HR staff, like everyone else now, is most concerned about preserving their own jobs. If you have stupid upper management and a shady HR head you wind up with 32 interviews as a company standard.

Isn’t it ironic that HR, who should be concerned with aligning benefits with corporate goals, should have their benefit (job security) aligned with such wasteful practices as excessive, futile rounds of the “hiring” process. If this is truly the motivation, that company is indeed in a sad state of affairs.

I’d like to think I would have too, but the thing is, they never say, “We’d like you to have 32 interviews.” They say, “Can you come in one more time?” or “We’d like you to speak with Jane.” And by that time you’ve already invested so much time and effort into this thing and it’s just *one* more…

It’s so unethical.

Yeah, well, the title fits, unfortunately. HR can do great things. Honestly, it can. But, things like this drive me nuts and they do damage to everyone else who works hard.

I honestly don’t understand why companies don’t see what terrible damage they do to their reputation when their recruiting practices are so awful.

I’m…speechless. I think I would have drawn the line at five. A company that can’t make a decision after four or five interviews (and even that seems excessive to me) isn’t one I want to work for. I can only imagine what requisitioning a pen would entail.

My favorite line is “candidates were stupid not to understand how hiring really works.”

That really encapsulates the fundamental problem with HR: HR is never wrong. It’s everyone else who is wrong because they expect better from HR.

You were so wise to choose the title of Evil HR Lady. So appropriate to the industry.

-Diana