There’s a persistent fantasy in technology hiring. The ideal candidate is desperately seeking a job, available to interview immediately, and ready to start upon receiving an offer. This person will patiently wait through your four-round interview process spanning six weeks.
This candidate doesn’t exist. Or rather, the candidates who match this description are often not your top choices. The best technical professionals are typically employed and performing well. They’re exploring opportunities, which means they’re talking to your competitors. Every delay gives those competitors an advantage.
Traditional IT recruitment timelines were designed for a different era. Today’s market has flipped. Skilled technical professionals have options, and your lengthy hiring process is a liability.
The Cost of Delay
Consider what actually happens during a typical technology hiring process. A candidate applies or responds to a recruiter. They wait a week for an initial screening call. After that call, another week passes before a technical phone screen gets scheduled. Following that, coordinating calendars for an on-site interview takes two more weeks. Then the hiring committee needs time to discuss and reach consensus. Finally, the offer approval process requires another week navigating internal bureaucracy.
You’ve now spent five to six weeks on a single candidate, and that’s if everything proceeds smoothly without scheduling conflicts, sick days, or decision paralysis. During this time, that candidate has likely advanced through faster processes at other companies. They’ve received competing offers. Their current employer might have made a counteroffer when they indicated they were job hunting. They’ve lost momentum and enthusiasm for your opportunity specifically because you’ve demonstrated through your actions that speed and decisiveness aren’t priorities. And research proves it.
The irony is that this drawn-out process rarely results in better hiring decisions. The fifth round of interviews rarely reveals information that couldn’t have been gathered in the first three. The additional committee discussions often just dilute accountability and invite overthinking. You’re not being thorough, you’re being inefficient, and it’s costing you the candidates you actually want.
Structured Speed vs. Hasty Decisions
Moving quickly doesn’t mean abandoning rigor. It means eliminating waste. Those weeks waiting for calendar availability don’t make evaluation more thorough. They just create delay. Careful thought about interview questions can happen before meeting candidates. Evaluation rubrics can be established in advance.
Speed requires preparation. You need clear criteria for good hires. You need structured interviews that gather relevant information. You need empowered decision-makers. You need efficient processes for generating offers. This groundwork enables fast movement when the right person appears.
The goal isn’t to rush evaluation but to eliminate empty time between steps. Compress those gaps and you maintain quality while dramatically improving speed.
Making the Transition
Accelerating your hiring timeline requires buy-in from everyone involved. Engineering managers need to prioritize interviews. HR needs to streamline approvals. Executives need to trust teams to make good decisions quickly.
Start by measuring current timelines. How long does each stage take? Where are the bottlenecks? Often delays are procedural rather than necessary. The candidate waiting two weeks isn’t undergoing evaluation. They’re just waiting for scheduling.
The midnight coder myth persists because it’s comforting. It suggests great candidates desperately want to work for you. The reality is that great candidates have options and timelines. Respect both, and they’ll choose you.
