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This is in itself a huge red flag about not just Figma's hiring process, but its entire decision culture internally.
There's absolutely no reason for a "process" to drag on this long, unless it's for a C-level position with a corresponding equity stake.
The high of finding the right person makes it all worth it.
Not if the best people stop applying or referring their friends to you, once word gets out as to what's in store for them.
The candidate was being considered for a management position, with a lot of responsibilities including creating a good workplace for their reports. This is something you absolutely don’t want to get wrong, it can’t be a “I dunno… seems ok to me” hire because it will literally set the tone for that department for years .
MONTHS??? Do even elite athletes making millions and millions subject themselves to such foolishness?
"Hiring" isn't the emotional thing here. The emotional thing was knowing you were shitty to someone. You were shitty because you took months to build a relationship with this person and didn't have a compelling reason to say yes or no, and decided to say no. If you saw gaps, you should have said no sooner. If it takes you months of talking to someone and building a relationship to decide they're not right for the team, it's not hiring that's the problem, it's that you're bad at hiring that's the problem.
There's exactly no reason to lead a candidate on for months. If you ever get to the point where scheduling a 1:1 zoom conversation is implied to be a job offer, you've fucked up. Interviewing isn't personal, it's business—until you've spent long hours making it personal.
> Hiring is a roller coaster. It involves more ups and downs than normal engineering work.
It might be a roller coaster, but the longest roller coaster by duration in the world is four minutes. Keep that in mind.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Amen. If an organization is taking months to come to a hiring decision that’s a red flag, unless it’s a C-suite level position, where a misstep could have irreversible damage. A tech position should be able to close within a few weeks, lest the candidate get a better offer from a less dysfunctional company.
My first hand observations: took 4 months to hire, 5 months for the candidate to start. My first hiring in a corporate world so I had to learn a bit. Then we are expected to plan for diversity, not even looking at qualified candidates until we have met diversity benchmarks. Then my group had a committee kind of setup where one person could veto a candidate. Being my first hiring, I had to go along with it for a while…
As a hiring manager you do cold out reach and meet people well before they are ready to look for a new job. You build a relationship over time so that when they are ready for a new job they reach out to you. That's what happened in this case.
I appreciate the feedback that I was not clear about that. I agree with you all that spending months actually interviewing is horrendous and unfair.
Let me know if you have more questions or thoughts!
MONTHS??? Do even elite athletes making millions and millions subject themselves to such foolishness?
For players between contracts, the off-season will usually be several months, and many players won't sign until just before the season begins, negotiating with teams along the way.
> I had been talking to the candidate for months and they had completed our entire interview panel. We’d had great conversations where I’d learned about their background and developed a sense for how they would fit in this role. Unfortunately, I had to tell them we would not be moving forward with an offer. "Hiring" isn't the emotional thing here. The emotional thing was knowing you were shitty to someone. You were s…
I obviously can't go into the details of the feedback but I share your wish that hiring decisions would more cut and dry! It would be a lot easier for everyone.
Thanks for the feedback!
> They were close and had potential, but we also saw some gaps. I would be really interested to hear more about the specific "gaps". > After lots of discussion with my management chain, we decided not to extend the offer. I wonder exactly what was said, given that this candidate was led on for months by this point and I presume the management knew about everything along the way. Also, was someone else hired, or did t…
Thanks for the note!