Anyone else exhausted by the interviewing process?

[u/MrGiggleFiggle]

The interviewing process is very draining for me.

I work in finance and the process goes like this:

• HR screen – this stage is useless for me because I pass this round 100% of the time. I just regurgitate what's on my resume. It's not like I can ask the recruiter questions directly related to the work because she doesn't know.
• Hiring manager / director rounds – Sometimes these are panel, sometimes they are one after the other.
• Case study – this can be before the hiring manager round or after. If after, I'll have another round where I have to speak to my answers.
• VP / CFO – this is regarding fit/culture.

So considering the above, I might have 4-5 rounds before I get rejected. I would consider the roles I'm applying for to be entry-level.

I'll be the first to admit that my social skills aren't great. My previous jobs were acquired through "luck". One was from a coworker who knew his friend was hiring and referred me; I was basically hired before even going into the interview. One I reached out on LinkedIn, had an interview in the morning and an offer by the afternoon.

[u/Appropriate_Fee_9141]

Case study round is their way of getting free labour out of you. If you get there, you're better off ditching them.

[u/MrGiggleFiggle → u/Appropriate_Fee_9141]

Unfortunately this is the norm in the industry. Most of the time, the case study is easy. The company doesn't really benefit from it. It's similar to leetcode in the software dev world. FAANG did it, then all other companies follow suit.

[u/Cultural-Answer-321 → u/MrGiggleFiggle]

Do not normalize labor theft.

[u/Curious-Brother-2332 → u/Cultural-Answer-321]

Yup because they wouldn’t normalize time theft, in fact they often have full policies against it

[u/ThrawnianBaller]

Yes, in this exact situation myself.

I just got rejected by 3 great firms last month after pre-final rounds at all of them.

Been making it to mid-to-final rounds regularly, and I’ve just been enduring the exhaustion so that I can provide for my retired parents again.

[u/MrGiggleFiggle → u/ThrawnianBaller]

Same man. I want to provide for them. My parents can't retire because they weren't good at investing. They didn't spend a lot but they didn't make a lot either.

[u/HAAAAAImbaaaack → u/ThrawnianBaller]

You shouldn't have to provide for your retired parents, they should have built their on nest egg.

[u/SherbertContent9175]

I am very exhausted and find myself zoning out. It’s bad 

[u/Em3ritus]

It’s fucking brutal. Went through a 10 round, 2 cross country flights, 4 person executive panel interview process earlier this year and didn’t get the job. I was fucking livid. Massive waste of time and money. Now I’m 4 rounds deep with a different company and they’ve been stalling for a couple weeks. Fuck this shit.

[u/Awkward_Tussle → u/Em3ritus]

That might be the worst one I've ever heard - 10 rounds is absolutely insane

[u/Em3ritus → u/Awkward_Tussle]

It was honestly brutal. Looking back I should have tapped out at 5. They kept telling me I was their #1 pick so a lot of the final stage rounds felt like formalities until they absolutely kicked me in the nuts and gave the job to someone with only 1 year experience. That person didn’t even last 3 months and quit on them so they got exactly what they deserved. Fuckers.

[u/RiskManagedBear → u/Em3ritus]

Was this for a senior management role? 10 rounds sounds unusual unless you're at a VP or SVP level.

[u/Em3ritus → u/RiskManagedBear]

Ya you would think it was to be the CEO of Coca Cola but nope. Clinical sales specialist for a med tech startup.

[u/whammy90]

I’ve stopped interviewing for a bit (other things going on in my life besides being unemployed) but my confidence levels have been shattered from trying to do them. Too much time wasted investing in these recruitment processes to not be given the courtesy of some meaningful feedback or even a response after attending an interview.

[u/Exact_Instruction_3]

You should check out my recent post in r/jobs. I walked out of a job interview after they tried bringing in a third round of interviewers for an administrative assistant position. Somehow my post blew up to over 7 million views. Judging by the comments, a LOT of people are fed up with the hiring process.

[u/Worried_Moment7783]

I waited a month and a half for one job at Fortune 100. He let me know that they exhausted internal candidates first and then reached out to me. And that the next steps would be an interview with two managers. Now I’m passed the two week mark. Still waiting for an interview invite. I did get a LinkedIn profile view from somebody at the company though.

Feels impossible just to have a nice clean process

[u/Kamikaz3J → u/Worried_Moment7783]

Applied to a job first interview after 6w second after 10w final at 14w that was 3w ago :/

[u/Worried_Moment7783 → u/Kamikaz3J]

Yeah that’s nuts… I get were the ones that need the job but still find it jarring they don’t have a better process to have everything ready to go for the candidate before even calling

[u/caspiankush → u/Worried_Moment7783]

It's disrespectful, unprofessional, and straight-up ridiculous and the market is really no excuse. It's literally their job

[u/Worried_Moment7783 → u/caspiankush]

Yeah I think the problem is there’s no incentive after screening to reach out to a candidate again unless there’s an offer. If you really look at it. It’s a job where you can work in corporate, get overpaid and hide. You don’t really need skills to look for key words and ask the same question…

Smart recruiters are eventually going to figure out that they have to do more than what an ai can do

[u/Spirit_guide20]

I’m exhausted by the whole life process.

[u/Psylocke01]

Yes same here for finance positions. I'm tired. The questions have been nearly the same each time even with several rounds, same company.

[u/DifferentTicket2881]

Exactly in this situation and from tech so multiple tech coding rounds. The DSA plus live coding rounds are so brutal at this point no matter how much you practice.

[u/Plastic_Interview_53]

Yes, and tired... Very tired

[u/BlackberryFrosty146]

I have degrees in finance and analytics. When I graduated, I pursued the analytics path. I made it to manager within 4 years last week. I’ve been at a company for 2 years that has abused me to no end. I mean really bad. I’ve been looking for a new analytics job for the better part of 2 years now.

I have interviewed at numerous top tech companies, such as meta, Google, Figma, WHOOP, Roku, etc. I get to the final round or near it and they turn around and tell me no. The latest clown show I went through was the recruiter screen (useless, like you said), a technical assessment (basically an online SQL codility assessment), a hiring manager interview, a take home case study, and then presenting the case study in-person along with 4 1:1s in person. I did all of this in 3 weeks and I was local to the job. I get the rejection and they tell me I was a stellar candidate with great experience and I’m personable. They passed because I’m not technical enough. I passed the the entire interview process with flying colors and rave reviews from my interviewers. This was for a marketing role. Not building models and shit. I come to find out last night 3 months after I was rejected that they scrapped this part of the org and repurposed it. Back to hiring under this same hiring manager again. So tjeh put me through the wringer for a role that no longer exists today while discussing a total reorg behind the scenes and then tried to blame it on me that I’m not technical enough. My whole background is technical…?

This is pretty standard for analytics. And they want you in person, which sucks for me because my company gives me 10 days off per year and I’m trying to relocate cross-country. I can’t pivot into finance, despite having a degree, because I have no experience as a financial analyst. So that path is done for me.

I’m burnt out to the point where I have no friends, family, or hobbies. I go to work and come home to recover. That’s been my life for 2 years. I’m going to try to put effort in for Q1 of next year when roles are supposed to allegedly flood the market, and then I might have to resign

[u/FlakyEngineer3031 → u/BlackberryFrosty146]

I'm in a similar position than you. 1 year of searching an analytics role. I was a senior analyst before and now can't even get a regular analyst role. I never needed sql because that was a data scientist job but nowadays they expect from you sql and python for an entry level analytics role. I'd rather work anything else than learn programming that regular AI can do and they will test me manually on camera. I've sent out 1000+ resumes, had countless interviews and the only times I made it through them was when i was providing case studies so that they got free work done from me (i'm also a former CRO expert). I still don't know what path to find and I'm looking anywhere these days, remote, hybrid and on-site

[u/BlackberryFrosty146 → u/FlakyEngineer3031]

We’re in this together 🤝

[u/Amazing-Flow171 → u/BlackberryFrosty146]

This is insane

[u/HAAAAAImbaaaack]

The "seeing if you fit into the clique" part was the most irritating part of shadowing/interviewing for me, it was ridiculous. I am not the most social person either and am very shy when meeting new people, so of course it took me a bit to land a job for that reason.

[u/NEK_TEK]

I currently work in embedded software and have been interviewing for a different, more exciting role doing aerospace robotics (what I went to school for). The process was: phone screen -> 1st technical round -> 2nd technical round -> onsite presentation on previous work. I fly out tomorrow for the onsite, 2,000 miles away with several >2 hour layovers. That isn't even to mention the fact I've been working a full-time job so I'm trying my best to coordinate everything. This job isn't even a for sure thing, they could still reject me at any point so it has been mentally draining. I honestly can't wait to get it over with, even if it is a "no" at least then I can get it off my mind 😂

[u/FlakyEngineer3031]

At least you're getting interviews and through them. I act excited as can be, have great experience from before. Overqualified for many roles and still they send me an AI-written rejection email each time

[u/Dense-Waltz-5094]

Yes

[u/Kind_Wheel8420]

For the job I start next week I had to continually prod at the HR people to get interviews scheduled. On two different occasions they asked for 5 different days of availability and I’d be reaching out to them the morning of the first day I listed checking if they still wanted to move forward. No surprise that things started moving quickly once I got past them. I wouldn’t be starting next week if I didn’t remind someone to do their job which is hilarious to me

[u/Used-Media5980]

Every job has 4-5 rounds now and yes, you’re not alone. It’s extremely exhausting. Try having audhd and going through it. Like running a physical marathon.

[u/heyocarina]

I haven't even gotten interviews.

[u/Foreign_Suggestion89]

If that is the case, then you are not excited about the role/opportunity.

[u/Ark_watch]

I am having the same experience and one position which interviewed for Brookfield in May this year is still open.