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I remember going through 16 interviews to be hired by a top tier Wall Street investment bank. I was an experienced hire, lateraling over at this point I was on

I remember going through 16 interviews to be hired by a top tier Wall Street investment bank. I was an experienced hire, lateraling over at this point I was only hired after I got an offer from a competitor (following about ~6 interviews there, most of which were over the phone) and forced my top choice's hand Fast forward 18 months and I was laid off along with hundreds more. As it turns out, my two superiors weren't liked at all, so when the market slowed, their peers took the opportunity to get rid of them... and I became irrelevant as I had nobody to work for. In hindsight, it's somewhat obvious that it took them this many rounds because they were not certain they needed someone to work for the guys everyone disliked. I got a couple of deals done, had a couple more lined up, generated millions of dollars of revenue to the bank, clients liked me... but it wasn't the right place or the right time. If I could do it all over again, I would have been more upfront and a tougher negotiator with them from the outset. I either want full commitment or it's not worth it. Tell me upfront how many rounds of interviews you need and I'll tell you if it's worth my time and the brain damage.

ylee 3y ago
I've never worked for a tech company. But I have worked for two bulge-bracket investment banks. So it's been interesting to read of how tech companies recruiting works. During my initial training/orientation period as a new analyst at Goldman Sachs in 1999, the person conducting the meeting asked people to stand up if they had had 5, 10, 20, etc. interviews for their job offer. One person stood up when the group was asked who had had more than 40 interviews. I was very unusual in only having four interviews before my GS offer. For that job, I'm pretty sure the person looking to fill the role personally contacted my college's recruiting service (because she had received her MBA from there). For the second job, at Citigroup, I saw a Craigslist listing either by the person himself or his assistant, talked to someone I knew at the firm who worked near him, then reached out to the person directly. In both cases the person hiring did my first (and, in the second case, the only) interview, and I never talked to a true HR person, let alone recruiter, before receiving the offer. I've been told that this sort of hiring does happen in tech, but it sure seems rare compared to all the stories I read here.

ylee 3y ago

I've never worked for a tech company. But I have worked for two bulge-bracket investment banks. So it's been interesting to read of how tech companies recruiting works. During my initial training/orientation period as a new analyst at Goldman Sachs in 1999, the person conducting the meeting asked people to stand up if they had had 5, 10, 20, etc. interviews for their job offer. One person stood up when the group was asked who had had more than 40 interviews. I was very unusual in only having four interviews before my GS offer. For that job, I'm pretty sure the person looking to fill the role personally contacted my college's recruiting service (because she had received her MBA from there). For the second job, at Citigroup, I saw a Craigslist listing either by the person himself or his assistant, talked to someone I knew at the firm who worked near him, then reached out to the person directly. In both cases the person hiring did my first (and, in the second case, the only) interview, and I never talked to a true HR person, let alone recruiter, before receiving the offer. I've been told that this sort of hiring does happen in tech, but it sure seems rare compared to all the stories I read here.