If You Want This Job, We Must Interview You Forever

Alex Baia wrote an article for the Daily Shouts feature of The New Yorker with this title.

It offers a series of cheerful scheduling emails that start in March and end in October for a position with a firm.

I shared my own experience from my work in recruiting:

I learned a lesson when I did recruiting that this simple article expresses. I had a candidate who met with 23 people over an extended period of time. He met everyone except the man who shined the shoes of the senior executives with the firm. I should have pulled the plug on the process and confronted the client. Sometimes, the extended process takes the form of “free consulting” as happened to a CMO candidate I coached and warned about his pre-hire marketing proposal he was to present to the investors and senior leadership. In the original case, after 23 interviews, the voicemail I received was, “We’re going to take a pass.” 23 people. Multiple months.

I should have pulled the plug.

For job hunters, there is an emotional sunk cost, and, frankly, employers smell it and your desperation to get the job because you tolerated what in real life would be intolerable. The applicant didn’t have patience. They were dumb and demonstrated no self-worth. At the third interview, you ask, “What will the rest of the process be like?” When you hear something crazy, you respond with, “I would like this accelerated. I don’t have (weeks/months/years) to invest in this. Other firms are further along in the process and I can see based on what you have done so far that this will go on for quite a long time. Respectfully, if you can’t accelerate the process, then let’s part as friends and wish one another well.” Never EVER allow yourself to be abused in such a manner like someone rushing a sorority or fraternity.

ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 2400 episodes. He also hosts Job Search TV on YouTube, and Amazon, as well as on BingeNetworks.tv for Apple TV and 90+ smart sets.

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If You Want This Job, We Must Interview You Forever