Photo: PeopleImages.com - Yuri A / Shutterstock.com and Tik Tok
How to avoid that endless interview process and actually get the job in the end.
By Hawthorn Martin — Written on Mar 30, 2023
Job hunting is almost always a pain. From cover letters to ever-adjusted resumes, to seemingly endless interviews, applying to a new job is more than a hassle.
The process also isn’t made any easier by the fact that most people don’t know what hiring managers want from them.
One man went through a particularly painful process, attending no less than 13 interviews for a company, and then still ultimately wasn’t chosen for the job.
An HR professional revealed how to avoid going through too many rounds of interviews.
Miles (@/milesmadeit) professionally offers help to job seekers, including industry-specific Resume and LinkedIn support. His social platforms are filled with easy-to-understand career and success tips, and he also runs a newsletter providing HR insight.
“I only took an HR job because I wanted to know exactly how it works, so that way I could pass it on to the people,” he explained on his TikTok. “So now let me pass it on to the people.”
It was a resume client of his who had an awful experience with 13 rounds of interviews and eventually approached Miles for his help.
It is unfortunately not unheard of for a company to host this many interviews, with tech giants like Google being known to put candidates through 15 to 25 interviews. However, the process is demanding on the interviewee, not to mention time-consuming.
One man wrote of the process on LinkedIn, saying that it is a company’s “fear of wasting time [with an imperfect candidate] that ends up wasting more time.” An entrepreneur told the career advice site Ladders that the reason companies use such extensive interviews is usually to avoid the high costs of bringing on the wrong person. “Companies are just making sure they’re making the right decision,” he said.
However, when a company’s caution takes months or even a year to reach an answer, that time and energy are costly to the interviewee.
There are strategies to work around endless interview processes.
A lot of it has to do with knowing the right questions to ask in initial interviews. It can feel like there is a set of secret codes that the corporate world uses to operate, and without an insight into those, many otherwise qualified applicants lose opportunities.
So what are those magic words? We return to Miles for his advice.
He laid out a very clear question to ask. “You need to say: “with respect to your time-to-hire metrics and my competing opportunities, could you be so kind as to share the hiring timeline for the role?” Is this role a priority?”
He clarified that organizations would be willing to answer the question, but if they claim to be “waiting for the right person”, that is a red flag to be aware of. The phrase “waiting for the right person”, according to him, can mean that the company is willing to hire someone new today, next year, or never.
This can give a candidate an insight into how much time they will be expected to put into this particular opportunity. If an interviewee is looking for a more immediate job opportunity, this is a quick way to find out if they will actually be getting an answer soon!
Okay, so you know how to understand the timeline of the hiring process. But what about actually landing the job?
The keys to avoiding that endless process and eventual rejection lie in the questions and wording used in an interview.
Miles advises everyone doing a digital interview to open a few tabs during the process: “a set of questions for the end of the interview, your resume, the job posting, and the company’s website.” This way you will have a quick way to refer to what the company is specifically looking for in the job, what your resume has already told them, and a general idea of the company’s culture.
For the final questions, he suggests a few, that, according to him, always get him a callback. His favorite question is this: “How would someone in this role work best with the rest of the team?” This shows that you as a potential employee are willing to adapt to a new work environment and embrace the existing culture.
The most important part, however, is listening to the response the hiring manager will give you. “You listen,” he emphasizes. “And then you tell them why you are exactly what they just said.”
This skillful question not only shows your willingness to fit in with a company, but also gives you the chance to show off more relevant skills that you might otherwise have not mentioned. It can be a complicated journey up the corporate ladder, but it doesn’t have to be impossible. We all deserve to have our time respected and our worth valued.
Hawthorn Martin is a news and entertainment writer living in Texas. They focus on social justice, pop culture, and human interest stories.