone screen —> technical screen -> full day many panel on-site. With maybe a take home thrown in there somewhere around the technical screen.
Re: Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?
#37Well I can say in my experience firing people is such a pain nowadays that I feel a need to be a lot more careful in hiring. I've seen a bit more than half of fired employees come back with some form of discrimination lawsuit threat after being fired.
I don't think that's the reason, I am a contractor and sometimes I take up to 7 "interviews".
Re: Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?
#38I've worked as a software engineer in the US since 2013 and have gone through 12 interview loops in my career. At a typical tech firm, the SWE interview loop consists of:
1 recruiter screen: discussing background with recruiter to make sure your experience is relevant
1-2 phone screens: technical interviews with a SWE to see if it's worthwhile to bring you on site
4-6 on-site interviews: combination of technical and behavior interview sessions
I think product management loops will be similar in terms of length, and so 7 interviews is maybe on the long side but not atypical. PM interviews may include a "take-home project" component before the on-site where you e.g. build a slide deck; this is uncommon for SWE interviews.
Regarding the question "When did a hiring manager lose their authority and the trust of the organization to do their job?", it is very common (and a good idea in my opinion) for interview loops to mostly consist of people who are not on the hiring team. Typically the only future teammate you will see in an interview is the hiring manager (this is not guaranteed; I met my current manager when I started my job). The idea is to have the same bar for all roles at the company instead of inconsistent hiring quality team-by-team.
Re: Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?
#39The predictive power of a single interview with a single person is just not that high.
For one thing, the company is not the only one doing the interviewing; the candidate is also interviewing the company. Before making a commitment to join a team, I think it's valuable to speak to a number of members of that team to get a sense of what they're like.
On the company side, I have also witnessed several people who might have looked alright in just one interview, but when exposed to several it became clear they were adjusting their story significantly for each interviewer to the point of dishonesty.
There is clearly some line beyond which more interviews would present seriously diminished returns, but I think six or seven interviews, each 30-60 minutes, is much more likely to result in a better outcome for a professional engineering position than just one interview with a hiring manager.
Re: Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?
#40My current place had a really neat, quick (!) take home assignment as a filter and then a single day of interviewing with 4 phases (about 5 hours total). Obviously it would be nice if interviews were less than that even but I didn't feel like that was onerous. I feel like this is more the norm nowadays than the heights of insanity like 5 years ago but I have a sample size of 1 so...