I Asked My Team How Much Work Is Too Much
Zack AllenOctober 21, 20261:31
A real team call on interview capacity, and why I asked before we hit the wall.
Someone on my team mentioned they'd had nine interviews in a single day, and that keeping the same enthusiasm from the first one to the ninth isn't easy.
That's worth paying attention to. As we take on more roles, interviews will be our first bottleneck, because most of the application side is already automated.
So I asked directly: what's your real capacity for interviews in a day, and in a week?
The honest answer
It depends. Back-to-back blocks are different from interviews scattered across the day, and a late one changes things. Bunched together in the first couple of hours, about eight a day is doable.
I did the math out loud: eight a day, five days a week, is 40. Is that above what you can do at your best?
Their answer was that at eight a day they'd want a day off in the week, mid-week or Friday, to split it up. So a realistic weekly max is around 32, depending on how the schedule falls.
Why ask before it breaks
The point wasn't to squeeze out a bigger number. I wanted to know where the line is, so we know when we need someone else taking interviews, before quality slips.
If you lead a remote team, ask this kind of question early and plainly. People will tell you their limits if you ask. And the ninth interview of the day deserves the same energy as the first.
Transcript
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I got like nine interviews in a day and just you know pushing through that with the same enthusiasm as the first interview is not easy.
As we start to take on more roles that's going to be the first thing that creates a bottleneck for us cuz a lot of the application stuff is obviously automated. What do you think is your capacity for interviews in a day
And like in a week maybe?
There are factors, you know, if they're back to backs, if they're separate hours, if one's later than the rest. If they're back to back in like the first couple hours, I could do like, you know, eight. I just want to make sure we're managing capacity well and um seeing like what you know once we get to this point we need to have someone else taking interviews. I want to see what that is is my goal.
So if you do a day for five days a week that's 40 interviews. Is that above what you think you can give your best effort? If it's eight a day, I think I could use like a day off in maybe like either on a Wednesday, you know, just so it's split or on like a Friday.
Okay. So, your max is in a week.
32 maybe. But again, it depends on whether they're back to back. But
It's good to know for just a general idea. Awesome.
