I go through this dance a fair bit. At least for us, we're totally serious about hiring. It's just that we're very fussy.
To understand why, think about what we hope to happen. If we do things right, then anybody we hire today will be a de-facto leader two years from now, because they're one of the people who's been around since the early days. Any code they write will be in core parts of the system. And they're going to have a big effect on who we can hire next, because potential hires are going to judge our company partly by them.
We definitely try not to waste anybody's time. But we also don't want to miss a good candidate; some really solid programmers don't interview well. But as soon as we're sure, we politely stop the process and thank them for their time.
Fair point. I suppose it depends what you considerable a reasonable amount of time to evaluate a potential employee. All in all, it took me about two weeks to run the gauntlet at my current job (a startup), and I don't think that's unreasonable, given how busy everybody is.
If you keep getting passed over, however, I can see how that starts to really mount up.
Interviewing is a tricky thing. I have been on both sides of the court, and it is very difficult to get a good idea about a candidate's potential simply from the resume/cover letter.
If you keep getting contacted by companies for interviews, but fail to get past that stage, I would recommend two things.
1. Make absolutely sure that your resume is accurate. If, in the interview, it looks like you 'embellished' your qualifications on your resume a bit too much, it is guaranteed to get you tossed into the 'no' pile.
2. Work on your interview skills. It is surprising how bad some people interview. It took me a couple practice tries before I really became comfortable with the process.
To understand why, think about what we hope to happen. If we do things right, then anybody we hire today will be a de-facto leader two years from now, because they're one of the people who's been around since the early days. Any code they write will be in core parts of the system. And they're going to have a big effect on who we can hire next, because potential hires are going to judge our company partly by them.
We definitely try not to waste anybody's time. But we also don't want to miss a good candidate; some really solid programmers don't interview well. But as soon as we're sure, we politely stop the process and thank them for their time.