Late Interview Protocol.

ITSpectre

So today I had a tech interview for a job that was a contract to perm... But the interview was supposed to be at 10:30am.... but it is now 10:54am and I have not received a call. I reached out to the contact for the company and left him a email and a message to get back to me. Usually when this happens the company may be busy or not have time to interview you. In my experiences when this happens the job does not really value your time, or they do not really want to hire you...

I know that I am not always going to get a call right at the specified time, so I usually give people 15-20 min leeway because I understand that meetings run late, conference calls are longer... and they may have a interview that runs later. But if they just flat out never call then thats a red flag.

Anyone else gone through this?

EnderWiggin

I've gone through something similar. My interview was scheduled for a conference call, so I dialed in a few minutes early. After thrity minutes of hanging on dead air, the manager signs in to tell me they double booked, and would have to reschedule. So I called the sub-k who set it up, and the sub-k rebooked it. I still don't know for sure whether or not the manager hired me because of leaving me hanging like that, or if they actually liked me. But either way, I got the job haha.

iBrokeIT

Yes, it is a valid concern but I wouldn't be too quick judge and write them off.

I would wait and see what they give for an explanation. If it was a personally emergency or a production outage I would give them a pass but otherwise probably not.

tmtex

Just last week I applied for a position and Friday they emailed me to setup a Phone screen. They asked How about Monday at 10:00am. Great !! I go sit in my car waiting on the call as I have done with others. Nothing, no call, no email. 10:30 I come back up to my desk and respond back to their email asking if there was a problem or whatever. No response so far

Basic85

If you do decide to give them one more chance, hold that on them if they do make you an offer. Look when I go on interviews, I always look at it like this if it was the other way around would it still be the same? The answer is probably not. If the candidate had missed the interview with no calls/emails to notify, what would happen? You probably wouldn't get a 2nd chance. Employers have done this to me and when I gave them a 2nd chance, one in particular I never heard back from so I'm not going to give 2nd chances anymore. To me that means the employer doesn't value my time, disrespectful, rude, etc and those are major red flags that I would not ignore.

Bokeh

That happened with my current job. I was working overnights when I got a call about a potential job change. I said sure to a phone interview, and that was scheduled for 1030. I called in, and dead air. Waited 20 minutes, then hung up. Got a hold of the recruiter, who got a hold of the company and rescheduled for 2 the next day. They apologized over and over and over before evening starting to ask any questions. They were in the middle of buying up another company, and got called into additional meetings that weren't originally on the schedule. Did the phone screen one day, in person interview the next, and offer within an hour of getting home.

ITSpectre

So I got a hold of the company, they apologized and rescheduled for 10:30am tomorrow. So im going to give them a second chance. But if they miss the interview I am going to count it as a loss and move to the next interview.

TechGuru80

I've had where it was double booked, the interviewer wanted me to call their line, and probably some other stuff. It's really bad for the company when anything like that happens because it's starting off on a bad foot and potentially how the company operates.

ITSpectre

Exactly.

I was talking with a tech friend of mine and he pointed this out...

When a applicant is late he does not get another chance...

If it was a client they were doing a call with, they would be 5 min early to the call, not to waste the clients time

If it was a call with upper management... they would not be late.....

So a company that does not value your time, is not on time, or makes an excuse is not someone you want to work for. Because the first impression is everything.

josephandre

it's only happened to me once, and I was understanding, because things happen and I've been on the other end several times. The thing was though, they didn't even apologize, just kind of matter-of-factly rescheduled.

After sitting on it a bit, I called and cancelled the interview and asked to remove myself from consideration. I really wanted the job too, but I really get hung up on principles and courtesies.

UnixGuy

We don't live in a perfect world; things happen.

Your goal is to get the job, so do whatever it takes to get it; even if it means tolerating them being late for an interview. Take it as an opportunity to show them that you're positive and understanding

soletek

I usually email them that day to confirm the interview time and to request a notification of any changes. After that I give them a 10 minute window max, because my time is valuable . I had a skype interview a couple days ago. The hiring manager was running late but he text me to let me know. So that was cool because he gave me a heads up and I got the job too.