This is the mentality that gets you bullied. There are more openings than qualified people, and businesses can't make money without employees. No one is doing you a favour by giving you a job, they are literally making off your back.
The interviewee loses a day of PTO, or continues to be unemployed (and usually in a financially precarious situation).
Imbalanced outcomes means imbalanced power.
At the end of the day, the company wants to hire you and you probably want to be hired. I generally urge people to think of this as a cooperation exercise and not a power struggle.
Interviewers should treat interviewees with dignity and kindness, even when the interviewee is doing poorly. Interviewees should be gracious to the interviewer, even when they have decided to work elsewhere. The first side to stop being cooperative loses.
The above does not however apply to salary negotiation.
No, at the end of the day, the company wants to hire SOMEBODY. That somebody is not necessarily you, hence the interview. You're being compared to all the other candidates.
Maybe this is different late in your career when you've got 10+ years experience under your belt, but there are a LOT of candidates in that "3-5 year" experience point.
Any "adversarial interview" techniques are a big red flag, imo. They also make it easy to quickly recognise places with a toxic culture, so there's not need to beat yourself up if you fail. You dodged a bullet, plus now have an excuse to rant with your friends over a pint!
Hence, my favourite interviews (regardless of the side I was on) were the one when we had a chance to spend a day working with the candidate.
Yeah, and the company continues being understaffed for what they want to do, and often the interviewer is one of the people on that team who needs more people.
(no it's not exactly the same)
I don't believe this.
The only way this is true is if there are a lot of openings at companies that are going to pay significantly under market and can't figure out why nobody is accepting their offers, even when candidates tell them.
Based on another comment [0], maybe this is actually the case.
Layoffs and hiring freezes at big tech might change things in the next few months though
That's very easy to explain within a framework of there being lots of available workers and few available positions.
Employers post hiring ads, get responses, and conclude that posting ads works and they should keep doing it.
Job seekers post hire-me ads, get no responses, and conclude that posting ads doesn't work and there's no reason to do it.
This answer could change your conclusion.
Usually I feel like interviews are staged in a way to put Interviewees in a tense, or underdog sort of way. From the moment you walk in you feel like you are in their hands. I am always somewhat nervous and tense in a interview, but that could be more my mentality than anything, but I can see where they are coming from.
In an ideal world we feel equal and have the opportunity to walk out but when you really need a job or have had troubles finding one it can feel pretty powerless.
Sorry to ramble a bit.