Acme Career Blog

Copyright © 2000-2003 by John Sullivan

“Too much of a good thing is bad for you” is true for both “sweets” and for interviews.

I was at Agilent Technologies the other day when one of their many talented HR reps described “over interviewing” with the accurate and humorous phrase “death by interview.” I laughed and I couldn’t have agreed more!

Because of the threats of lawsuits, HR departments have become increasingly conservative in how they screen candidates. Physical ability, mental ability, personality and even skill tests have gone by the wayside as a result of this fear. All that is left from a once broad array of screening devices is the resume scan, the reference check and the interview. Now one can argue the point about the predictive value of interviews (as I often do) but the real issue here is that, in many cases, companies have increased the number of interviews to make up for the absence of these other screening tools. Unfortunately what has occurred is a dramatic growth in the number of interviews that candidates are subjected to before they can be offered a job. The number of interviews has proliferated like rabbits. Where one or two interviews used to be common, one firm I know now demands 5 – 10 while another averaged over 17 before realizing the disastrous consequences.

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