Interviews are taking longer, what gives?

2024 is starting out with a slower labor market, the demand for labor is still there but the demand to hire isn't.

Many applicants are not getting even a chance to interview, they have applied to over 100 open roles and still, nothing.

Some companies have a lengthy process in their hiring, for some, they could require a minimum of 8 interviews before offering a candidate the position.

I had a "Dear Brian letter a week ago, it went as follows;

"Dear Brian,

Thank you for accepting my invite on LinkedIn, I follow your posts and find them informative. I have a question for you, why are employers taking so long to interview people? I had a total of 6 interviews with a local company here in Ohio that started off with me speaking with someone from HR, then I moved on to another HR person. This was on two separate days. both took 30 minutes. Then I interviewed with the Manager of the department and then I had three more sperate interviews from what I was told were managers from other departments. In all, I interviewed with the company 6 times on 6 separate days. Now I work full time and a majority of these took roughly 30-40 minutes each. Thank good ness they were all virtual, I can only imagine if i had to go in for all of these. This process took 2 months and after the last interview I didn't hear anything until a month later, that's where I got the "Sorry to inform you response". Are employers even hiring or are they just that bad in their interviews?"

So, how does this work?

#1 The pre-screening - This is where someone from the Talent acquisition team reaches out to you and goes through the basics (salary requirement, date of ability to start, do you actually have the experience to move forward). This process is what some will call the Gatekeeper. You have to have what they are looking before getting access to pass forward.

#2 HR manager or the Hiring Manager - During this step the interview gets more in-depth. They will now start asking questions on your past to present work experience and will listen for any red flags when answering their questions. This process of the interview is very important as this is where they are making sure you are a fit for the role. For some, make sure your resume matches up to your LinkedIn profile, or any other public professional profile. Making up a role will certainly disqualify you from going any further.

#3 Peer Interview or CEO - At this point of the process you will speak with others that are part of the team or the leadership of the organization, all depending on the size of the company and the role. They want to make sure you will work well with the team and organization. Some employers will ask you to go thorugh several of these interviews as it fits their internal staffs schedule, so don't be surprised if you are asked to attend 3 more interviews.

#4 The offer - If the employer decides you are the person they are looking for, this is where they will contact you and make the offer. From this point you can either accept the role and salary or counteroffer. Its very important that you get everything ironed out here, don't accept a role that within a month you are unhappy with its pay or its job duties.

It all depends on the size of the company and the importance of the role itself. Remember if the company has a large number of open roles, this process can take longer. Their is only so many people in HR. Also, it all depends on the urgency of the role, a higher priority role will get more attention than other roles. Some companies may also not know exactly who they are looking for, how is this possible? A communication breakdown internally between the Hiring Manager and the internal Talent acquisition team.

In all, should interviews take 6 - 8 times, NO.

Spending more time speaking with the person instead of quick 30 minute interviews would speed up the process and making sure you know exactly who your seeking will also help with the process.

I would think if we learned anything from the shutdown is, we shouldn't go back to our old ways of thinking, they were broken back than.