Six Rounds of Interviews Is Just Organisational Cowardice

A TeamBlind post that struck a nerve argues the industry's interview inflation has a simpler explanation than anyone wants to admit: nobody wants to be accountable for a bad hire. If it takes six Strong Hires to get an offer, it means no one is willing to take a risk. If the hire fails, everyone just points at each other. The data backs up the frustration: in 2026, the average technical hire requires 17.6 interviews, up from 11 in 2021. Interview signal plateaus after round four, yet processes keep expanding. The proposed fix: set a personal round limit and normalise withdrawing from unbounded loops as strong positioning, not failure.