Methinks Thou Doth Protest Too Much, Part 2: The Buyer's Market

I was let go in March. The only employment statistic worse than March's unemployment rate...was April's unemployment rate. So that means I'm up against a lot of competition. I also have to be less mercenary than my competitors: I can't take a 6-month contract and pick up and go, moving anywhere in the country. I have a family to take care of, but neither would you see me sacrificing my time with them to fly somewhere every Monday and come back every Friday.

What this means is that the companies who are looking now have the luxury of picking and choosing. They can also take their time. For my part, I have to commit far more time and effort, and hit the largest number of opportunities to improve my odds. Where a typical job hunt involves a phone pre-screen, a phone interview, and a quick in-person interview, now the decisions I've tried to sway have required the following of me:

• Psychological profiles


• IQ Tests


• Agreement to be investigated for criminal, credit, and personal history


• Online skill assessments


• Preliminary phone screens


• Technical phone screens


• In-person preliminary interviews (usually technical)


• In-person "get to know you and see if you fit with the team" interviews

More than one place has done all of the above. Most at least do a choice of IQ or Personality, then skill assessments, then the rest. It takes a lot of my time, and if you think about it, it takes a lot of their time, too. They have to read resumes, call clients or companies, assemble interview teams and schedule the appointments.

I was told that one place has been through 70 interviewees and still not filled the position. Imagine that for a moment. With three employees managing the process, a conservative estimate will come up with the following numbers:

• Psych/IQ - 1/2 hour (1 employee schedules, evaluates scores, and handles e-mails)


• Resume - 1 hour (2 employees spend a half an hour reading and discussing, and we'll assume they just read the one, and even be generous and lump skill tests in)


• Phone screen - 3 hours (2 employees X 1.5 hours)


• In-person Interview - 4.5 hours (3 employees X 1.5 hours)

Even skipping some steps, we have 9 hours per candidate, times 70 candidates = 630 hours to fill one position. I can't imagine spending 630 work-hours on anything that isn't directly related to a project.

What I haven't figured out is how anyone gets anything done in this model--after all, how many hours in a day do we have?