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I think the harsh truth is that interviewing will never be a pleasant experience. The cost of a single bad hire is so high, that companies have a strong incenti

I think the harsh truth is that interviewing will never be a pleasant experience. The cost of a single bad hire is so high, that companies have a strong incentive towards false negatives. It’s better to pass over 25 good candidates than let one bad one through the door. That means that regardless of the format, interviews are always going to be inherently unfair. Even the slightest hint of incompetence will nuke your chances. Assessing a person you’ve never met is just an inherently noisy process, and there’s always going to be false negatives. And almost every company in the world would much rather be safe than fair. You probably are having a bad day or misunderstood the question, but employers can’t afford to take that risk. For the interviewees part, the process is just plain soul draining. You’re literally subjecting your life’s work to the harsh, quick and unfair judgement of people you’ve never met. You’re putting yourself in a position of extreme vulnerability, and it’s easy to feel like a piece of meat. I don’t really see how twiddling with the format will change the fundamental dynamics. The only thing I can say is that both sides should have more understanding and sympathy for the other. Candidates, don’t take any single rejection too personally. Remember the interviewer is a person, who also can be having a shitty day or make mistakes. Interviewers be kind and positive and give constructive feedback, even for the clear no’s. If you really hate interviewing, then spend more time networking. Hiring personal contacts and recommendations is much less noisy/risky, and therefore an overall less adversarial process.

ErrantX 6y ago
This. Another variant of this challenge is; when you have multiple interviewers and some are positive some negative about the candidate. Generally companies will always side toward rejection unless there is a specific reason not to (for example, you need someone super technical but they struggled on the soft-skills side and you have the right team to help them grow in).
- qznc 6y ago
  I can derive two very different strategies from this. Either "generalize and avoid showing any reason to reject you" or alternatively "specialize and provide a reason too good to reject you". Surely, it depends on the situation of the specific employer. So the trick for a candidate would be to figure out if there exists a single argument (e.g. a certain skill) which makes it impossible to not hire you. Coming back to the original question: You can be honest to the candidate; figure out what your organization is desperate for and tell them. Of course, this gives up some negotiation strength.
2rsf 6y ago
This is it more or less, not to mention that a perfect interview process for one can be hell for another. When I searched for anew job I had some slow time at my existing place and had all the time in the world to work on a take home assignment, while I could see the the candidate I recently interviewed had a hard time expanding their assignment beyond the basics due to lack of time.

ErrantX 6y ago

This. Another variant of this challenge is; when you have multiple interviewers and some are positive some negative about the candidate. Generally companies will always side toward rejection unless there is a specific reason not to (for example, you need someone super technical but they struggled on the soft-skills side and you have the right team to help them grow in).

qznc 6y ago
I can derive two very different strategies from this. Either "generalize and avoid showing any reason to reject you" or alternatively "specialize and provide a reason too good to reject you". Surely, it depends on the situation of the specific employer. So the trick for a candidate would be to figure out if there exists a single argument (e.g. a certain skill) which makes it impossible to not hire you. Coming back to the original question: You can be honest to the candidate; figure out what your organization is desperate for and tell them. Of course, this gives up some negotiation strength.

2rsf 6y ago

This is it more or less, not to mention that a perfect interview process for one can be hell for another. When I searched for anew job I had some slow time at my existing place and had all the time in the world to work on a take home assignment, while I could see the the candidate I recently interviewed had a hard time expanding their assignment beyond the basics due to lack of time.