Just in case...
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Toward the end of last year, I interviewed at this consulting-services company; once, twice, thrice, and several more phone screens. Everyone loved me. But I was never put before a client who could offer me an actual job. Time passes and the same guy from the company calls me the other day. The big boss wants to meet you. It must be in-person. This is the last one. This is the hiring manager. I smell a rat so I decline.
Of course, they keep pestering me to come in. Finally, the guy slips up and it comes out that this guy wants to meet me so in case something comes up that matches my qualifications, he might remember me and submit me for that job.
That's right; they want me to come in for an 8th interview so that IN CASE a job comes a long, they can first submit my resume. Assuming they remember me from the pile of other resumes they've presumably amassed, what with no actual clients.
And they couldn't understand why I refused to play along.
Actually, I now draw the line at one phone screen and one in-person interview. If they can't make a decision after that, it tells me something about them.
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@snoofle said:
...they want me to come in for an 8th interview ..
Surely you could spin this into something worthy of 419 Eater? You'd have a ready made WTF generator if you could!
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@snoofle said:
Actually, I now draw the line at one phone screen and one in-person interview. If they can't make a decision after that, it tells me something about them.
Then it seems you'll never work for Amazon, or any company whose interview process is equally rigorous. There's a very good reason we do multiple phone screens and multiple in-person interviews (though the phone screens are usually on the same day, and if the candidate passes those, the in-person interviews are usually done together on another day). The reason is, it's really, really hard to tell if someone's competent and whether they will fit well in the company if you don't have several people interview the candidate. Anyone who works at Amazon interviewed with at least four people in person, and anyone who wasn't hired out of college also had two or three phone screens before that. It turns out, if you don't screen candidates carefully, you end up with a bunch of sucky developers -- and one phone screen plus one in-person interview is not sufficient.
That said, we don't string people along for weeks, and we don't interview people unless we think we might actually give them an offer. If we don't want the candidate now, we're not going to want them in six months, and probably not next year either.
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personally, i would consider all phone interviews done in the same day as being a single "phone screen" and the same for the in-person interviews.
