6 interview application process?

rocksteady

I'm interviewing with a company tomorrow, and scheduled is for me to interview with four different managers one after another for at least 2 hours tomorrow. I have already gone through 2 phone interviews with the company, and I was expecting to get another one, but another FOUR?

This seemed pretty odd and maybe overly extensive to me. I was wondering if anyone else here has gone through these many interviews for the same position. By the way, this isn't for some high up managerial or executive position, its for tech support.

Just being curious.

shadown7

The most I've ever had was three. One phone interview and two in person. That was to work for Bellsouth in Nashville. Not to mention I had to take a bunch of tests just to quailify for an interview.

fusebox

that seems very overly intensive.

TranscenderMichael

The best jobs I've ever held had the most rigorous interviews.

Once, I was a service tech - we drove out to do service calls. Well, one potential client needed my services for the full 40 hour week, so the CIO interviewed me as hard or harder than a regular employee (after all, he was paying my company $95/hr for me!). He grilled me, rapid-fire style, from the moment I walked in to his office. "A user can't get his e-mail. What do you check?" "What things would you configure on the server for a new user? Tell me everything, in detail."

I ended up working for him permanently... not once... but twice. I left for a position travelling all over the East Coast, and when I got tired of travelling 5 days a week (EVERY week), I went to the company he had changed to.

A couple years later, I saw a job posting that needed a technical writer for a practice exam company. I applied, and the headhunter told me that the company wanted someone with more writing experience. Undaunted, I tried to figure out which company it was. I was amazed to discover that Transcender was located in Nashville, so I applied directly to the HR manager. She called me the next day with a quiz over the phone - the quiz covered Microsoft and Cisco, mostly. I must have done well, because she asked me to come in for an interview.

My experience was similar to yours... but I get ahead of myself. The HR manager met me at the door and interviewed me in the conference room. She asked me the basic "interview" questions. About a half hour into the interview, in walks this fat, bald guy with a T-shirt, sweats and a coffee mug the size of a keg. Little did I know that he would become Director of Product Development in a few months (and one of my most loved and trusted friends) He sits down and starts asking me questions...

"I tell you that we've got to learn Visual Basic and crank out a product by tomorrow. What do you do?"

Me: "I guess we grab the books and coffee and tell our wives we're pulling an all nighter."

"The company provides free coffee for employees. All of a sudden, they decide to start charging a quarter per cup. What do you do?"

Me (confused): "Stop drinking coffee?"

"You and I *both* know that's not an option."

Good Lord... what answer could he be wanting? And how in the world is this an interview question?!? Then... I look at his "keg".

"...get a bigger cup."

He smiles and knows he's got the right man for the job. Be prepared - interviewers will ask you questions that test you on how quickly you think on your feet. Some will even ask unanswerable or impossible questions to either shake you or see if you start trying to feed them a bunch of bull that "sounds good".

The HR manager has left by this point, and so does the big guy. In walks a short white guy and a tall, thin Asian guy... the President and CIO/CTO, respectively. Wow... they must be *serious* if those two guys are taking the time out to interview me. After several "standard" interview questions, they ask me to give a 2-minute presentation on one of these two topics: Redundancy or Subnetting.

Oh man... awesome. I know them both. I decide to discuss the one that is typically perceived as being harder - subnetting. I finish, and they look at each other. I think I see a smile from them, but I'm not sure.

The HR manager comes back in and thanks me. She says that there are two or three more people to interview, but that she would contact me soon.

They were scheduled to move buildings, and a flood in the new building delays the interview processes by more than a week. But after every interview that they did, the HR manager called me up just to let me know that I was still in the running, and when to expect their next call.

2 months later, I was hired.

So... intense interviews can be *very* good. Means they care enough about hiring the best people to take that much time out of their schedule to find out if you fit with the team.

Best of luck to you!

Cherper

I recently interviewed for a network admin position at a company that had me meet with 6 different managers. The reasoning was that this position would be dealing with each of these people, and would be managing the IT department.

It was different than most interviews I have had, as the finance manager took all of 5 minutes, he had no technical knowledge, so there were no questions about that, just management style questions. It was an interesting experience to see the differences between the different departments view of the IT department.

Unfortunately, the company couldn't (or wouldn't) pay me enough to make it worth it to switch jobs.

/usr

I interviewed with two people in person, plus one phone interview. I would have had to meet with a third manager, but he was busy that day.

rocksteady

interviews went good today, next step is FOUR more interviews with more managers, and then another one with the CEO.

crazy

/usr

You're interviewing with the CEO for a tech support job...? What kind of company is this?

rocksteady

I assume that the hiring decision is made after the first 10 interviews. The recruiter mentioned that the CEO likes to meet with his future brand new employees as much as possible. I take this as a good thing, a CEO caring that much about the people working for the company.

TranscenderMichael

I agree - a CEO who wants to hire only the best and brightest is a CEO who cares about the performance of the company. The company *is* the people. Hire good people, and you don't have to worry about the micromanagement that takes you away from tasks like... interviewing new employees.

garv221

TranscenderMichael wrote:

I agree - a CEO who wants to hire only the best and brightest is a CEO who cares about the performance of the company. The company *is* the people. Hire good people, and you don't have to worry about the micromanagement that takes you away from tasks like... interviewing new employees.

Very true. A good CEO looks at his company as a "family" & should see who the next person in line to join is.