Interviews are hard, but the interview process is making it harder
While interviews themselves are of course challenging, the interview process often adds an unnecessary layer of complexity and difficulty. I haven't heard this talked about a lot, so I wanted to share what I’ve experienced.
DISCLAIMER: I realize that sharing this might sound like sour grapes about not getting a role, but I swear that’s not my intent. Instead I just want to give an honest assessment of my experience. I've tried my best to (somewhat objectively) explore what happened and examine the impact it has on candidates like me. YMMV.
Rescheduled Interviews
During one interview round I had interviews rescheduled 4-5 times (I lost count). I'd prepare the day before thinking I'd have three interviews the next day, only to end up having just one (it was also a different interview that I hadn't previously prepared for). The other interviews would be rescheduled for another day when I had other obligations/appointments, so I would reschedule those personal events, only to find out later those rescheduled interviews would be rescheduled again. Basically, it's hard to get into any kind of rhythm and prepare properly when the schedule is a moving target.
Mystery Box Interviewers
This is somewhat related to rescheduling but not always. When you're going into an interview, you likely know what topics are going to be covered, but you'll rarely know who you're interviewing with – is it a product manager, a designer, an engineer, an executive? Are they super senior with decades of experience, or a few years out of school?
As much as an interview is supposed to be standardized against a rubric, customizing your responses to an interviewer's level, experience, and role does matter, but you have to do that on the fly with little to no prep. Interviewers are often pulled from a pool of folks, and so who you're interviewing with can change up to the last minute.
The other thing I've seen vary wildly is introductions. I've had interviews where introductions are done on both sides, the interview is setup, and then we jump in, which is ideal. But I've also had interviews where the interviewer doesn't introduce themselves, but asks you to introduce yourself. And in yet others I've had the interviewer say hello and then literally jump into the first question, zero introductions on either side.
Finding common ground with an interviewer is a subtle but important thing to do, and this variance can make that pretty tough.
The No Context Interviewer
It's fairly common to have an interviewer who doesn't have a direct connection with the team or role. While the topic might be generic and applicable across roles (e.g., managing people), it's still tricky to calibrate your messaging. For example, let's say the interviewer manages a bunch of staff-level backend engineers, and the role you're aiming for is managing a team of mid-level mobile engineers. Yes there is some crossover, but they will tend to ask different kinds of follow ups and a have different interpretation on your answers as they attempt to get signal.
In addition, a lot of the times you want to ask relevant questions about the team and the role at the end of the interview, and that doesn't go great if the interviewer doesn't know the team or role. In a paired interview (two interviewers), I've more than once had people say "Well, I don't know anything about this, so I'm going to drop" and leave the interview early.
Uncalibrated Interview Questions and Rubrics
This doesn't happen often, but sometimes the interviews get ahead of the team being ready to actually interview. If it's a new role or level, the team might be borrowing an existing interview slate from another team or one that was designed for a slightly different level.
When that happens, it can be difficult for both sides to give/get the signal they're looking for, because the interview isn't quite calibrated properly to dig out the right details. Again, not as common as the other situations, but it does happen from time to time.
While disappointing, what’s hopeful is that this is all pretty fixable — these are mostly logistical/process issues.
I know people are busy and schedules are impossible to coordinate, but these missteps are making the interview process so much harder than it needs to be, and as a result candidates aren't landing roles and companies aren't landing candidates. Making a few tweaks to get things well organized would make the interview process a lot more fruitful for everyone involved.