If you've been through the job interview process either on the hiring or hoping-to-be-hired end, you know it's taking longer than ever to go from application to accepted/rejected. But how much longer?
New York Times reporter Catherine Rampell decided to find out. Rather than do her own survey, she "asked" Glassdoor, a website dedicated to the hiring process, to provide her with its experiential data.
Here's what Glassdoor reported: In 2009, its users said the average time for the job interview process was 13 days. Last year, it was up to 23 days.
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Ten days in four years? And with companies across the land scrambling to fill spots left vacant since the recession? Yep, that's what they said.
Now, Rampell admits that Glassdoor's data is far from comprehensive. "Take it with a grain of salt," she wrote on her blog. Nonetheless, Glassdoor's data merits further dissection.
For instance:
The average Glassdoor hiring process time only increased from 12 to 13 days between 2009 and 2011. In 2012, it jumped to 18, then to 23 last year.
In that period, when Glassdoor asked its users to rate the interview experience as either positive, negative or neutral, the positive responses rose from 51 percent in 2010 to 66 percent in 2013. Is longer better? Not necessarily, as negative rose from 12 percent to 18 percent.
The biotech hiring process is the longest, approaching 30 days last year. Restaurants, bars and food service saw the shortest, averaging 12 days last year. The education hiring process spiked between 2012 and 2013, rising from about 20 days in 2012 to about 28 days last year. Another spiker was media, up from about 16 days in 2012 to 23 last year.
Rampell could offer no rationale for this trend.
"It's not clear why companies are taking so long to hire, given the abundance of available workers; dragging your feet and conducting more interviews is not only frustrating for applicants, but also expensive for employers, who must devote managers' time and other resources in this vetting process," she wrote.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
