It is insane. But it leaves the question: why are companies doing it? They must believe it’s working for them, or they’d change it. God knows companies are motivated to hire good people. Maybe someone in HR or even a technical manager in one of these companies can answer: on what theory are these processes believed to be effective?
I suspect the answer is that so many people are looking for work, that these unicorns and incredibly desperate people willing to go through 10+ stages of interviews do actually exist in this market.
There are probably at least a few ex senior/staff level FAANG employees desperate enough for work that they're applying to these roles, and a few people with enough invested in their life that a 10 stage interview is seen as worth it to avoid losing the house.
So for these companies, the small chance they might actually get their magical unicorn engineers is enough of an incentive to shoot for the moon and see what happens.
Alternatively, the process isn't working, but they're too stubborn to admit it. I still see many of the same jobs I applied for 6 months ago hanging around on LinkedIn/Indeed/Reed/Otta/WellFound/whatever with no evidence they've filled the position. Maybe if they cut the requirements down, trimmed down the interview process, offered remote work or provided more reasonable take home tests they might actually find someone before 2028.
