It’s not just your imagination: tech job interviews are getting worse

In tech’s heyday, you might’ve been asked in an interview why manhole covers are round or how many golf balls could fit in a school bus.

But now, big tech companies are trading in brain teasers for something far worse: labor-intensive interview processes that seem to never end.

Circuitous interviewing — oftentimes with a lot of waiting around, ghosting, and unpaid work — is something many have experienced.

We’re not just impatient, though. The time to hire has actually gotten longer, increasing across all industries to a 44-day average in 2023, up a full day from 2022.

And even interviews for technical jobs — often the highest paid positions aside from the C-suite — are getting grueling, per Wired.

• In 2023, ~263k workers were laid off from ~1.2k tech companies — with ~15k of those estimated to be engineers. In 2024, more than 42k tech employees have already been let go.
• On job site Interviewing.io, job seekers shell out $225+ for mock interviews with tech hiring managers. Scoring a “thumbs up” on a technical interview rose in difficulty by 22% since 2022, according to site data.

Plus, on anonymous apps like Reddit and Blind — popular with engineers — vent sessions have illuminated the growing trend of seemingly impossible tech interviews.

Falling from grace

Interviews for technical jobs are more than just an awkward Zoom call: candidates report extreme exercises like coding apps from scratch or crafting in-depth project evaluations — all on tight deadlines (and without compensation).

The experience is a far cry from the ping pong tables and kegs of yore, signaling the ways the industry is changing as companies recalibrate post-pandemic.

There’s also a new whiz kid to compete with: artificial intelligence. Generative AI is not only changing what positions companies are hiring for, but also how applicants apply and interview for jobs.

Like, um, this time a candidate used ChatGPT to generate a live script during a video interview for an engineering job.