Told To Do Around 10 Interviews, A Job Seeker Pulls Out Of The Running And Shares His Frustration In A Viral LinkedIn Post

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

He has also “established a strong track record of managing the entire lifecycle of enterprisewide modernizations and designing system enhancements that significantly reduce IT costs.” Conley has a solid LinkedIn profile, clearly references all of his impressive skills and has a stable work history with long stays at the companies he’s worked for.

After a long and arduous interview process, he shared his frustration in a LinkedIn post that went viral. Conley told me that it wasn’t just about this instance, but rather, he wanted to shed light on all of the challenges, hoops and hurdles that job seekers are required to go through. His goal was to make others in a similar situation know that they’re not alone, and it’s happening to everyone. By knowing this fact, Conley felt that people could have a sense of relief.

Here’s what he said about his experience:

“Today, I pulled my name for consideration for a company I was interviewing with. It was a hard decision, as I liked the company. ” Conley had already gone through three rounds of interviews several weeks prior. It was for a role that he wanted and the pay was in line with his expectations. Conley also appreciated the “great mission” of the company. Nevertheless, he wrote, “I decided to pull my name for consideration because they were working to schedule rounds four to 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 higher and higher. Companies think they are building processes that ensure picking the right candidate. I don’t think that’s true. I think it’s due to fear of picking the wrong candidate. I think it’s fear they won’t find the next unicorn. I think it’s fear of wasting time that ends up wasting more time. ” Conley said, “It should not take nine interviews for any role. You have trial periods. If you are still fearful, use contract-to-hire. ”

Conley offered his job-seeking prospective advice to companies. “Increasingly making interviews more and more lengthy and difficult can lose you the talent you are making the process more difficult for. I wasn’t just thinking about my hiring experience. I also withdrew because the role is one that would repeatedly hire team members in a company that is in its growth stage. I did not want to be part of a system that is this taxing on candidates. ”

“With this withdrawal, I make a stand. A stand against never-ending interviews. A stand for job hunters, ”Conley said. “It’s amazing the responses I’m getting to this post. It has had over 1.4 million views. The comments have been amazing and the reactions have been great. This type of support amazes me and warms my heart, ”he added. There was 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%. A lot of times, companies do so many interviews and are looking for their ‘unicorn’ and then end up reposting the same job months later. I had a company once tell me after an interview that ‘everything was great, except I didn’t have the perfect personality they were looking for.’ Though upsetting at the time, that company is still looking to hire for that position now — two years later. No person is perfect and trying to find your unicorn is impossible if you have increasingly high standards in every category and high amount of interviews to go through. ”

XD: “I couldn’t agree more with this post! Going through five-plus rounds of interviews, developing strategies for case studies (which I feel some companies use for their benefit) as a free consultation, and even more hoops for positions that aren’t [vice president] or higher is insane. It was so much time and also makes companies miss out on top talent. I applaud you for withdrawing your name! The company you’re meant to join will be so lucky to have you. “

AC: “As a recruiter for the last 13 years, I’ve seen this nightmare of endless interviews go from bad to worse. It’s amazing to me that despite the red-hot demand for candidates, many companies interview as if its 2009 rather than 2021. And when I track the turnover rates of various clients, it’s clear that the ones that have eight interviews, panels, test cases, etc. for their candidates end up having the same or in fact worse retention rates than those that held two to three interviews and hired quickly.

I also tend to agree that the interview process is a good indicator of the culture of the company. If employees aren’t empowered enough to make a hiring decision on their own or are too afraid to without having seven other ‘votes’ on a candidate, it probably speaks to the culture in general.’ ”

SR: “I can absolutely resonate with you. I went through a series of interviews for a senior HR position with a very well-known firm whose headquarters is in Tampa where I live — their product is a household name. Numerous interviews, including one-on-ones with members of the C-suite. Weeks would go by between interviews. At first, I chalked some of it up to [Covid-19] and how everyone’s life was disrupted. After two-plus months of interviews, assessments, etc., I received a call feeling certain it was going to be an offer. Nope. They’re going with a different candidate. I can only imagine what additional hoops that poor person went through. ”

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

MA: “I had a similar experience where I went six rounds of interviews in the course of six months and each time they asked for a new reference. During this time, I received another job offer. During the course of interviewing and withdrew my name from the pool of applicants … a few months ago (over one year later) that same company reached out to me again and asked me to reapply. At first, I considered it until I was informed I would have to go through the entire interview process again. I decided to withdraw once again. If after six interviews and six months and seven references, they are unable to make a decision, then what is to say that this time would be different? Obviously, if they asked me to reapply then I made a good and lasting impression. I understand they want to be cautious about who they hire but, some asks are unreasonable. ”

As a recruiter for over two decades, I’ve also noticed the gradual move toward a lengthy, cumbersome interview process conducted over many months. The official stance from companies, when asked, is usually something to the effect of, “We want to make sure everyone is aboard with the candidate. It’s important for the job seeker to meet with and get to know the folks they’ll be working with. ” This sounds reasonable, but there are other motives too.

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

Rather than make the tough choice, managers rely upon decisions by consensus. The current trend in hiring calls for a candidate to meet with the manager, human resources, the manager’s boss, the boss’s boss, peers, underlings, business counterparts and the cleaning crew. For a mid-to-senior level executive, this could entail six to 12 people over the course of three to six months. If a hiring manager likes the candidate, they may still appear neutral in their approach, as they know that they also have to get the buy-in from a group of other people with competing interests and desires.

It doesn’t help matters that interviewers are not trained or prepared on how to interview. Corporations, for the most part, do not offer training and preparation for managers to interview. For some reason, companies feel that they can march a person into an interview, tell them to interview someone and it will work out fine.

The interviewer may be ill-equipped to politically 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 interview process goes stale and stagnates, since they do not know how to move the ball forward.

These aren’t excuses. It’s to offer some context of what goes on behind the scenes, so that job seekers have insight into what’s really happening.

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 got on the radar of a lot of folks and decision makers. Recruiters, corporate managers and empathetic people on LinkedIn reached out to him with opportunities. An introduction to a CEO led to an interview for a job that’s right on target. He’s hoping this works out well.