5 ms·

> One common reason for this: the hiring committee doesn't have enough signal because the interviewers don't coordinate appropriately, and end up asking heavily

by eieio 3y ago

> One common reason for this: the hiring committee doesn't have enough signal because the interviewers don't coordinate appropriately, and end up asking heavily overlapping questions (e.g. 3 questions that basically reduce to "use DFS"). I'm curious - how much up-front coordination is mandated? Plenty of the interview loops I've done agree in advance to the exact set of questions we'll ask during an onsite specifically to avoid problems like this (which of course causes other problems...)

idank 3y ago
Not very much. There's an interview lead that is supposed to make sure no question overlaps happen. They will sometimes comment on the chosen question (e.g. asking an unrelated question to someone interviewing for a research position). In general I think this is pretty rare as it requires folks to care about their interview before it starts. :)
lesuorac 3y ago
> I'm curious - how much up-front coordination is mandated? None is mandated. It's incredibly rare (maybe 5%) to also be requested to put your question into a spreadsheet (that all the interviewers can see) to avoid any overlap pre-interview. Post-interview you have to submit what question you asked into the official (not a spreadsheet) tool.
vitus 3y ago
When interviews were actually in person, there would be a pass-along sheet where you would write down your question. Of course, that wasn't perfect (the comment I had about too many people asking BFS was from a pre-pandemic email thread). These days, the actual process is confusing at best (and wildly inconsistent across interviewers, as it's dependent on what the recruiter sets up), so it shouldn't be surprising that it's rarely used if ever. To be clear: I don't actually know what the rate is of candidates being asked to come back for an extra interview. My understanding is that it's always been a last-resort option, but it'd be one of the more common reasons if the candidate actually made it to the slate of "in-person" interviews, and then needed to come back for another one.

by eieio 3y ago

idank 3y ago

Not very much. There's an interview lead that is supposed to make sure no question overlaps happen. They will sometimes comment on the chosen question (e.g. asking an unrelated question to someone interviewing for a research position). In general I think this is pretty rare as it requires folks to care about their interview before it starts. :)

lesuorac 3y ago

> I'm curious - how much up-front coordination is mandated? None is mandated. It's incredibly rare (maybe 5%) to also be requested to put your question into a spreadsheet (that all the interviewers can see) to avoid any overlap pre-interview. Post-interview you have to submit what question you asked into the official (not a spreadsheet) tool.

vitus 3y ago

When interviews were actually in person, there would be a pass-along sheet where you would write down your question. Of course, that wasn't perfect (the comment I had about too many people asking BFS was from a pre-pandemic email thread). These days, the actual process is confusing at best (and wildly inconsistent across interviewers, as it's dependent on what the recruiter sets up), so it shouldn't be surprising that it's rarely used if ever. To be clear: I don't actually know what the rate is of candidates being asked to come back for an extra interview. My understanding is that it's always been a last-resort option, but it'd be one of the more common reasons if the candidate actually made it to the slate of "in-person" interviews, and then needed to come back for another one.