Rearranging an interview (the done thing?)

I had an invitation to interview for next Monday. I can’t make it, so called to rearrange. He didn’t sound best impressed but said “these things happen” – have had no reorganised invite through yet…

Did I blow it already?

In my experience, yes.

Depends on the level. Sometimes the decision making requires all the right people to be in the same room at the same time, this can be quite difficult to arrange, both for the interview and for the discussion.

Screw ’em. Half an interview is you assessing if you really want to work there, and if they’re getting shirty just because you can’t attend something you had no prior knowledge of then it’s not a great start

It’s often looked at as “if you have to rearrange this interview with a week’s notice, why can’t you rearrange the other thing, given that you have a week’s notice”.

The lesson is to rearrange late, i.e. on the day, claiming a believable emergency. Not that I’ve done this, oh no 😉

I’d say it’d depend on why you couldn’t make it.

If you can’t make it because it is your turn to drop the kids off at school then you’ve blown it.

If you can’t make it because you need to be on the other side of the country looking after an elderly relative that needs 24 hr care and you are unable to get cover then not so much a problem.

IMO it depends on how much rearrangement is required, if you just want to put it back by an hour or move it to the afternoon it’s likely to be much less of an issue than if you want to shift it to Thursday (for example).

something you had no prior knowledge

Well, apart from the knowledge that he’s got an interview in a week’s time.

My experience is the interview is then – if you can’t make it you have lost your chance

Blown it, sorry.

Hiring managers are had to line up in the first instance, they are hardly the first to be sympathetic when both time, money and other line managers expectations/pressures are present.

Think of it as a learning curve.

It’s often looked at as “if you have to rearrange this interview with a week’s notice, why can’t you rearrange the other thing, given that you have a week’s notice”.

The lesson is to rearrange late, i.e. on the day, claiming a believable emergency. Not that I’ve done this, oh no and

I’d say it’d depend on why you couldn’t make it.

If you can’t make it because it is your turn to drop the kids off at school then you’ve blown it.

If you can’t make it because you need to be on the other side of the country looking after an elderly relative that needs 24 hr care and you are unable to get cover then not so much a problem.

At least it’s a face to face, had absolutely horribly/disastrous phone interview today. Never again not phone or Skype…. hel m na i artin m re wi ser an imon. Sorry but you seem to be breaking up so he rings back on his mobile which isn’t much better, it went rapidly downhill from there. 🙁

IHN – Member
Well, apart from the knowledge that he’s got an interview in a week’s time.

I don’t believe he had magical knowledge of the interview before he was invited to attend

You are not rearranging the interview, you are arranging it.

If you agree to a time and date and then change your mind, that would be rearranging.

Plenty of “can we arrange a conf call to assess your experience/skill set ??” in my world. Often these are the first steps to actually getting through the door. A 15min call says far more about you than a structured 1hour interview.

Frustratingly chapaking, in my experience recently, such technicalities do not stand in the way of a demand from a company to attend at four days notice and interview, regardless of what is going on in life or your integrity regarding 30 people on a training course you are leading that you have already committed your time to.

A 15min call says far more about you than a structured 1hour interview.

Was that you who called me twice yesterday?

I think 50% of jobs I’ve got, were off the back of a rescheduled interview. And a couple of interviewers did go “too bad”. But frankly I’m not sure I want to work for an employer that can’t deal with “I have a work commitment on that day” (which is what it always is, definitely not a cycling holiday)

When we interview, it could make a difference if there’s an early candidate that’s standout- if your interview is later that candidate could easily become the heir apparent and that skews things a lot. But other’n that it wouldn’t hurt you.

Obviously I do not work for all companies.

I don’t believe he had magical knowledge of the interview before he was invited to attend

Ah, fair enough, it read like he’d arranged it for next Monday and then realised he couldn’t make it, so wanted to rearrange.

If you knew the interview date before (sometimes it’s stated on the job advert IME) then you’ve definitely blown it. If you didn’t, then it’s only very likely. They’d have to be pretty desperate to arrange a panel on another day just for your benefit.

he did try and rearrange a time while on the phone but clearly ran into troubles getting various “heads of” available at one time again.

Look at it as a positive thing.

If they come back with a mutually suitable time they are more likely to be seriously interested in you.

If not, you were just ballast.

You have to do the math.

Say 10 candidates with the skills required, then whittle that down to 5 maybe 6 who have been asked for interview.
So the hiring managers read 10 CV’s, some of them will have been structured enough with summaries and key bulleted skills required and targeted/aligned to the role, some of them will just be a 5-7 page wordy mess with waffle and embellishment.
So the hiring managers read all that, give them an hour max to read them, if they are busy they’ll have read the first line of each role you have done. They’ll have contacted HR or whomever to arrange interviews, another hour or two depending on the level of crap they have to deal with. Then HR’s given feed back as to when theres a free diary and the managers made the decision to do all this in the shortest time possible, so a day maybe 2. After all, all the information on the candidates got through the first hurdle.

On the basis that an interview takes 1hr each, to thats 3 in a morning, 2/3 in an afternoon. So that one whole day devoted to listening and quizzing from/to the candidate, cost wise this is an expensive day already.

Your chances of re-aranging are slim to the point of non existent prior to the interview, call in on the day and you maybe lucky in that the hiring managers “got an hour back to do something else” and happy, or pissed off that you can’t attend.

Nobody knows what the hiring managers thinking feeling on the day, or beforehand, so you have to make sure you attend to at least be in with a chance.

We can generalise till the cows come home, but ultimately it’s at the whim of an individual company / interviewer.

It’s plausible that they are only interviewing on a given day / days due to their own availability, and also possible that it would be a non-issue to squeeze you in on a different day. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be a problem where I work, certainly within the teams I have any dealings with. To my mind it makes logical sense to be a little flexible to accommodate a candidate who may be perfect for the role and working for you for the next decade.

Plus of course, a company binning you simply out of spite because you can’t make the date they’ve given you, you probably wouldn’t want to work there anyway.

You are not rearranging the interview, you are arranging it.

If you agree to a time and date and then change your mind, that would be rearranging.

Indeed, a crucial point.

Agreed, fair points.

Obviously different companies have very differing strategies, no hiring manager is alike.

I’m merely pointing out the time/cost basis from experience in my world. Like it or not, these are the criteria we work to. If candidates don’t understand these constraints, we aren’t really that bothered since there are many more candidates that do.

And, obviously, different Industries have very different attitudes.

BOL, I do hope you are able to get the interview and seal the job.

I think that’s the crucial thing. One candidate out of how many, some of whom might already look better on paper. I guess that if the one was remarkable in some way then there would be more likelihood they’d accommodate a change. If there’s a queue of folk out the door, of all whom look like they could do it, not so much.

OF course they’ve made a massive mistake in this instance. 😆

No, more likely he’s busy and will do it later or it’s a subtle test if your patience.

Best avoided if possible though.

Good luck

We recently had someone forget to come to the interview, laughed about it on Twitter then asked us if he could rearrange but do it as a Skype video call.

I’ve missed an interview at work today for an internal position as I didn’t see the invite email……. think I’ve blown my chances although it’s been rearranged for tomorrow!!

It’s much more frustrating for me when people cancel/rearrange on the day. A week ahead is fine, I’m probably doing a bunch of interviews anyway, so I’ll just swap people around.

I got my first position on a rearranged interview – My flight back to the UK for it was on 9/11. Excuse accepted.

Anecdotes aside it depends on the level as others have said. If you can’t make it because it means chucking an awkward sicky into your current workplace, then I can see how that might be difficult.

As above it varies and I’m a bit confused if you’d already arranged it and were trying to change the date or if this was the first attempt.

Some companies who you’d think would be understanding can be surprisingly awkward. I work in Oil and Gas and was trying to move from one company to another, both roles would be offshore. The second company tried to arrange an interview for me when I’d be offshore and really didn’t seem to get that I couldn’t just fly back for a 1 hour interview. I can understand it being awkward but it was a case of anytime, any day for these 2 weeks as I’m off duty but when I’m away I’m very much away.

They were also surprised I also couldn’t take an hour out of my shift for a chat on the phone….