Today I read an article about speed interviewing. The idea is pretty much the same as speed dating. Basically interviewers see as many candidates as possible in a short amount of time and give offers quickly so that they fill up positions quickly. I think this method makes a lot of sense and is advantageous to both the interviewer and the interviewee because it saves everyone’s time and offering quickly gives the company a better chance of snatching the candidate they want. For example, in my most recent job hunting experience the first company I interviewed at pretty much said that they wanted to hire me after two short interviews, but to satisfy the HR process they had me speak to three more people at a later date. They actually told me that the second round of interviews was a formality and that they wanted me to join their team. I thought that the second round of interviews was a waste of time but I still went because the company seemed nice. Actually, they could have just told me what their offer was after the first interviews and I might have accepted it. Because their second interview delayed their offer by a week I interviewed at another company and that company also made an offer, but it was within a day of the interview. The end result was that I went to the second company because it was much more interesting and I knew a lot of classmates that worked at the second company. Speeding up the hiring process really tells a candidate that the company wants to hire him/her right away, and it is to a company’s advantage to do this.
I have interviewed a lot of people in the past few years and I have also been an interviewee on multiple occasions. Generally I know if I like someone within the first few minutes of meeting them. I have read that there were psychological experiments that concluded people make a determination on whether or not they like another person within the first few seconds of meeting them. Basically, regardless of whether you’re an interviewer or interviewee, there is no point in wasting time with people you don’t like. This is more reason why speed interviewing makes a lot of sense. It is advantageous to interviewees, too, because you get immediate feedback and you can either accept a new job or focus your energies on other companies. There is no point in waiting for a response for two weeks because your time is valuable. This is why I enjoy applying to small technology startups because the turnaround is very quick. Large companies are notorious for their HR bureaucracy and I have heard stories of people who were interviewed and never called back for more than a month. In my opinion job candidates should never wait for a response from a specific company and just keep on applying. Basically, if a company has a very slow moving hiring process then they will lose great candidates.
From my experience the companies that had the slowest recruiting processes are also the most bureaucratic companies. They are so overly organized that they’re disorganized. When an orgchart is thirteen levels deep there is bound to be a bit of chaos and frivolity. One example is an internship I had with a extremely large software and hardware vendor. The most ridiculous thing was that it took them a month to get my hiring paperwork done and then because they took so long my background check expired. Then I was required to go to a different campus about 20 miles from where I worked to get a keycard. Because of the long process my internship time was very short. When I finished the internship they created a position for me and wanted me to stay, but I chose to get a job elsewhere for obvious reasons. Then after I left it took them another month to mail me my final check. I had to call their payroll to demand it. This is a very well known company and that experience really put me off from working for extremely large organizations after college.
Anyway, I guess my whole spiel is that I am a great fan of companies that recruit quickly. Job hunters should definitely still research the companies that give an offer quickly, and if a company is extremely pushy that is not a good sign either. They should give you a reasonable amount of time to consider your options, but a immediate offer is always a good thing.
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6 comments ↓
Unless you’re hiring people for disposable jobs, I think this is nuts. I wouldn’t mind it just as a prescreening step but not as a total process. Once you hire someone it’s hard to get rid of them when you find out they are a real pain. Sure, you can sometimes tell pretty quickly if a person can communicate well and has a good chance of fitting in and getting along with people, but not always. Then there’s an issue of competence/skill/knowledge that takes some time to determine. Do they really have initiative or are they just faking it?
Instead of laborious time consuming individual interviews, I’d get the whole team the person would be working for with them in a room. I’d throw out topics and questions at the candidate and sometimes to the whole team then facilitate and watch how the whole team functioned. Did the person just sit there, or chime in? Did the group accept them? Did they accept the group? Did they work together? I’d let the meeting last as long as it was interesting and enjoyable. Of course I primed my team before on questions and areas to probe.
I don’t think it’s hard to get rid of people in California. It’s an at will state and in all the offers they say that both sides can end the employment relationship at any time. Getting the whole team in an interview is a good idea, too, but generally I found that at least for technical positions it’s pretty easy to tell if a person is faking it in 30 minutes. Sometimes I can find out if they are faking it in the first question. For more “behaviorial” type of interviews you can still tell if someone is at least a normal person that you would be willing to work with in a very short amount of time.
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I know of speed interviewing being done for IT contracting positions with Foreign firms in Japan. And yes, a good interviewer can cull technical bluffing very quickly.
I sometimes wonder about the personal and behavioural nuances that may not be apparent in such a brief cooked meeting.
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