I'm not sure I agree that 8 interviews, including 2 all day on-sites, was ever regular for a new grad role. I haven't even come close to such a gauntlet. Does an employee need to round robin interview with every interviewee these days to get a good hire?
I wasn’t a new grad, but was a newish industry hire (couple years experience) and experienced that several times. Before and after the dot-com crash. It wasn’t atypical before the talent competition situation we had for 5-6 years pre-Covid.
It’s a confluence of several factors now:
- lots of stories of candidate fraud floating around (either bait and switch, lying about qualifications, “over employment”, etc.)
- much higher supply of talent due to layoffs and hiring slowdowns, and hence better negotiating position for employers. Previously the FAANGs were sucking up such a huge amount of talent, it left everyone else pretty desperate.
- strategic uncertainty around future market/financial/hiring situations, so companies are being a lot more conservative with what they commit to, and wanting a more ‘secure’ fit before they pull the trigger.
Same is happening in the dating market in some ways.
This had to have been only for FAANG companies right? I'm not saying it's unheard of, but I've done dozens of interviews and I've never had more than 1 all day on site. I'm not even sure anything else even justifies it in terms of time spent interviewing and compensation levels.
None of these were FAANG companies. This was long before FAANG was a term, btw.
FAANG companies, even 3-4 years after the dot-com crash, were 8 something hours - but over a single day, all at once. Grueling to put it mildly. Though lunch was in there too.
The other companies were pretty mellow comparatively, but did take longer.
The one I ended up working at (small no name company in the midwest), I flew out and spent 2 days interviewing and negotiating with.
