This is an anonymous post sent in by a member who does not want their name disclosed. Please be thoughtful with your responses, as these are usually tough posts to write. Email sloan@dev.to if you'd like to leave an anonymous comment or if you want to ask your own anonymous question.
In my company we are taking around 6-8 interviews per week (20-30 mins each).
This is because we are facing a resource shortage in our company because of the covid situation, I think.
Is it normal for a software engineer to take this many interviews + the daily work or is it just for me? I think taking interviews is a task/job in itself it is not a side job that one can do with their main work. What do you think?
Top comments (6)
Are 6-8 interviews a lot? That all depends on context that is missing from your question. What kind of context?
Now, if you're feeling stressed by the volume of interviews and your regular responsibilities haven't been adjusted to compensate for the loss of time, then I would encourage you to have a conversation with your manager. A good manager will work either adjust your workload, or reduce the number of interviews your fielding - based on what the priorities of the org are.
You could also ask your manager to schedule interviews during certain times of the day/week, that way you can focus on your daily responsibilities in-between interview blocks.
Generally speaking, it's rarely not in your favor to participate in the interview process. If you're being asked to interview candidates, it's likely because you'll have to work alongside them. This gives you a voice in the decision making process, one that becomes more valuable as you experience both good and bad team members.
Yes and No. Please, let me explain! For obvious reasons, HR people cannot help you. The company needs your technical knowledge for these interviews. Now, let me focus on one important thing:
IT IS normal for a software engineer to take interviews. It is NOT normal to have too many interviews per week. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean it's unreasonable, as your company is facing a resource shortage. Having a technical interview is one of those tasks that you will have to do eventually. Unfortunately, it is not a job itself. Example: HR people like recruiters have more responsibilities than just interviews.
Finally, If you consider you cannot handle the task for whatever reason (Maybe investing 4 hours a week on technical interviews is impacting bad on your main job), talk to your boss and see what can be done.
Best of luck!
You are absolutely correct that interviewing is a significant task. Consider that you want to do both a bit of homework for the specific candidate but also acclimate to the process. Then you need to synthesize that interview as well as give feedback. That can be a lot of context shifting.
If you are finding that this is impacting your sense of "am I getting my other work done?" check with your supervisor. Work the make sure that as you spend time interviewing they know that your other capacity will go down. That also assumes you have a manager that's not trying to squeeze ever ounce of "productivity" out of you.
Interviews or meetings?
I think it's normal, but if you feel its too much maybe you can talk to the recruiter/manager. Or maybe your company needs to review their hiring process too.
90 per month if needed