Third time's the charm?

November 3, 2008 10:24 AM

I have been called back for a third interview for a job I really want. Seven people have already interviewed me. What on earth could be left to ask?

Because this job is for a school district, and is technically a government post, the questions I've been asked so far have come from a list that the interviewers use for each candidate. In the second interview, they asked several of the same questions that they had in the first (there were a few different people interviewing me, so they probably wanted to hear my answers.) So far I've been asked technical questions, given several scenarios to "solve," and have had to reiterate twice why I want this job. And I really, really want this job.

Third interviews are evidently very rare for this post. If you had to decide between two people who were both well-qualified, what would make one stand out more than the other? I can't imagine that this interview is going to be wildly different from the other two. Have you ever been on the interviewer's side of this situation? What were you looking for?

posted by corey flood to Work & Money (13 answers total)

Without coming across like you are measuring the drapes, handle it not as an interview but as a meeting where you are already part of the team.

Also, remember that you are also interviewing them.
posted by jgirl at 10:44 AM on November 3, 2008 [3 favorites]

Yes, I've been on the interviewer's side of this situation, a few times. It's pretty common for each member of my team to be given a shot at interviewing a candidate. If a lower-level employee happens to have a conflict and not be able to interview the candidate, no big deal. But if a higher-level staff person with a conflict will generally ask for some face time with the candidate, which will necessitate asking the candidate to come back in.

One time, though, we did a third interview with a candidate because we had some reservations about interpersonal skills and wanted to give the candidate another chance to make a better impression because his hard skills were perceived to be good enough to warrant another chance.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 10:45 AM on November 3, 2008

Gut instincts say they are looking for the best fit, personality wise. Projecting a relaxed and confident demeanor would probably serve you well.
posted by raisingsand at 10:48 AM on November 3, 2008

Best answer: In a highly team-oriented environment like a school district, it's not uncommon for the potential employer to want every ranking member of their team to at least have had the chance to meet a potential new employee before making a decision.

It being a government position, there may well be some requirement that certain people need to have interviewed and sign off on a candidate before they're hired. Yes, it really can be that bureaucratic.

Don't sweat it. They're obviously still interested, as employers don't like interviewing people any more than you like being interviewed.
posted by valkyryn at 10:56 AM on November 3, 2008

Is it between you and someone else or are they deciding whether to hire you or keep looking? If the former, they may be disagreeing between themselves and this is all they can think of to do. If the latter, someone who needs to meet you might have unexpectedly missed the second day.

Importantly, don't stress out. It won't help.

Also remember that no one would want to see someone three times whom they did not like.
posted by originalname37 at 10:56 AM on November 3, 2008

last time we did a third interview it was because I had concerns about the person's writing and communications skills, and everyone agreed that we would have the two most likely candidates come back and do a writing exercise. of course, all it showed us was that neither of them could actually write the things they claimed they could write and despite this being the third interview, we had to send them home and start over.

sometimes the third interview is to rule out that they really weren't suitable.
posted by micawber at 11:03 AM on November 3, 2008

Followup interviews can often be about giving folks higher up the chain of command a chance to check out the cut of your jib...
posted by stenseng at 11:40 AM on November 3, 2008

For my current job I had 4 separate interview dates (including the screening phone interview) with about 7 people total interviewing me. They seemed reasonably confident about me, and even let slip at one point that they weren't actively interviewing anyone else. It was mostly just a matter of letting all the important people get their chance to talk to me, I suppose. It was incredibly frustrating and lasted about a month. So I empathize. But hang in there, because they're really interested in you.
posted by naju at 11:57 AM on November 3, 2008

Best answer: Swimsuit round?

If a third interview is quite uncommon, it could be that it has come down to a really touch choice between you and another candidate. You've shown that you're qualified several times over, so I'd guess that now they (or some superiors) just want a bit more time with each of you to get more of a feeling how pleasant you'd be to work with.

Alternatively, in British practice (although I assume you're in the USA?), companies always want to have a concrete reason why one candidate was better than the other. Making an arbitrary choice leaves them exposed to a discrimination suit (claims of "I'm just as qualified, so they obviously rejected me because of my [race/gender/pokemon collection/etc]"), so they need to be able to shoow that the candidate they picked is somehow demonstrably better than the other. Maybe they're searching for that last little detail to push you over the top and satisfy the lawyers?
posted by metaBugs at 12:03 PM on November 3, 2008

I was interviewed four times for an IT position at Whole Foods' world hq. The job was not even for a management or high level position. A bit more strangely, I felt I did quite poorly answering the tech specific questions they asked the first two times (one time was a verbal test given by the head of IT there, on which I scored 20%.) Yet they kept asking me to come back, so either somebody must have liked me, or [insert unknown variable here].

I am uncertain as to what point you would decide "ok, that's enough" unless you decided you no longer wanted the job, so I guess keep going back until you are hired, or not. : ) And treat every time like the first, giving 'em your best.
posted by bitterkitten at 1:19 PM on November 3, 2008

Based on my one experience being on the interviewing side for the gov, you might have a hiring committee that is in sharp disagreement. If they can't reach consensus this kind of thing could happen.
posted by phearlez at 1:22 PM on November 3, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone! Evidently it's between one other person and me. I kind of bungled one technical question in Round 2, but have been reading up on it since then, so maybe I'll have a chance to redeem myself.

The person who booked the interview used the word "final," to describe this one, so I'm hopeful that it's the light at the end of the tunnel.

Great answers, all. Thank you again.

Oh, and metaBugs, I will be referring to this interview as the Swimsuit Round from here on out. ;)
posted by corey flood at 1:55 PM on November 3, 2008

I have been on the other side of this question many times.

People have answered your question already, but a little bit of extra advice:

We always ask candidates in the final interview "If you had had more time to prepare for the interview or to solve the technical test, what would you have done differently?"

When candidates bungle technical questions, and in the follow up interview mention that they know it, and that they have done research, this gives the A LOT of extra points. This has been the deciding factor at least once.
posted by dirty lies at 4:43 PM on November 3, 2008 [1 favorite]