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Ask HN: HR asks for a tidied up presentation after final round, is this normal?

5 points by mitsuchen ↗ HN
I recently applied for a job and passed four rounds of interviews (not including phone interviews). The first round was a database coding assignment; the second round was a general knowledge interview; the third round was a case study interview; the final round was a presentation on a real-world problem that I had a week to prepare.

They got in touch with me again and said that the presentation I gave was good, but they want me to "make my presentation more beautiful". Is this normal for a junior position? It's starting to feel like they are just dangling a carrot in front of me for reasons that I don't understand. The only reason I can think of is if I am up against a few other candidates who also delivered good presentations, and it all comes down to who can make things prettier now...

10 comments

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onion2k
I doubt it's a competition to find the DBA who makes the best powerpoints presentations. It's more likely that someone higher up wants to review you before hiring, and that HR know that person will push back against hiring you on the basis of your presentation looking rubbish. If you're going to be presenting to clients then it could be a valid point but that's unlikely for a junior. It's more likely that the higher up person is just wanting to make their mark on things.

That will probably happen a lot in the job...

mitsuchen
Thank you! That's something I hadn't considered at all, I will try to see if I could get more information the next time I speak with HR!
cableshaft
Wow, I really hope this much hoop jumping isn't common for hiring junior roles right now. I never had to do that much for any position I've interviewed for. Usually it's just one assessment or technical screen and then maybe some more coding in person.

I guess just determine how bad you want the job and then if you want it try to pretty it up. But if they come back wanting you to do even more than this, I'd probably look elsewhere. They're already not respecting your time.

mitsuchen
I am new to all of this and don't have enough experience to say confidently, but at least none of my friends have encountered something like this before.

The whole process is now approaching a month. Spending over 20 hours on the presentation on top of other commitments really tested my limits. I hope this is the last of it because, like you said, I am not sure that it will be a fair use of my time if this keeps going. :(

giantg2
"Is this normal for a junior position?"

I guess it could be in specific niches, but it is not common nor normal for most places.

Four interviews not including the phone interviews and they want a redo on one... this seems very excessive to me.

lomcs
I did this once and got ghosted after making it better. Not sure why they are doing it, but in my experience it never goes anywhere.
sergiotapia
In this market, three interviews tops. They are playing grabass for no reason, consider this a warning about how they do things internally.
paxys
What's the role exactly? Will you have to make and present a lot of presentations on the job? Maybe to higher ups or external clients? If so then I can see them wanting to test your skills.
newprint
I'm Sr. Dev engineer and I'm going through interviews as well. Unless the company you are interviewing with a very reputable company or(and) they giving you top $$$, don't go through 5-6h of interviews with one company. Here is list of my personal rules that I've developed through years: 1. First phone conversation with the recruiter: average 10min, max 15 min. Once you will start getting a lot of requests for short conversation with recruiters (through LinkedIn), you will start limiting those interactions to shortest length of time, which is 10-15 min. 2. First round of interviews(usually technical): max 1.5h. If first round of interviews is 2-3h, just tell them that your limit is 1.5h. Look at this as a first date. Statically speaking, most dates, even good ones, never lead to a relationship. I was recently approached by a small medical device company for 3h long first round interview. I told them that I'm only open to 1.5h for a first round. 3. Second round Max - 2h. Some companies sneak in assignment before the the second round. Unless it Second round of interviews is final, then you give them 1h for assignment and 1h for interview. 4. Third round. Do to here, unless you have high changes of getting offer or it is actual offer.

2-3h is time enough to find out if someone is competent enough.