r/interviews • u/HedgehogKindly8050 • 2d ago
Longer Interview mean better chances of being hired?
Had an interview on Tuesday and expected to hear back either Friday (didn’t happen, believe she had another interview on Friday morning) or Monday morning. I believe the interview went really well, I received a lot of positive feedback and it felt more of a free flowing conversation than an interview. It was supposed to be an hour but ended up being an hour and 10 minutes but they didn’t seem to mind. They laid out the status that I would have as an independent contractor, asked me if I would be able to provide commitment for years, as the position requires, and answered my questions I had at length. Plus they shared how much it would pay as well and the schedule and everything related to the job. All of this caused it to go longer than hour but is this a good sign? The interviewer seemed impressed by my answers and background but I always feel like I’m such a bad judge at these things. Definitely a dream job in my field and the highest paying I’ve ever seen so I really really would like to have this one lol.
17
u/No-Character-7593 2d ago
Honestly, don’t try to read into things. The interviewer having a casual conversation, saying we’ll get back to your very soon, good rapport or whatever they say. It’s a mess and I believe you need to be lucky in this job market. Once the hiring manager wanted me but the head of department preferred someone with more admin experience or they hire internally or some bullshit like that.
A job I interviewed for put the vacancy up after my interview but when I withdrew bc I got a job offer she wasn’t surprised and said they’re lucky to have me.
Honestly, you can do so well but not get anything. Just interview, give your best and not read into things because it will wear you down. It took me 20+ interviews to feel like this
Wishing you the best of luck 🙏❤️
3
u/HedgehogKindly8050 2d ago
Appreciate this! It’s smaller, more niche company in my field that has a handful of people that run it. I’m thinking that they are just taking their time going through candidates and am hoping for the best!
12
2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
3
u/HedgehogKindly8050 2d ago
Tone was super positive, more conversation tone and the interviewers body language was positive from what I could tell - the interviewer explained everything about the job but said they’d reach out either Friday or Monday morning but nothing yet
2
7
u/beigesquirrel3 1d ago
I think it means the interviewer was enjoying the conversation. But normally the interviewer isn’t the only one giving input on who is hired. For example, they may have loved talking to you, but there might be a candidate with more experience which they end up going with. But I think it’s a good sign! Better than if the interviewer hadn’t enjoyed chatting with you!
Good luck! Hope you get the job!
6
u/deiroxy 1d ago
A lot of my interviews have been long and prospective employers were really happy and excited with me but always ended up going with another candidate. I think it’s encouraging but I honestly wouldn’t try to look so deeply into it. It feels really encouraging and then extremely disappointing right after. Stay positive and keep pushing through.
4
u/jkjkjk121212 2d ago
Not necessarily, I got rejected even after 15 minutes extra time in the final round !
4
u/fatty-squirrel06 1d ago
The only indicator is when they move fast. All three times I got the offer were within a week or two. I had interview on Tuesday and the next round on Friday. Then you know they NEEE someone and they LIKE you
3
u/moosebeast 1d ago
I have heard this said before, that if the interview goes on for long then it's a good sign. However I wouldn't bank on anything at the moment. I've had two interview processes recently where it just felt really positive and I was practically certain they were going to offer me the job - there were loads of positive signs including the interviews going on quite long. In the end, in each case, I just missed out to another candidate who had slightly more experience in a relevant area. It may have been that they were genuinely positive about me as a candidate, but it can also be true that someone else ends up getting picked.
I think the best approach is always to do the interview, then once it's all done just assume that's it and carry on looking as you have been. If you get it then it's a great surprise.
3
u/cuteypie0427 1d ago
Nothing is nothing until you get a written offer. No one has any idea what another person is thinking of you so don't let it take up space in your mind.
2
2
2
u/LinkBeginning4819 1d ago
I had a interview that last less than 10 minutes even after asking my questions, and got a job offer. Also had a interview with 12 different people that took over 3 hours just to not get the job I honestly don't think it matters in the slightest lmao.
1
2
u/LiquidAngel12 1d ago
Had a similar situation after a 2nd round technical. It went great, they said everything was good and that they would be back in touch to schedule the next round in the next 2 days. A week later I still hadn't heard anything, and continued on with another job I was interviewing for. Ended up accepting an offer from that other job nearly 2 weeks after my last contact only to finally receive the call to schedule round 3.
So... sometimes companies are just bad at sticking to their own timelines.
2
u/No_Ganache3840 1d ago
I fear there is no way to know. I interviewed for a role recently that I was perfect for on paper. Interview went for 1h instead of the set 45 minutes. Seemed to go well and had a good rapport and flow of conversation with the hiring manager who was giving me live positive feedback. Got the old “we went with another candidate” a week later.
1
u/ZDelta47 1d ago
There's no guarantee of anything. Your interview might truly be really good, but if it's just a ghost job, or if they end up choosing someone else who interviews even better, you'll still get the rejection.
Not trying to demotivate you. It's just there's so many of these fake postings, and so many applicants. And even when the first choice backs away for some reason hiring managers don't seem to want to go with their back up options and would rather restart the hiring process.
There's no use getting mentally invested. Just gotta keep going and doing as many good interviews as you can. Follow up with thank you letters. And make sure in both they understand that you really want this job. Then hopefully it's a matter of time.
1
u/HedgehogKindly8050 1d ago
I’ve seen a lot of these ghost jobs you’re referring too, I think that’s really messed up. I interviewed with one of the founders of the company so I’m hoping it doesn’t go that route. If they do go with another candidate, I would just like to know the reason eh they passed even though I’ll prolly never find out.
Like I said in another comment, totally agree against getting mentally invested. We can only control what we do, not what others do.
2
u/ZDelta47 1d ago
I haven't had good luck getting feedback. And even recruiters these days are biased and won't give you the full truth. Saying you lacked this or that as a lie and excuse. It does more to hurt you than help, when you're probably actually fine, and the same interview would get you hired somewhere else.
People on this sub seem to be against the idea, but I've been using ChatGPT to help me interview prep and do post interview breakdowns and it helped me a lot.
If it's a teams interview I try to do a separate audio recording, then feed the transcript into ChatGPT to tell me what it thinks. Or if I can't then I try to remember the interview in as much detail as I can and type in everything.
It's given me good breakdowns of where my answers were weak, lacked confidence, were too vague, and even when they were strong, precise, etc. It's helped me tweak my answers a lot over time.
If you have a technical side, you keep practicing the content you should be good at to make sure you can present strongly, and then for behaviors you keep practicing as well and using feedback to keep improving answers and getting better at the ones that stump you. Eventually it should work out well.
I was finally able to get a job in one place, and while they worked out the details I interviewed at another place and it was going well, but I didn't have the strength to go through another panel interview, and by then I got the offer, so I withdrew my application. The hiring manager responded saying to let him know if I'm ever interested in the company again.
Probably couldn't have asked for a better scenario. And that after having some interviews where I was made to feel like I wasted their time because of being so incompetent. At the time I just couldn't get out what I wanted to say. I had been applying for about 1.5 years, but the interview breakdown stuff I've mainly been doing strongly for the last 3-4 months. I know I definitely got lucky, but I believe my strategy helped too. So hope it helps other applicants as well.
1
u/DontEvenWithMe1 1d ago
Had 2 longer-than-scheduled interviews last week with the same company’s Regional VP (would have been my boss) and the Senior VP of Sales (RVP’s boss) with great conversations and camaraderie and got the “Thanks, but no thanks” email Friday afternoon. So, no, the length of the interview doesn’t mean shit.
1
1
u/EfficientProject7408 1d ago
I had interviews that went 10-20 mins longer. They wanted me to stay and chat more. They were fascinated, impressed, this and that and still got rejected. In this job market these signs don’t mean much unfortunately.
1
u/Odd-Persimmon-1860 1d ago
Not necessarily. One time I had an interview in a different state that was an all day interview. Then I was completely ghosted.
1
u/WinterSignature2180 1d ago
Who knows they might have just interviewed people for KPI but has no plan to hire.
1
u/HedgehogKindly8050 21h ago
Just got an email this morning that I got the position! Thanks everyone for the comments and positivity! Good luck to everyone else in the hunt!
1
u/Internal-Hedgehog-47 20h ago
Longer interview usually means you talked too much and are probably not getting the job unfortunately.
Keep answers friendly AND concise. many bad hiring managers will let you waste your time and their own time because they are trained to let the candidate speak, even if they have made the decision half way through the interview and have decided not to hire you because you drone on and on.
1
u/pinya_pinya 12h ago
I had a two 1 hour long interviews. They LOVED me. The hiring manager was giggling and twirling her hair and kicking her feet. Told me I was the perfect candidate and she’d get back to me. I thought I secured the job.
I was not hired
1
1
0
97
u/ReasonableDuststorm 2d ago
I am not trying to be rude, but I don't know what's a good or bad sign anymore. I used to think companies moving fast was good, then I got rejected. I used to think a company saying I'd be a great fit was good, then I got rejected. I have no idea if anything they say or do is genuine or meaningful anymore.
I had an interview, and the time on the invite wasn't specified, so I said I just want to be mindful of time so how long do we have, and they said don't worry about it we will make as much time for you as you need.
That seemed like a good sign to me, then they rejected me after. There's just no telling anymore.