The way I see it - who's sitting on the interview panel is more important than the candidate sitting across from them.
And I am being explicit - not equally BUT MORE IMPORTANT But we pay the least attention to that part - by design or by choice.
It’s okay if you don’t agree. But answer this:
- Do you know why your panel is structured the way it is? Is it based on strategy or convenience? Is it intentional or arbitrary?
- Who says they're competent interviewers? Just because your Tech Talent Leader or someone from Y department vouched for them doesn't mean they are good and know how to evaluate talent.
- Are you sure you are not confusing availability with competence? Is the person who's always free to jump on interviews also the best person to interview for the role and represent your company?
- Is someone's shortlist/rejection ratio biasing your opinion? "Oh, he rejects so many candidate - his bar is really high!" That’s flawed logic. Also, just because someone passes too many candidates to the next round doesn't mean they're bad. Maybe the pool presented to them was strong, or the criteria given were so basic that most candidates passed.
- What are they even evaluating for and How? Are they asking the same generic questions over and over? Are they aligned on what success looks like? Or are they winging it?
Facts as is..
- Average panels can’t recognize extraordinary talent - they reject it
- Egos on your panel will sabotage brilliance to protect their own insecurities
- Bias is born in panels, not pipelines (error are made in pipelines)
- Panels sends a signal outs - Good or Bad
- Unprepared interviewers are worse than unaccepted offers
- Most panels don’t represent your culture
- A panel that can't inspire confidence in candidates will never attract top-tier talent, no matter how good your brand is
- You can't fix your hiring funnel if the panel is broken at the core
The way you build and manage your interview panel is a direct reflection of the maturity of your TA philosophy. If you're not intentional about who's in the room, you're straight up gambling.
Talking product sense with Ridhi
9 min AI interview5 questions
Do we even have panels these days?
Most interviews are 1-1 either in person or online. Team Leads or seniors have a 1hr slot in their calendar that they take out between meetings. Usually interviewer comes right from another meeting in completely different frame of mind.
They are either structured or random, have a list of questions/case studies to ask or just "improvise" looking at the CV.
The interviewee usually puts 6-8hr effort in preparing, getting into the mindset. He is anxious, nervous and hopeful. Whereas the other side looks at it as a chore.
Hiring is broken in a similar way as dating because there is a lack of effort and uncountable supply of options to one side.
Most of the time, free or no work guy's joined in interview panel..
Underrated post - Grapevine team please boost this
this is such a powerful statement to make! Would love to see more of such posts on grapevine
This is also true for UPSC Interviews
Food for thought, very good questions. Probably every org should ask themselves this!
So True! Faced similar situation in interview!
Nowadays panels don't matter because the core interview process is solving two medium/hard leetcode problem in 45mins and interviewer is just there to make sure you're not cheating. NGL, this is the utopia that developers have asked for, so that is what they have made the norm. Nobody is serious, on both sides of the table.
This is the real truth. Fantastic update.
Can’t agree more