How would you view a candidate who has to reschedule an interview due to illness?

[SaltandPepper22]

Just that really - DH and I have been debating it.

Would you show compassion and think these things happen, treat them the same as as the other candidates and still consider them a potential option, or would you hold a bias against them and expect them to blow you away to get the job, or not want to hire them in case they are unreliable when actually hired.

Not a situation that directly affects either of us, but inspired by a conversation I overheard at work today.

I think it would depend on the interview. If they blew me away, it wouldn't be an issue. If they were neck and neck, I have to admit I'd probably be tempted to go for the one who didn't reschedule.

Depends on illness.

A cold is one thing. Getting hit by a bus is something else.

My dad had a heart attack in the very early hours of the morning of my interview which was at 9am. I texted the Chief Exec to explain, apologise and stated that while I was keen to interview at a later date that I understood if it wasn’t possible. They gave me an interview exactly a week later and I got the job. It was a sign of the company as an employer that they were willing to be so flexible - and indeed continue to be so to this day.

@Arlanymor thats really good to hear!

We both agree that that is how we would WANT companies to behave but was wondering what most people would actually do…and doing a bit of reflection on what we would do as well

I'd have trouble taking them seriously

Depends on the illness, I think.

I interviewed for my current job on Teams when I was in the worst throes of flu; my temperature was 40, I had two fans blowing on me the entire time and was only dressed from the waist up. Had a coughing fit mid-interview 🫣

I have NO idea how I got the job as it was my worst ever interview performance because I felt so unwell, but I wanted the job so badly I just pushed through it as I didn’t want to risk rescheduling the interview! When they called the next day to offer me the job, the first thing out of my mouth was ‘are you joking’ 😂

Something like norovirus though, I don’t know how I would manage that if I suddenly needed to vomit or shit, so might ask to reschedule, or just make them aware that I was unwell.

It depends. When a relative of mine was interviewing they gave a second chance to a candidate who rang in sick. The excuse was ‘swollen testicles’. You’d not fake that one

I personally would be understanding. I have a distinct bias because I would be very angry if someone knowingly walked into my office with any sort of germ that I could bring home to my immune-compromised husband. I also suffer from debilitating migraines and I can’t control when those happen so I have sympathy for people with chronic illness. I know that it’s possible to manage my job and get all your work done, even if there are random interruptions.

Would you think better of them if they came in with their illness, with the possibility of infecting the panel, and perform poorly in the interview?

Many interviews are no longer face to face.

Unreliable

If I have lots of other candidates then I won't bother much with this one. If I'm desperate I'll have to hope it's genuine illness but I would worry it betrays a lack of resilience

We had this happen the other day. I was fine with the illness but not delighted about his “I can’t do the interview because I am ill but I am an amazing candidate” type email.

A “I’m very sorry for the inconvenience” would have gone down better. We did reschedule but he didn’t make it past the first round (nor did others, it wasn’t just the email)

However - often there are 4-6 candidates at the second stage and we try and get them close together. If one was ill for a week or two, we wouldn’t necessarily want to keep the others hanging on as we might lose the best candidate to another role.

I want the best candidate for the job, and if that means someone rescheduling because they're unwell then I'd rather that. But it needs to fit within the timescale I need to recruit. I wouldn't want to interview one person 2 weeks after the others.
I have had an interview rescheduled due to my own illness. To be honest I wasn't well enough even on the later date and it was a frustrating experience.

Where we are, they are face to face because part of the interview process is teaching or presenting something to an audience, and seeing how they interact with the rest of the team.

If it was just a Q and A type interview, then of course they can suggest doing this over Teams/Zoom while they're still ill.

I would view the potential candidate with compassion, as our current experience is that some candidates don't even bother turning up!

For me, it's less about the nature of the illness or reason for needing to reschedule, and more about the capacity to reschedule.

If there's a single date that you've managed to carve out interviewing time for all the panel members, there may be no prospect of offering an alternative date for an interviewee, no matter the worthiness of their reason.

And if they were hit by a bus, then they'd unfortunately just need to apply for a future vacancy.

I think that it depends on the illness. But if they blewme away I would query their sickness record with their previous employer before hiring them.

I got norovirus the day of an interview with a really aggressive city legal firm when quite a junior lawyer and had to reschedule. Was there 14 years in total!

For my next role, I had a terrible cold on the day of my second interview. Pre Covid and telephone interviews weren’t a thing then much less video interviews. I went along anyway, apologised for being dosed and politely declined to shake hands. Got that one too.

My sister had to reschedule an interview with 20 mins notice because she stepped off the bus awkwardly and somehow ruptured her achilles 😱 Still works at that place almost a decade later and still gets comments from other long-serving team members whenever she mentions getting the bus somewhere 😂

I did a terrible interview last year when I had Covid. It was a waste of my time and their's. Rescheduling it for a few days later would have helped a lot.

Depends on the strength of the candidate application and the illness.

We've had some campaigns with 8 strong candidates and 2 less strong ones where we've had to fill 10 and wouldn't have bothered interviewing the less strong candidates if we didn't have to fill all the slots.

We've had people who were less good at application asking to reschedule and we've done it because we had to, but we'd mostly decided who to offer to at that point.

not a problem - how they request it and handle it tells me a lot about them. I had one candidate recently who was offered an interview but could not attend as not available. This doesn't surprise me, not everyone can drop their work to attend an interview. But they were polite, explained why and suggested multiple other days and times that would work if it worked for us. We rescheduled it for a few days later and I was happy to lengthen the recruitment in those circumstances. I do not make decisions about outcome until all stages done and all candidates have been discussed and agreed on by the whole panel.

If I get a candidate who just emails and says I'm ill I can't attend without offering a solution, I will offer them an alternative but I will be watching and probing accordingly within the questions of the interview for signs of poor attitude.

I believe strongly that skills can be taught but attitude is set and many candidates simply do not appreciate that.

I was so impressed with their willingness to accommodate me and I moved everything around to be there on the second date they offered and it was in a completely different city. I wanted to play as fair with them as they were with me. I’ve been there a year now!

I'd give them a second chance.

I tested positive for Covid an hour ago. 🤕

Would you like me to turn up for my interview, aching from head to foot, and infect you, or would you prefer your candidate does the intelligent responsible thing and informs you of the test result.

Depends whah the excuse was.
I've interviewed (for my current job) with a really bad cold. I emailed in advance to say I really wanted to interview and was really keen, was planning to attend but I just wanted to warn them I had a bad cold in case anybody present was vulnerable. Turns out one of the interviewers has a heart condition so they subbed her out.
I had norovirus (or similar) recently and I couldn't go 10 minutes without vomiting or shitting so there's no way I'd have made an interview !

I would think if they are ill enough not to be interviewed then they may be able to do a Teams or Facetime but won't be at their best....and no I don't want other people's bugs.