[beachstartup]

let me ask you a serious question, notroll -- have you ever been asked more than 15 minutes of questions by a candidate, in an interview? i have not, and i've interviewed probably 300-400 people in my life.

i interview almost exclusively over the phone, and we don't fly people out to waste days of their life, or have more than 3 rounds of phone discussions, so maybe that's where this disconnect.

[vonmoltke]

That seems like a really odd way to interview. If you really are relying on phone interviews to make a decision, then you bet my ass I'm asking you more than 15 minutes worth of questions over the phone (if I have them).

[beachstartup]

why is this odd? we hire remote workers. after 90 minutes of conversations (30 mins. x 3 rounds typically), it pretty much covers everything just fine. more than 15 minutes is half the scheduled time for each call.

occasionally a very good candidate will talk for an hour or more, but that's an actual conversation, not a Q&A session.

http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html

also, i didn't ask "theoretically would you ask more than 15 mins. of questions", i said, have you been asked more than 15 minutes by a candidate, that you were interviewing.

in the real world, most people don't ask any questions. it's exceptional that we'll get thoughtful questions, and those are usually the people we hire/offer. and of those people, nobody has more than 15 minutes worth. and people who can't even answer basic questions like "how do you list the network connections on a linux machine" aren't given the opportunity to ask questions, because the call is over.

again, a long-winded technical discussion is a different thing, i'm talking about "tell me about your enterprise ticketing system and how many pointless meetings per week you have" type of questions.