Today we will talk about the immaturity and secondary nature of modern startups and IT companies.

One of the clearest signs of this immaturity is their attempt to imitate Google's hiring process.

Many companies believe that by mimicking Google's marathon-style hiring practices, they are signaling professionalism. In reality, this behavior demonstrates the opposite — it reveals their secondary nature and lack of maturity.

Let me be direct. You do not need eight rounds of interviews with twelve different managers to hire a competent IT professional. You are not Google, and copying their process does not make you Google.

When companies repeat interview marathons without understanding why they exist in the first place, it resembles a cargo cult. Cargo cults imitate rituals hoping to achieve the same results, but without understanding the underlying principles. That's exactly what's happening here: role-playing without substance.

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This mimicry wastes time, money, and energy — both for the company and for the candidate. It signals incompetence at the management level and broken processes at the organizational level.

As a cybersecurity professional, I openly condemn interview marathons. They demonstrate a lack of clarity, structure and decision-making.

If your company conducts more than three rounds of interviews for a technical role, this should be a wake-up call. It suggests that your team is not mature enough to build effective processes. It also suggests your management is spending the company's money and your candidates' time irresponsibly.

When recruiters reach out to me, my very first question is about the number of interview stages. My time is valuable. If I hear about six, seven, or eight stages, I decline immediately. I know what this means: broken processes and a lack of respect for candidates.

I've been on both sides of the table — I was hired, and later I was the one building and recruiting teams for the project myself. When you're responsible for assembling a team, you quickly realize how wasteful endless interview marathons are.

That experience taught me a rule: I only work with mature teams that are capable of building efficient and respectful processes. Anything else is a red flag. If your leadership team is wasting time and money on interview marathons, we are not aligned.

Cybersecurity professionals, and IT experts in general, are in high demand. We have choices. If your process drags on for weeks or months, we will drop out and accept offers from more decisive companies. That's the reality of today's job market.

The irony is that long interview processes do not improve hiring outcomes. In fact, Google itself published internal data showing that after four interviews, additional rounds add virtually zero predictive value. Yet companies still copy the outdated version of Google's process, not the improved one.

In a healthy, mature organization, two to three focused rounds are more than enough for technical roles. Anything beyond that must have a clear, exceptional reason.

Each round should have a distinct purpose:

  • The first round should be screening or cultural fit: short, informal, and meant to see if the candidate aligns with the team's values;
  • The second round should be technical: a hands-on test, case study;
  • The third and final round should be decision-making: with the hiring manager and leadership sign-off.

That's it. There is no profession in the world that requires more than this. Anything else is theater. Anything else is about pretending to be Google. And you are not Google.

Hiring should be about testing skills, mindset, and alignment with the team. It should not be about testing how much free time a candidate can sacrifice for six to eight repetitive meetings. That's disrespectful.

Interview marathons are not a sign of maturity. They are a red flag about company culture. They reveal bureaucracy, indecision and inefficiency.

In a healthy, normal world, hiring would be short, purposeful, and respectful. The process would evaluate ability and fit, not endurance.

To job seekers: stop tolerating this disrespect. If you don't value your own time, no one else will. Even if you are actively looking for work and feel pressure to accept every opportunity, demand respect for yourself.

Reject companies that drag you through endless rounds. Say no to broken processes. The more candidates push back, the more companies will be forced to reform their hiring practices.

Respect in hiring benefits everyone. It respects the candidate's time. It respects the company's resources. And it respects the process itself, leading to faster, smarter hiring decisions.

I hope you found this material useful.

Subscribe to my youtube channel @securesofar if you want to learn more about cybersecurity and cybernetics. I am going to cover a lot of conceptual things there.

See you next time!