The interview process can be rough, nerve-racking and even scary. As sweat starts to make that freshly pressed button down stick to your back, you start to second-guess yourself, and you can never be too sure what you’re walking into. For most of us, this is the nature of the interview, and there are some companies that fully embrace the fear inducing aspects of the interview process.

Glassdoor recently published a study on the interview processes of several companies that offer up some of the more intense interview practices. Their report, called, “The Top 25 Most Difficult Companies to Interview”, revealed that tech companies are responsible for almost half of the list.

The leading tech companies know exactly how prestigious these positions can be, so their hiring processes are getting lengthier, harder and more detailed. They are adding interview rounds, and it looks like these hoops are affecting the candidate experience. The top 3 toughest tech companies to interview with, which were ThoughtWorks, Google and Hubspot, had an average positive candidate experience around 66%.

Top tech positions are extremely competitive and so are their recruiting processes. The entire hiring process is getting more rigorous. Screening has become far more strict, then on to multiple interview rounds and endless test. These candidates need to be ready for tough questions, problem solving activities and pressure tests. These tech companies are conducting behavioral and stress interviews to gauge how candidates will react to situations and pressure.

Although these companies are hard on their candidates, these tougher hiring processes are translating to higher retention and more employee satisfaction. When companies demand several interview rounds, it actually gives the candidate ample time and opportunity to engage with employees, get a sense of the company culture and get honest answers to their questions. These lengthier and more in depth processes seem to aim at making sure there is a good fit for both the employer and the candidate.

Here are some take-aways from survey:

• Ranked at #5, Bain and Company was the only company on the list to have the honor of a 0% negative candidate experience. Impressive! 
• Pay.com had the highest negative candidate experience score at 52%, with only 35% of their candidates reporting a positive experience. 
• It came as no surprise to us that Facebook reported the highest employee satisfaction with a score of 4.8 out of 5. 
• Avaya ranked the lowest in employee satisfaction, at 2.9. 
• BlackRock and Pay.com still believe in a snappy interview process, with average lengths of 12 days.
• TeachForAmerica likes to take their time with an average interview process length of almost 2 months (55 days).

While these are some interesting numbers, we didn’t see any notable correlations across the board. Things that we might have expected to see, like maybe a tie between lower average days of the interview process and positive candidate experience, weren’t present. It just goes to show that each company has to design their hiring processes for their own specific needs. There is no magic number of days for the interview process, and there is no secret recipe for a positive candidate experience. Creating a tailored experience with the company and candidate in mind is the way to go in hiring and recruiting. 

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photo credit: josip2 via photopin cc