Seven steps. Three take-home projects. Two panel interviews. A technical assessment. A culture interview. A final executive meeting.
For a mid-level role. And companies are genuinely surprised when top candidates drop out of their process partway through.
The Best Candidates Have the Most Options
Here's what's happening in the market for engineering and professional services talent right now: the best candidates, the ones you most want to hire, have the most options. They're interviewing at multiple companies simultaneously, and they're making decisions based on more than just compensation and role. The interview experience itself is part of the evaluation, whether companies realize it or not.
When your process signals "we need to validate you six different ways before we're comfortable," the message a confident, experienced candidate receives is: this company doesn't trust its own judgment.
Respect for Time Is a Preview of How You'll Be Treated
Respect for candidate time is a preview of how a company treats its people once they're actually hired. A rigorous but efficient two-to-three stage process that moves quickly communicates competence, decisiveness, and respect. It signals that you value people's time as much as your own. A seven-stage, six-week process communicates the opposite, no matter how often you tell candidates they're a priority during the process.
The Irony
The companies with the most cumbersome processes are often the ones complaining loudest about a "talent shortage." But the talent isn't short. The process is long. Every additional stage you add past what's actually necessary to make a confident decision is a stage where your best candidate accepts a competing offer instead of waiting for yours.
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*Designing an interview process that's rigorous without being exhausting is exactly the kind of work we do with growing companies. [See how we help set up an efficient interview process →]*