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If a company confirms that you have entered the second interview soon after the initial interview, but refuses to give you a confirmed date & time for the next interview, which is delayed for a full month, what does this usually mean? What would you do if this happened to you?
More details: A small-sized fin-tech start-up, the applied occupation is Data scientist.
Is a one-month (or longer) gap between first and second interviews very common in the data scientist interviewing process?
I am the questioner, and recently I have found out the reason why this recruiter delayed my second interview for such a long period. The reason is just four letters "VISA".
Some start-up or small-sized companies are reluctant to provide visa support, despite the technical performances of the interviewees. To provide visa support will involve too many legal aspects, and will cost too much rather than to hire a local guy.
The recruiter felt hard to tell me the truth because I had already past the technical test, he didn't have another reason to fire me, so he delayed the second interview week by week, to let me quit this recruitment by myself.
I have to say, this recruiter really sucks. But this experience gave me a great lesson: TALK ABOUT YOUR VISA SUPPORT EVEN BEFORE THE FIRST MEETING.
what does this usually mean?
Could be a number of things.
Is a one-month (or longer) gap between first and second interviews very common in the data scientist interviewing process?
It's not unheard of but it's not a good sign. Interview process can stall for a variety of "good" reasons but the professional thing to do would be to communicate clearly with the candidate. Unfortunately, many companies do not behave very professionally in their recruiting process.
What would you do if this happened to you?
Assume that this will not go anywhere and keep looking. If you really like the opportunity keep waiting and ping them once every two weeks or so. If they come back with a second interview, you can go but I would ask about what happened here. Interviewing is a two way street: the company's behavior could be unprofessional or incompetent and you want to really know what's happening there before you proceed or even sign on.
