employers scheduling interview at 3:30PM; do they not respect my time? (employee, careers)
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Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,066 posts, read 80,100,596 times
Reputation: 56846
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BeerGeek40
Employers don't care about you. Period.
As a hiring manager, I will try to schedule all interviews for 1-2 days, so it may be as early as 8am or as late as 3:30-4:00.We will, however be flexible for a candidate that based on the resume appears to be far better qualified than the rest. For the more average applicants, it’s pretty much “take it or leave it” since that helps reduce the numbers. In the rare event that there are only a handful of qualified applicants, as in my last hire (only 4 qualified of 32 applicants) I will work with them to schedule at their convenience.
What business are you in that interviews are "show up whenever"?
WHo said "show up whenever"?
I've never had an interview where they didn't ask me when was a good time, or suggest some specific times I could pick from or otherwise go through a process with me to figure out a mutually agreeable time.
I've never had someone who assigned me a set interview time regardless of my availability, and I'd likely pass if someone treated me like that and said it was their way or the highway.
Don’t take it personal. They are going by availability on their calendar. Most hiring managers still have their own work to get done, so afternoons could be their available blocked time for conducting interviews.
If it doesn’t work for you, you should immediately reply back with alternative days/times that will work for you. Always preface that you have a scheduling conflict based on a prior commitment. Don’t mention traffic concerns or anything else that would give them cause to think you will have problems with getting to work on a regular basis.
Don’t take it personal. They are going by availability on their calendar. Most hiring managers still have their own work to get done, so afternoons could be their available blocked time for conducting interviews.
True. When I plan for interviews I set aside 2-3 days and a few different blocks of time/day. Typically I set aside 12-15 hours of time, and interview 3-6 people, so people have a choice of dates/times.
Quote:
If it doesn’t work for you, you should immediately reply back with alternative days/times that will work for you. Always preface that you have a scheduling conflict based on a prior commitment. Don’t mention traffic concerns or anything else that would give them cause to think you will have problems with getting to work on a regular basis.
As long as people choose from the dates/times I have set aside for interviews, I don’t really care if they counter. If they want a time that I haven’t set aside, I will generally deny and reiterate the available times. It is usually very difficult to organize several people’s schedules at my workplace, all of whom need to be part of the interview, so I don’t even try. The candidate does have to have some flex.
True. When I plan for interviews I set aside 2-3 days and a few different blocks of time/day. Typically I set aside 12-15 hours of time, and interview 3-6 people, so people have a choice of dates/times.
As long as people choose from the dates/times I have set aside for interviews, I don’t really care if they counter. If they want a time that I haven’t set aside, I will generally deny and reiterate the available times. It is usually very difficult to organize several people’s schedules at my workplace, all of whom need to be part of the interview, so I don’t even try. The candidate does have to have some flex.
With a panel interview, I definitely understand and I’m usually pretty flexible and, fortunately, it has been my experience for the HR recruiter to work with me on setting up mutually agreeable times. However, if a person is interviewing with different companies, conflicts can arise and the need to request an alternative becomes necessary if a job seeker wants to maximize their opportunities.
I ran into a conflict recently where I gave one company my available times to interview for this week. This position pays really well and would be a great next level position. I was working through a recruiter who was doing the scheduling. Because of the holiday, one interviewer was out of town and didn’t get back until this past Monday. The second interviewer gave their available times and, at that time, we all had only one agreeable time slot, so that day and time was expected to be confirmed by the interviewers later that day.
Well, that same day while waiting, I was contacted for a third interview from a previous company. I was given one slot for a 90-minute interview with 3 people. It was scheduled for one hour after the interview I just scheduled! No way I would make it on time plus other factors, like time to prepare, etc. I’ve already been interviewing with this company however, so I didn’t want to burn any chances with them.
I couldn’t change the first interview to another time slot because it was now filled, so I responded politely to the second company and regretted my conflict (stated as a prior commitment), offered alternative days with open afternoon flexibility, and held my breath. I received a reply saying, no worries, we can do Monday instead. Whew!
There is no universally true answer. My employer always uses hiring committees, which has benefits and consequences. It simply is what it is.
Finding a time only a week out that works for 4-6 committee members, has an HR person to support, and works for the candidate simply doesn’t work well.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,066 posts, read 80,100,596 times
Reputation: 56846
I would actually consider 3:30 to be a big plus for the candidate, since it would only require an short amount of time of from their current job to get to the interview, and go home after, rather than the additional travel time if at 11am or 1pm.
I guess I can understand the issue OP has about the interview being scheduled for that late in the day. Sometimes when it's that late in the day they may already have who they want for the position. I don't ever recall any of my interviews being after 3pm when I was job searching. The time frame was always between 9am and 11am.
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