Ask HN: Interview Saturdays instead of interviews during work hours?

Why is it any of your employer's business where you're going? You presumably have some number of vacation days that you're entitled to as part of your compensation package, so use them. If your company insists on having an accounting of what you do during your free time, they're behaving like unreasonable jerks, so don't feel guilty about lying to them.

"Everyone wins!"

I'm sure that not all companies have dysfunctional cultures that include routinely working on weekends. (Apparently the place where you work now doesn't, since you're free on weekends.) By demanding that they interview you on Saturday, you're asking all the employees who would be interviewing you (which, as you noted, might be the entire company) to make the sacrifice of coming in to the office on Saturday for your convenience. This makes you look like a high-maintenance prima donna, and also gives the company an incentive to ignore you and choose a candidate who is available during the week.

The full team followup on Fridays seems to also be a technique that's available. It lets candidates travel out on Saturday or Saturday afternoon if the window for meeting staff needs to be larger.

Scheduling interviews during normal work hours as policy suggests that there's a either just a need for a warm body and not careful selection driving the process or there's a not much respect for the idea that people have lives outside of working for them. Seriously, what kind of person thinks getting interviewed is how people want to use their vacation time? The clueless and the callous - of course.

Doesn't sound like the interview will go too well if the whole team is expected to work on a Saturday just for you.

Some team members have children, family commitments or simply adhere to the idea that free time is beneficial for employees.

Personally, I would accommodate one candidate interview on a Saturday if they asked for a specific reason; if it was suggested as a regular occurrence I would question his/her judgement.

FWIW, I think the hiring/recruiting interface is a pretty good indicator of broader attributes. When I'm recruiting, I definitely notice if a candidate is responsive/eager in the scheduling process and has his or her act together on the day (shows up on time, leaves enough time to park, etc). And same when I interview with companies. I've rarely found false signals either way.