How common is it that hiring managers waste peoples' time in job interviews?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I've been getting three to five interviews per week on a consistent basis lately. Usually, I'm contacted by recruiters and they submit my resume to hiring managers. About 90% of the time, hiring managers express interest in having a phone interview.

I state my accomplishments, skills, experience, and education on my resume as accurately and detailed as possible--I pretty much lay it out clearly. In phone interviews, when I explain my accomplishments and skills, I provide answers that are as detailed and relevant to the job descriptions as possible while staying concise. I even have to prevent myself from giving over-detailed answers because I have a ton to say about the projects I've worked on previously. There are URLs to a GitHub portfolio, PowerPoint presentations on technical domains, and a Tableau Public profile easily accessible at the top of my LinkedIn profile.

Colleagues at my current job have written recommendations on my LinkedIn profile as well. I also focus on being as personable and conversational as possible.

However, I'm not being chosen for the jobs I'm interviewing for, and based on feedback, I don't explain my skills and accomplishments well enough. Or there might be a set of skills that a hiring manager has detailed questions about (sometimes, as a surprise), that aren't listed anywhere on my resume or the job description.

What is the best way to get around this issue? I'm having a difficult time understanding why these hiring managers want to interview me, yet I'm being rejected so nonchalantly.

Am I being invited to interviews that are a waste of time?

manpreet 2 years ago

Good hiring managers interview enough people to find somebody to hire. It may be that the first person they interview is the ultimate winner, or it could be the last person they interview, or somebody in the middle. Sometimes corporate policy may dictate a minimum number of people they have to interview.

Less effective hiring managers never pick a person to hire. They are in a constant cycle of advertise, gather resumes, do phone interviews, do in person interviews, decide nobody passed the test, and then start over.

What is the best way to get around this issue? I'm having a difficult time understanding why these hiring managers want to interview me, yet I'm being rejected so nonchalantly.

They interview you becasue you do well on the resume review. You meet the keyword check, and you seem to have enough years of experience. They reject you becasue compared to the others they interview you are not standing out.

The fact that you mention feedback means that you are getting details that other people on this site beg for. We have many questions about candidates being ghosted, and wanting some feedback,,,any feedback.

Deciding how to rack and stack the candidates isn't done nonchalantly. They hope it is easy to make a decision, but many times there are too many good candidates.

Am I being invited to interviews that are a waste of time?

No they are not doing it to waste your time. It is not cost effective to bring extra people in for an interview, then pay 5 current employees to spend an hour with each candidate just for fun.