> If companies want to hire experienced senior talent, then streamlining isn't going to be a good idea. They need to recruit them, and that means not alienating them right away.

Why would you want to work for a company which has such a hard time recruiting and retaining senior talent that they need to pander to them?

Why would you want to work for a company which has only those desperate-enough-to-jump-through-hoops applying to them?

People who apply to Google aren't desperate.

People already know Google exists and whether or not they want to work there. For most people (projecting here) the only recruiting Google has to do basically comes down to: We think you're good enough to have a chance.

For 99.9% of the companies this is not the case.

For example I like working at my current employer and enjoy the challenges compared to earlier employments. But looking at the job postings, I can't see that. It's generic crap about competitive compensation, challenging problems, modern technologies, a flat organization, etc.

If this job posting landed in my mailbox I would skip it. The only reason I applied for this job is because I was jobless and desperate at that time.

I get it. We all want to be shown respect and courtesy. And how we and our team treat candidates is a reflection on the company; regardless of how accurate it is.

But I see recruiting as a team effort. The recruiter should sell you on the company, the manager should sell you on the job, and I should sell you on the quality of the team. If companies aren't meeting your expectations, you should let everyone in the process know.

I'm sure lots of technical employees have no idea what the recruitment process is like at a company, especially if they've been there for a long time.