Yeah, there are bad employers and bad interviewers. Sometimes the importance of it is underplayed. I always drill others that interview duty is the most important thing you can do at a company (even though it sometimes feels like a chore). The people you help choose, influences culture and long term viability of the company. Take it seriously and be fair with candidates.
Having said that, figuring out a fair and effective interview process is HARD. It requires constant tweaking and monitoring. Also, you have to start from a decent set of values at the company.
For example, we do shadow interviews. When we certify interviewers, we have them come to watch and listen to an interview (we explain to the candidate beforehand what's going on), and then after the interview ends, we meet with the shadow interviewer and discuss what they picked up, and explain why I went such and such way, what I was looking for, why such and such mistake is not a big deal, and so on.
After a couple of these, we have them interview, but with a certified interviewer shadowing them. Just observing (we have them practice on us their interview exercises if any before the interview).
And the we give feedback, you rushed a bit here, give them more time to be at ease with you, did you notice such and such, whatever... If everything goes well, we certify them, and they can fly solo.
We try to have a varied pool of interviewers to avoid biases. The downside is that you need to do more interviews as a candidate, to get a fair assessment (i.e. no single person can derail you).
In the end, we've all been in a crappy interviews and try our best to not inflict that on other people.
Having said that, figuring out a fair and effective interview process is HARD. It requires constant tweaking and monitoring. Also, you have to start from a decent set of values at the company.
For example, we do shadow interviews. When we certify interviewers, we have them come to watch and listen to an interview (we explain to the candidate beforehand what's going on), and then after the interview ends, we meet with the shadow interviewer and discuss what they picked up, and explain why I went such and such way, what I was looking for, why such and such mistake is not a big deal, and so on.
After a couple of these, we have them interview, but with a certified interviewer shadowing them. Just observing (we have them practice on us their interview exercises if any before the interview).
And the we give feedback, you rushed a bit here, give them more time to be at ease with you, did you notice such and such, whatever... If everything goes well, we certify them, and they can fly solo.
We try to have a varied pool of interviewers to avoid biases. The downside is that you need to do more interviews as a candidate, to get a fair assessment (i.e. no single person can derail you).
In the end, we've all been in a crappy interviews and try our best to not inflict that on other people.