Job Interviews: The Never-Ending Story
The Struggle is Real
Job interviews are laden with opportunities for humiliation. Who wants to describe their greatest weakness to a panel of peers? Or be made to feel like a quiz show contestant with brainteasers like “how many golf balls can you fit in a Boeing 747?”. Unfortunately for job seekers, the rigmarole is getting increasingly out of hand.
The Tech Sector’s Demands
Demands from hiring committees in the tech sector are piling up. That means more interviews but also more technical tests. Alongside coding evaluations come requests for essays, lengthy take-home assignments and even days spent working with existing teams. One friend in the Bay Area made it through multiple interview rounds only to be presented with a final challenge to “entertain” the company’s leadership. There were no other instructions. She didn’t get the job.
The Blame Game
Recruiters will say that this is not being done to make life difficult for job seekers but because it is growing harder to find the right candidates. The blame, they say, lies with job seekers themselves. Online postings make speculative applications easy to fire off. In the UK, the Institute of Student Employers reported receiving a record 1.2mn applications for 17,000 graduate vacancies this year. Human resources software maker Workday reports that the number of global job applications is growing four times faster than job openings.
The AI Effect
This surplus includes those from candidates who are logging into AI chatbot ChatGPT to tailor their application with skills they may not possess. Some even try to trick recruiting software by writing in white text — listing requirements they lack in ways that will be invisible to the human eye but picked up by screening software.
The Employer’s Perspective
From an employer’s point of view, therefore, adding new hoops for candidates to jump through makes sense. AI-assisted applications can mask poor candidates whose failings are revealed in multiple interviews. And the likeable smooth talker who sails through in-person meetings may come undone by on-site tests or work trials.
The Problem
At some companies it is not enough to be good at your job, either. You need to show commitment to the company ethos. Amazon is known for assessing candidates on its 16 leadership principles. Fail to prove your customer obsession or ability to think big and you’ll find yourself back on the job market.
The Conclusion
The problem is that adding more interviews and tests exhaust candidates and interviewers and take everyone’s time away from the real work. In even more galling news, they may not even be productive. In 2016, Google declared that four interviews were enough to predict whether someone should be hired. According to the company, anything more than that had diminishing returns.
FAQs
Q: Why are job interviews becoming more demanding?
A: Job interviews are becoming more demanding due to the growing number of job applications and the increasing difficulty in finding the right candidates.
Q: What is the average time it takes to secure a job?
A: According to research from US human resources adviser Josh Bersin, the average time it takes to secure a job is 45 days. In fields like tech, it can be far longer.
Q: Why are some companies cutting their workforce despite hiring sprees during the pandemic?
A: Some companies are cutting their workforce due to the changing market conditions and the need to adapt to new circumstances.
Q: Is there an exception to the rule?
A: Yes, sometimes landing a job can be as simple as sending a tweet. However, even this is not foolproof, as seen in the case of the social media manager who left Tesla within a year of being hired.
