Dive Brief:

• How do five of the biggest tech companies handle interviews — and how do they compare to each other? Comparably, in a new study, compiled responses from 6,463 employees at Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google​ and Facebook on their interview experiences at the companies. On a scale of 1 to 100 points, Apple and Microsoft scored 90 points each. Facebook scored the lowest, with 83 points.
• The company conducting the most "difficult" or "very difficult" interviews was Google, according to 49% of its employees, followed by Apple (48%). Amazon was cited for conducting the easiest interviews (30%). When asked what was the most popular way of getting an interview, most employees said "applying online," except for Google and Microsoft employees, who said "recruiter." The average wait time for hearing back from companies after the last interview was about a week, except for Google and Facebook, which could take up to four weeks. Microsoft's workers rated the company the highest for getting back to candidates the same day. 
• In rating which company's interviews gave insight into its culture, employees at Facebook rated it the highest, at 85%, followed by Google (79%). However, more employees at Apple said the interview didn't reflect the company's culture than said it did.

Dive Insight:

Fortunately for most of the big tech companies, their interview processes reflected their cultures — a key part of the recruiting process. Among the top reasons new hires give for leaving companies is that the culture was a wrong fit, or wasn't what they expected. The way a company gets the work done should come through during the interview, including whether the company focuses on collaboration, is digitally transforming or expects long hours, for example.

To make interviewing more natural, some have taken it out of the conference room entirely, moving to more casual locations or using online methods to improve the screening process for both sides, LinkedIn said in a recent study.

Difficult interviews can be a sign that an organization takes the interview process very seriously and wants to weed out candidates that don't meet its criteria, but employers must be careful that such a process both fits the job and keeps time-to-hire low. In a recent survey, Spark Hire found that the most common time from date of resume receipt to offer letter is seven to 14 days — but most all employers wanted to improve this number. Keeping communication strong and utilizing the data and tools available can go a long way in balancing quality with time spent.