The epidemic of multi-stage interviews
This article was written based on the NEMITAP conducted by the Avito company. When I saw THIS, to say that I was shocked is to say nothing. First Yandex, then Tinkoff, and now Avito (and these are just ours, domestic ones) is introducing a six-step interview.
My name is Sultanov, and I am a team lead (heavy sigh). I try to make hiring fair. Sometimes it even works out. And I also have channel, where you can discuss this and other articles. Subscribe, it's interesting.
It seems like obvious stupidity. I even saw an interview with Yandex HR a couple of years ago, who complained that at about the 2-3 stage, candidates refuse to continue, since they have already received a good offer from not so advanced another company. And I thought, that’s it, the cure is near. Instead, the disease only spreads.
At the same time, all companies introducing a similar hiring procedure have a huge number of projects, thousands of specialists, and they need many new employees for new projects. And with this approach, hiring becomes a very difficult matter; not only can a candidate get cut at any stage, but he can also be intercepted by competitors, which does not contribute to quickly filling vacancies. It's elementary.
This is the normal first reaction of the average person. It's very nice to think that the heads of corporations with unimaginable millions of dollars in profits are doing crazy things, and you are smarter than them.
But they can’t think further only All. Companies that have introduced multi-stage interviews have not abandoned this practice for many years, either here or abroad. Moreover, more and more companies are adopting the presented practice. There is something in this, so let's figure it out.
What unites the interviews of all companies that have implemented them? Several options:
1. Open interview topics
2. Distance from work practice
3. Open materials for preparation
4. Companies give time to prepare.
That is, the preparation is directly imposed on the subject, stretching the entire cycle for a month, or even several. A large number of interviews leads to the accumulation of material about the mistakes of the subject, lowering his self-esteem. Also, as a bonus, with a large number of interviews, it is easier to convey that the company is great, and create a feeling of victory when you pass, albeit imperfectly, the next stage.
What awaits us in the end when all the stages are completed?
The recruiter will first praise the candidate, and then make him an offer 20% below the market. In response to his indignation, they say, how can this be, the candidate will be given a graph or diagram to look at, which will show the mistakes he made during the interview process, which will serve as a justification for reducing the cost of the final proposal.
And this is where the real meat begins. A person has prepared hard, worked, struggled, and is faced with a choice – to accept a salary below the market or throw all his efforts put in over several months into the trash. Some will choose the trash and jump out, but some will still agree, after haggling a little, and receive a salary not 20% below the market, but only 10%. At the same time, you need to understand that the candidate has not become 10% worse, he will simply receive a salary 10% less.
Now let's go back to the beginning. Companies introducing such practices have thousands of employees. And reducing the costs of the most expensive of them, developers, by 10% is a huge amount of money.
This is the whole point of this practice, and not at all improving the quality of hiring and introducing candidates to many teams, which the lecturer so actively convinces us of in the above NEMITAPE. Alas.
