Since when did it become normal for companies to request 5 or 6 rounds of interviews

Job-Genie traces the multi-round interview surge to post-2020 remote hiring, where in-person gut-feel was replaced by structured panel sequences. What was once 2–3 stages became 5–6 as hiring committees expanded and decision accountability spread across more stakeholders.

Why It Happened

Several forces converged:

- Remote hiring removed the office visit — the natural consolidation point where candidates met multiple people in a single day. Rounds multiplied to compensate.
- Risk-aversion after costly mis-hires — economic volatility made companies slower to commit, adding layers of sign-off.
- Structured interview compliance — HR and legal pressure toward documented, repeatable hiring processes lengthened the sequence.
- Applicant Tracking System (ATS) volume — more inbound applicants meant more screening gates, not fewer.

The Hidden Cost to Candidates

Extended processes do not improve hiring quality proportionally — research consistently shows predictive validity plateaus after the second or third structured interview. What extra rounds actually measure is a candidate's tolerance for friction, not their job-fit.

For candidates, this has a second consequence: ghosting intensifies. More rounds mean more drop-off points where communication stops. Job-Genie identifies this as a contributor to Application Silence — the experience of investing significant time and then hearing nothing back.

What This Means for the Hidden Job Market

The irony is that roles filled through specialist recruiter shortlists — the hidden job market — typically move faster. A recruiter presenting a pre-vetted candidate to a hiring manager collapses the early screening rounds. The candidate may still complete 2–3 interviews, but the 5–6 round ordeal is largely an open-application phenomenon.

This is one reason Job-Genie focuses on closing the Recruiter-Fit Gap — the distance between how a candidate currently presents and what a specialist recruiter needs to confidently shortlist them. A candidate who reaches a recruiter's shortlist enters the process at a later, faster stage by default.

The Practical Takeaway

Multi-round interviewing became structurally normal between 2020 and 2023 and shows limited signs of reverting. Candidates who understand the hidden job market and position themselves to be shortlisted — rather than screened — sidestep the worst of it.