SoloPoint Insights

How Long To Wait For Feedback After An Interview?

It’s important for job seekers to set realistic expectations on when to receive feedback after an interview. There are many “behind-the-scene” factors that go into the interview process that can take days, weeks and in some rare cases, months to complete. It’s always ideal to entertain other opportunities and follow up continuously with the interviewers, but keep in mind that hiring does take a lot of time.

Glassdoor.com recently conducted a research on how long the interview process is for job seekers from different countries, industries and with different job titles.  After surveying over 300,000 applicants, the most interesting result is that the interview process has lengthened all across the board.

According to Glassdoor.com, there are many factors that contributed to this trend but the most common result they saw is a lot more companies are now ensuring overall compatibility with candidates during the interview process. This led to the current rise of additional candidate screening which includes background checks, drug tests and IQ/Personality/Skills Tests. These candidate screenings tend to add an average of 1.5 to 3.4 days to the interview process.

Other results that stood out included the significant longer timeframe in hiring for technical workers. In comparison to positions such as entry-level sales (5.7 days) and restaurant workers (6.9 days), the average time frame is much greater for those interviewing for technical positions. Software engineers have the highest interview process length with 35 days, while mechanical engineers (listed as product engineers in the research) have an average of 28.1 days. Since the Bay Area predominantly has more technical vacancies, San Jose and San Francisco were among the top 5 cities with the longest interview processes.

In the same research, Glassdoor.com broke down the average timeframe for each round of a typical interview process. Phone interviews have the longest average waiting period of up to 8.2 days. Since phone interviews are usually done in the first round, there tend to be more candidates to be screened.  For in-person interviews, group panel format adds up to 6.8 days on average to the process, whereas one-on-one adds up to 5.3 days. Scheduling is the main reason why group panel interviews are prone to take longer. Getting the hiring committee to come together based on individual availability can cause delays in scheduling interviews and evaluations.

For job seekers, knowing the long duration of an interview process, it’s ideal to start applying for positions at least 30 days prior to leaving your current employer. Do not be discouraged if it has taken awhile in receiving feedback from the interviewer, this does not necessarily mean you’re out of the competition.

To see how SoloPoint can assist you in your job search, call us today at (866)626-3322!

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