I've had 17 interviews for four jobs; I'm exhausted and burned out

• A tech worker has been looking for a job for the better part of two years.
• The person has had 17 interviews for four jobs since October and feels exhausted by the process.

This as-told-to essay is based on an interview with a tech worker who has been job-hunting for the better part of two years. The worker has had 17 interviews for four jobs since October. This person spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing their career. Business Insider has verified their identity. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I started looking for a job in October. I applied for a bunch of jobs. I heard back from four of them. I added it up the other day: I have now been on 17 interviews across four jobs. And I actually did just get an offer from one though I don't think I'm going to take it.

With the others, it's fine if I don't get an offer, but at least just reject me already. But it seems like rather than rejecting me, they just seem to keep going — adding on another stage.

For one job, which is like a hybrid role, I had two phone interviews and then they asked me to come in, which is fine. But they said, "Can you come in next week on this day, at this time? It's the only time slot we have available." I said, "Alright. Fine, we'll just make it work." They said in December they really wanted to wrap this up before the end of the year. So I go and interview in person with four people. And then here we are almost a month later, in January, and I have heard nothing.

Then the other two jobs are the two that have been insane. Unfortunately, I've interviewed for so many jobs over the past two or three years because when I was at one employer, I was really unhappy and was trying to leave. I got tons of interviews and, made it to final rounds, but just never could stick the landing.

Then I took a job at a startup. The startup five months later shut down and I got laid off. So then I had to do a new round of applying and interviewing. Then I took my most recent job, which was a terrible fit and I was very unhappy. So within three months of starting that job, I started applying and interviewing for more jobs. I feel like I've just been in a nonstop job interview cycle for two years now. It's all so insane.

Having so many interviews makes me question the hiring process

I don't even have to prepare really anymore because I've done it so many times. Particularly in this round, nobody's asked me a question that I haven't already been asked. So I have all the examples ready. It's like, "Oh, tell me about a time when blah blah blah." It's like, "Oh, yeah, I know what to say for that one." I've got all the like scenarios worked out. So I guess in that sense, it is a little bit easier.

I was thinking about this the other day: Is this really the best way to determine whether you're a good fit for a job — having a couple of 30-minute conversations? I mean I don't know what the alternative is. My last job was such a bad fit. It was like, is there anything I should have seen? I don't think so. It's not like companies are going to tell you, "Oh yeah, we make you work long hours and we're not going to train you. We're not going to give you any support." It's not like anybody's ever going to be honest about that.

You always have to be on

Then there's this other job. I had the first screen with HR. I had an initial conversation with the hiring manager. He was like, "Oh, I'd love to continue this conversation." So I had another conversation with him in which I was a little more prepared and studied up on their product and their company and had a little more sort of a targeted conversation there.

Then he had me talk to two people at the company who were supposed to be more sort of culture fit — more casual conversations. I feel like they say that. "Oh, yeah, it's just a casual conversation for you to ask questions." But it's not like you can ever be casual when you're trying to get a job. You're always performing. And you always have to be on because they're evaluating you. And yeah, sure, you're evaluating them. But the stakes are not even.

So I had two of those interviews. I was like, "OK, cool. Probably we're done." And then the following week, it was like, "Oh, I want you to talk to two more people." Initially, that job was my top choice of the four. But for some reason, when that happened, it really just left a sour taste in my mouth. It really turned me off because I just feel like you're wasting my time. How much more do you need?

I get it, particularly at a small company. It's a startup. Every hire carries a little bit more weight versus if you're just another employee at IBM or Google or whatever.

Still, it just feels like it's a waste of everyone's time. Since I've been interviewing for two years, there was one where they had me do an initial HR screening. Then I had a conversation with the hiring manager and they made me do five interviews of 45 minutes each. They were spaced out over a week or two. And then I just never even heard back from them. It was unbelievable because it was such a waste of my time — but also such a waste of their employees' time.

I'm going through this again now. I had to do three panel interviews of 45 minutes each, which seems to be more of a thing at bigger companies. I'm always like, "Oh, if I'm doing these 45-minute panels, that's a lot of time to invest." Having your employees spend an hour each talking to somebody, I've got to be a finalist, right? But I don't know. Surely they're not putting 10 people through these hourslong processes.

I did those two conversations for that startup, which ended up being like the sixth or seventh interviews, and then I was just sort of like, whatever. I have yet to hear anything back from them.

The one I'm interviewing for now, I had a conversation with a recruiter in November. I didn't hear anything. I thought I didn't pass the screening. Finally, I heard from them after Christmas. Then I had the hiring manager call. That was 45 minutes and then I've had these three 45-minute conversations and then there's one more beyond this. I'm just so exhausted.

They're wasting my time, but they obviously don't care about my time because I'm nothing to them but a candidate. And they just have candidates lined out the door, particularly right now, where so many people are out of jobs.

It's a total crapshoot

I also think having been on the other side of things, where I hired someone, I had just three rounds. And the person I ended up hiring was horrible. But she was great in the interviews. So it's also one of those things where I just feel like, at the end of the day, we're spending all this time doing all these interviews. Ultimately, it's a total crapshoot of whether that person actually does what they say they do, or whether they're just good at interviewing. Or, like in my case, where maybe they made the job sound really great. But then you take it and it turns out to be something totally different. All of this interviewing and all this time that we're spending, we might as well just be rolling the dice.

Companies, understandably, have wanted to spread the decision beyond just the hiring manager. It's also the people who are going to work with this person and you want to get their impressions and their take on it. But I feel like we've overextended. Do you really need 10 colleagues' opinions?

After that job made me do interviews six and seven, you can't help but wonder, is this how they run the company? Are they going to be this indecisive every time a decision has to be made? Where's the leadership? Somebody needs to just come in and make decisions at some point.

Everybody's tightened their budgets and hiring is much harder than it was in the low-interest rate era. Before you'd be like, "Sure, you get a budget for five people." Now you only get a budget for one and so clearly everybody's so worried about making a mistake on a hire that they're just stretching this process out for so long.

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