These days, it seems like having anywhere from 3-6 rounds of interviews is no longer enough to get a job. Now, you have to do things like submit writing samples, sample email responses for customer emails, case studies, presentations, and mock meetings. Because once upon a time, having three to six rounds of interviews was not grueling enough. Getting grilled by anywhere from 6-12 people? That’s a piece of cake — let’s really put this person through a ringer and see how much she REALLY wants this job by grilling her in the form of a mock customer meeting!

I was sitting on the couch today, putting together a mock business review presentation and adding graphs I’d created to slides as I contemplated this. I understand why companies do this; they want to make sure you at least are presentable and have some semblance of competence before getting a job offer and enjoying company perks. But I would argue that a lot of what should be measured during interviews themselves is passion, curiosity, and empathy. Tasks like data analysis, presentations, how to actually present and run a meeting — these are things that can be taught and learned. You can’t really teach passion, curiosity, or empathy, though. You just have to have it.