Because when a small company is hiring an employee they are risking quite a bit. It is worth spending more time finding out who they are. Hiring and firing people immediately because they turned out to be the wrong person is very counter-productive and demoralizing for everyone involved.
Before the day long interview we would have a phone interview. At that point you would decide whether you want to take a day out of your life to find out more about a company where will potentially spend years working. I don't think that is that unreasonable?
It depends. What is the likelihood that that person will get hired if they go on the day-long excursion? Will this person be just one of many people you will take on these marathon interviews? Or will you be completely focused on this one person, and if they seem like a good fit they get hired immediately?
The point is, if you expect me to invest so much in an "interview" with you, you had better be laying some big chips on the table as well.
You will pretty much be hired at the end of the day. We hire about 10% of people that we interview this way. So we already pre-screen people before spending all that time with them.
Remember you can always leave and we can always stop the interview.
Well this way of interviewing has worked well for 15+ years ;-) , we like it, we'll probably stick to it.
It is not that random. When I went for the interview I was 80% sure I would get it. But I wanted to spend the day there to confirm that. I was interviewing them as much as they interviewed me. I had multiple job offers and meeting the people I would work with helped me decide.
After being there for 4 years, I would it was the best 1 day of PTO ever spent in my life.
Before the day long interview we would have a phone interview. At that point you would decide whether you want to take a day out of your life to find out more about a company where will potentially spend years working. I don't think that is that unreasonable?