I always schedule them the same day if I can. Waiting between interviews does no one any good. I do a 45 minute with them for a one-on-one interview. I have a few the people they’d be working with ready to do more of a technical interview for an hour or so. If things don’t go well after either, I let them know, and we part ways. If they do well, I put them in the yes pile. After one week from the first yes person, I choose the one I think best. Sometimes there is just one. When there’s more, I choose the best fit and let the others know.
One time, when hiring a qa, I had two people who where both great. I really hated having to tell one of them no. A month later, a qa position opened on a different team and I passed on her resume. After she was hired, I sort of poached her from the hiring manager. She still reports to them, but she works entirely on my projects. But that’s an aside.
My point is, a single interview is more than sufficient to hire anyone. The multiple interview crap, that’s become so common, is done solely to stress someone out so they’ll take a lower salary just to stop the stress.
Multiple interviews are also done because there’s far too many people in the hiring chain who don’t really need to be there. I’ve had interviews for lower-level managerial positions where literally the vice president or some other person who clearly has better things to do than to be there, is there just to “be involved”, or (in one case) all hiring decisions had to be run through the VP. I’ve done panel interviews with 6 different HR people at once who clearly just need something to justify their existence.
I once hired a college student for a summer job off his cover letter. Just called him up and said the job is yours if you want it.
I posted a short description of the job on the university job page. I got inundated with long lengthy creative writing letters talking about everything but the job I was posting from hundreds of students.
He went through the requirements on the short job posting and answered each one with a short sentence and paragraph in between.
I can work weekends.
I can lift 50lbs.
I can work outdoors.
I can start at 7am and work till 4pm.
I can drive a manual transmission.
My supervisor started talking to him on his first day and stole him for 75% of the summer. I had to hire another student… Still a bit sore over that one.
I always schedule them the same day if I can. Waiting between interviews does no one any good. I do a 45 minute with them for a one-on-one interview. I have a few the people they’d be working with ready to do more of a technical interview for an hour or so. If things don’t go well after either, I let them know, and we part ways. If they do well, I put them in the yes pile. After one week from the first yes person, I choose the one I think best. Sometimes there is just one. When there’s more, I choose the best fit and let the others know.
One time, when hiring a qa, I had two people who where both great. I really hated having to tell one of them no. A month later, a qa position opened on a different team and I passed on her resume. After she was hired, I sort of poached her from the hiring manager. She still reports to them, but she works entirely on my projects. But that’s an aside.
My point is, a single interview is more than sufficient to hire anyone. The multiple interview crap, that’s become so common, is done solely to stress someone out so they’ll take a lower salary just to stop the stress.
Edit: Grammer
Multiple interviews are also done because there’s far too many people in the hiring chain who don’t really need to be there. I’ve had interviews for lower-level managerial positions where literally the vice president or some other person who clearly has better things to do than to be there, is there just to “be involved”, or (in one case) all hiring decisions had to be run through the VP. I’ve done panel interviews with 6 different HR people at once who clearly just need something to justify their existence.
I once hired a college student for a summer job off his cover letter. Just called him up and said the job is yours if you want it.
I posted a short description of the job on the university job page. I got inundated with long lengthy creative writing letters talking about everything but the job I was posting from hundreds of students.
He went through the requirements on the short job posting and answered each one with a short sentence and paragraph in between.
My supervisor started talking to him on his first day and stole him for 75% of the summer. I had to hire another student… Still a bit sore over that one.