Told To Do About 10 Interviews, Job Seeker Gives Up Running And Shares His Frustration In Viral LinkedIn Post

Mike Conley is a leader in software engineering with the #opentowork banner on his LinkedIn profile. He is currently between roles. Conley has over 25 years of “progressive experience in software engineering, solution architecture, enterprise architecture and management.”

He has also “built a strong track record of managing the entire lifecycle of enterprise-wide upgrades and designing system improvements that significantly reduce IT costs.” Conley has a solid LinkedIn profile, clearly mentions all of his impressive skills, and has a solid work history with long stays in the companies he worked for.

After a long and difficult interview process, he shared his frustrations in a LinkedIn post that went viral. Conley told me it’s not just about this case, but rather he wants to shine a light on all the challenges, hoops and hurdles job seekers have to jump through. His goal was to let others in a similar situation know that they are not alone and it happens to everyone. Knowing this fact, Conley feels people can feel a sense of relief.

Here’s what he had to say about his experience:

“Today I withdrew my name for consideration by a company I was interviewing with. It was a tough decision because I liked the company.” Conley had already gone through three rounds of interviews a few weeks ago. It was for a role he wanted and the pay was in line with his expectations. Conley also praised the company’s “great mission.” However, he wrote, “I decided to withdraw my name for consideration because they were working to schedule rounds four through nine of the interview process with me.”

He added: “For the types of jobs I’ve been looking for, the number of interviews has been getting bigger and bigger. Companies believe they are building processes that ensure the right candidate is selected. I don’t think that’s true. I think it is due to fear of choosing the wrong candidate. I think it’s a fear that they won’t find the next unicorn. I think the fear of wasting time ends up wasting more time. Conley said: “It shouldn’t take nine interviews for any role. You have trial periods. If you are still afraid, use a rental agreement.

Conley offered companies his future job search advice. “Increasingly long and difficult interviews can lose you the talent you’re making the process more difficult for.” I wasn’t just thinking about my hiring experience. I also stepped down because the role is such that I will be repeatedly hiring team members in a growth stage company. I didn’t want to be part of a system that taxed applicants.”

“With this withdrawal, I am taking a stand. Resistance to endless interviews. Stand for job seekers,” Conley said. “It’s amazing the responses I’m getting for this post. It has over 1.4 million views. The comments were amazing and the reactions were great. This kind of support amazes me and warms my heart,” he added. There has been an outpouring of support and shared stories of similar situations from members of the site.

Here are just a few examples of reactions to Conley’s LinkedIn post:

JH: “I agree 100%. Many times companies do so many interviews and look for their “unicorn” and then end up posting the same job again months later. A company once told me after an interview that “everything was great, except I didn’t have the perfect personality they were looking for.” Although upsetting at the time, this company is still looking to hire for this position now – two years later. No one is perfect and trying to find your unicorn is impossible if you have ever higher standards in every category and a large number of interviews to go through.

XD: “Couldn’t agree more with this post! Going through more than five rounds of interviews, developing case strategies (which I think some companies use to their advantage) as a free consultation, and even more hoops for positions that are not [vice president] or higher is madness. This wastes so much time and causes companies to miss out on top talent. Congratulations on withdrawing your name! The company you should join will be so happy to have you.

air conditioner: “As a recruiter for the past 13 years, I have seen this nightmare of endless interviews go from bad to worse. It’s amazing to me that despite the strong demand for candidates, many companies conduct interviews as if it’s 2009, not 2021. And when I track the turnover of various clients, it becomes clear that those who have eight interviews, panels, tests cases, etc., because their candidates end up having the same or actually worse retention rates than those who had two to three interviews and were hired quickly.

I also tend to agree that the interview process is a good indicator of company culture. If employees aren’t empowered enough to make their own hiring decisions, or are afraid to do so without having seven more ‘votes’ on a candidate, that probably speaks to the culture as a whole.”

SR: “I can absolutely relate to you. I went through a series of interviews for a senior HR position with a very well known firm based in Tampa where I live – their product is a household name. Numerous interviews, including one-on-ones with members of the C-suite. Weeks passed between interviews. I originally recorded some of it [Covid-19] and how everyone’s lives were upset. After over two months of interviews, evaluations, etc., I got a call with a feeling it was going to be an offer. no They go with another candidate. I can only imagine what extra hoops this poor guy went through.

KB: “It’s so frustrating. And of course, after companies demand weeks of interviews and extensive take-home tests (some of which are expected to take 10-20 hours or more), whiteboard exercises and more interviews…they rarely seem to have the courtesy to give to the candidates some answer. Crickets.

MA: “I had a similar experience when I went through six rounds of interviews over the course of six months and each time they asked for a new reference. During this time, I received another job offer. During the interview and they pulled my name from the pool of candidates… a few months ago (over a year later) the same company contacted me again and asked me to reapply. I considered it at first until I was informed that I would have to go through the entire interview process again. I decided to retire once again. If after six interviews and six months and seven references they can’t make a decision, then what does it mean this time will be different? Obviously, if I am asked to apply again, I have made a good and lasting impression. I understand they want to be careful about who they hire, but some inquiries are unreasonable.”

As a recruiter for more than two decades, I too have noticed the gradual shift to a long, cumbersome interview process conducted over many months. The companies’ official position when asked is usually something like, “We want to make sure everyone is on board with the candidate. It’s important for a job seeker to meet and get to know the people they will be working with.”This sounds reasonable, but there are other reasons.

The interviewer is sometimes more nervous than you. A hiring manager is evaluated on their hiring decision. There is a palpable concern that the manager will hire the wrong person and this will make them look bad in the eyes of their manager. This is the deer-in-the-headlights situation. When it comes to making a big decision, it’s easy to fall victim to “paralysis by analysis.” Some people can make important decisions in a quick, decisive and timely manner, while others must spend hours, days, weeks and months agonizing over the decision and then do nothing.

Instead of making the hard choices, managers rely on consensus decisions. The current hiring trend requires the candidate to meet with the manager, HR, the manager’s boss, the boss’s boss, colleagues, subordinates, business partners and the cleaning team. For a mid- to senior-level manager, this might involve six to 12 people over three to six months. If the hiring manager likes the candidate, he may still appear neutral in his approach because he knows he must also gain the support of a group of other people with competing interests and desires.

It does not matter that the interviewers are not trained or prepared in how to interview. Corporations for the most part do not offer training and preparation to managers for an interview. For some reason, companies think they can put a person in an interview, tell them to interview someone, and everything will work out fine.

The interviewer may not be politically equipped to navigate the process through the corporate maze. To be effective in corporations, you need to understand how to work the machine. Some hiring managers may not know “how to play the game” and therefore the interviewing process stalls and stagnates because they don’t know how to move the ball forward.

These are not excuses. It’s to offer some context to what’s going on behind the scenes so that job seekers have an idea of ​​what’s really going on.

Conley’s story may have a happy ending. With nearly 2 million views on his post, 27,000 reactions, 2,200 public comments, and double that amount in private messages, he’s on the radar of many people and decision makers. Employers, corporate executives and like-minded people on LinkedIn approached him with opportunities. Introducing a CEO led to a job interview that’s right on the mark. He hopes this ends well.