What you can tell from the length of your interview (2023)

FAQs

Does a longer interview mean anything? ›

If you find the interview going on much longer than the scheduled time allotted, it's a good sign. Many hiring managers are busy and interviewing a number of candidates takes serious time. Therefore they're unlikely to spend excess time speaking with you unless they're genuinely interested in hiring you.

Takeaways. Ultimately, the length of the interview isn't something to stress over too much because 33% of hiring managers make their minds up within the first 90 seconds. This goes back to making a great first impression.

The idea of the 15-min phone interview is simple. You're only asking them a few short questions and the key things you're looking for are: Can they stick to the time they've been given? Can they convey their point concisely and explicitly?

This interview technique is similar to speed dating. Employers have the chance to assess multiple candidates within minutes and then choose those who are most likely to meet their requirements. The interviews can be conducted online or in person, but you may also screen candidates over the phone.

Personality, technical proficiency, education, and cultural fit are just a few of the traits hiring managers consider when deciding which job candidate to hire. During an interview, job candidates are also measured on their accomplishments and potential value to the company.

That said, a short interview doesn't always mean you're out of the running. On the contrary, a short interview could actually mean you are the ideal candidate. In other cases, it might simply be a result of poor scheduling by a swamped recruiter, points out Glassdoor.com.

Is a 30 minute interview short? ›

If your interview was 30 minutes long, then it was just long enough. Hiring managers will generally schedule about 30 minutes to interview a candidate for most position levels. If you lasted the full 30 minutes, you know that you answered the questions well.

Some times a 20 min interview is done to just evaluate your experience to see if you are a good fit or not. And it is basically done by a recruiter. In that case 20 min interview is ok. But if your interview is scheduled for 1 hour but it ends in 20 min then it's a sign that they don't want to proceed with you.

Short interviews with good signs

You can tell a lot in about 30 minutes, even if you need more than that to make a final decision. So short interviews aren't necessarily a bad thing. Then again … sometimes a short interview is simply because we know right away, for any number of reasons, that it's a bad match.

Mention the company's goals or mission in your response, connecting them to yourself. Tell stories. Add personal stories to your interview answers that create interest and make you memorable. Use examples to show how you solved problems or accomplished things in the past.

Sometimes interviews are short because everyone in the room has all the information they need. And often times, when everyone's on the same page this quickly, it means you did a pretty good job. So if an interviewer seemingly cuts a meeting short with you, don't panic. It's not necessarily bad news.

HR professionals should keep these biases in mind; they should schedule a strong candidate first, perhaps the strongest candidate last and the weaker candidates in the middle of the process. Doing so will help hiring managers focus and find the best person for the job.

The recency effect results in better recall of the most recent event or information presented. These two effects combined are said to lead the earliest and latest event or information being recalled best, for instance the first and last people interviewed will be better remembered than the middle candidate.

1. INTERVIEWER SHOWED CONNECTION AND AGREEMENT. If the interviewer seemed to be in agreement with what you were saying, then that's a good sign that you checked all the right boxes. Every time they said “Okay” or “Sure,” they meant that you were giving the kind of answers expected of the right candidate.

What days of the week do employers make job offer calls? While employers can call with a job offer any day of the week, Tuesday is statistically the most popular day to send out offers, closely followed by Thursday.

What impresses a hiring manager? ›

The more the interviewer talks about what is going on in their company and how you will fit in, the better. It means they are selling it to you and potentially see you as the answer to what they want.

If after about ten to fifteen days, you have not received any follow-up emails or phone calls to tell you about the “Next steps”, this usually means you did not get the job. If even after sending a thank-you email to the interviewer they never get back to you, this is a sign that you are not going to get the job.

In general, if you don't hear back from the hiring manager two weeks after they told you they'd be in contact, you can probably assume the company has decided to go with another candidate.

Tardiness or not showing up for interview on-time. Personality problems or irrational behavior. Overly aggressive or manipulative behavior. Unrealistic goals, career and job expectations.

Hiring managers and recruiters work closely together to hire for open positions. The hiring manager will be your direct supervisor if you are hired. They are the final decision maker on job offers. Your earliest interviews (after the recruiter screening) will likely be with the hiring manager.

Do open interviews hire on the spot? Yes, in many cases a job offer is made at the end of an open interview. However, sometimes an employer will request that the candidate return for a second interview or they state that they will inform the candidate of their choice in the near future.

38 percent of professionals voted that a good first interview should last 45 minutes. We agree! If your first interview lasted about 45 minutes, that is generally a good sign that the employer was interested in bringing you on board. If your interview was longer or shorter, keep reading.

In-person job interviews last between 45 and 90 minutes on average. If an interview lasts 15 minutes or less, it's probably not a good one. If it's 30 minutes long, it's just not long enough. That said, 45 to 90 minutes is the golden number - and that's not just one of the random interview facts.

How long is too long after a job interview? ›

A brief expression of gratitude will help fix you in the employer's mind and speaks to a polite, professional disposition. Once you've dispatched that, the real waiting game begins. As a general rule of thumb, you're best to wait between one and two weeks during the interview process before reaching out again.

The recommended timeframe for this is between two and four weeks. If the process takes any longer than four weeks, the risk of losing those A-level candidates to another company rises dramatically.