Difficult Interviews

Earlier this summer Glassdoor.com came out with their annual list of the Top 25 Most Difficult Companies to Interview in 2013. Microsoft, Citrix, Google, and Facebook all made the list. So did Rolls Royce. I did a bit of research and uncovered some interesting information as I dug around the Top Five.

One thing I thought was revealing was that a majority of the people who interviewed at all five had a positive experience, the winner being Bain & Company with 70% having a positive experience. So while the process may be difficult it seems people understand and appreciate the depth of the screening. This trend was surprising considering the number of people that did not get an offer far outweighed the number who accepted an offer.

The "time to hire" range was all over the place, but the more "advanced" the role was the longer the interview process. Not surprising on the surface, but I was shocked that some of the hiring took well over a month - in some cases 2 months or more. The shortest time to hire I saw was 5 days, but that seemed to be an exception to the rule.

In the Top 5 an average of 38% of the interviews were initiated through an online application. I found this interesting because I talk to so many people who never get any kind of response to a job application. What was more surprising was that only 11% were initiated through an employee referral. The rest of the results were spread between college recruiting, using a staffing agency or recruiter, and simply walking in and filling out an application.

It seems as though developers are being asked to perform technical tasks on some level, whether they be working through problems or being given specific coding tasks to accomplish. Many people were given logic / problem solving tasks (such as the Wonderlic).

Making the right hire is critical to a company as well as the employee. Taking some time to make candidates jump through a few hoops is in the best interests of everyone. I take anything on Glassdoor with a grain of salt - much like Yelp you're only seeing a slice of the overall picture. However, I think the information found is useful and can give you a glimpse into how an organization identifies talent and why it's important to take some time to find a match.