
EXPERT ANSWER
Jul 02, 2019 - 05:53 PM
The normal amount of interviews people go through before getting the job varies, but for most roles you can expect 3 stages:
Any of those stages can have multiple separate sessions, though they are much more common during the qualifying and in-person rounds.
In general, the more competitive the role, industry, or company, the more interviews you are likely to have. Likewise, the more cross-functional the role, or distributed the team, the more interviews you’ll have as well. In both cases, many different persons must agree to advance a candidate.
Those stories you have heard about some candidates having 10 or more interviews at elite companies are true. But even elite organizations want to condense the hiring process as much as possible to avoid losing good candidates to a competitor. Yet many of them also hire based on consensus, which can consume several weeks, especially if the hiring team is distributed across multiple time zones or whose calendars have few open spots.
- Initial screen, usually handled by a recruiter, and conducted by phone.
- Qualifying round, usually facilitated by a recruiter, and conducted by members of the hiring team by phone or web conferencing.
- In-person round, where you are invited onsite to meet with members of the hiring team.
Any of those stages can have multiple separate sessions, though they are much more common during the qualifying and in-person rounds.
In general, the more competitive the role, industry, or company, the more interviews you are likely to have. Likewise, the more cross-functional the role, or distributed the team, the more interviews you’ll have as well. In both cases, many different persons must agree to advance a candidate.
Those stories you have heard about some candidates having 10 or more interviews at elite companies are true. But even elite organizations want to condense the hiring process as much as possible to avoid losing good candidates to a competitor. Yet many of them also hire based on consensus, which can consume several weeks, especially if the hiring team is distributed across multiple time zones or whose calendars have few open spots.