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 would reschedule the interview and treat them like any other candidate. Everyone gets ill.sometimes.and they might be just the candidate you are looking for.

We all get sick - I would judge based on performance in the interview.

I think it depends upon why they can’t attend the interview and how they go about discussing it and rescheduling it.

If it came down to them and one other, with nothing else between them, then the fact one was unreliable would probably go against them.

Tbh in my workplace if they don't show up on interview day then they are generally dropped at that point. Only at director level or for a hard-to-recruit post would an interview be rescheduled.

My view would depend on if they let you know as soon as possible.

If I was one of your examiners I'd much much rather you'd have cancelled!!

Depends on the illness ~ sure, but also anyone can come up with an interesting lie ;)

For me, it'll depend on how it's done. I had one woman, called our HR 4h before the interview to ask to reschedule, plenty of notice, tracked me down on LinkedIn to send a note explaining/apologising and saying why she was looking forward to meeting me for the reschedule - actually probably more likely to offer the job based on how professionally she handled it.

On the other hand, if there's very little/no notice given, unless it's an EXCEPTIONAL reason I won't reschedule. Favourites that have stood out were one guy claiming there was a train strike (there was not, to add insult to injury when he called, he said he couldn't get from XX town as trains were not running all day - it happened to be MY town I'd just travelled from!) and another who called 2h after not showing for her slot, whining that we should have called when she didn't come in as she'd been asleep 😂

I would judge any interviewer who would judge a candidate for needing to reschedule.

As much as my company can be a bit crap, this is something we take very seriously (sometimes to their detriment if you want to promote someone and then have to open it out to everyone!!).

It doesn’t happen, I think it used to (in terms of people promoting their favs), and that’s why we have changed. But, we employ thousands of people so have a proper HR set up. I do a lot of interviews and it’s been like this for years now.

Interesting question. I was going to say, I'd not judge them at all. I'd hate to interview when ill. But then remembered that I worked flat out to get a project in on time only a couple of weeks ago when I was so ill I hadn't eaten for three days. So probably, if I really wanted a job, I'd dose up and do my best and expect candidates I was interviewing to do the same (on Zoom - I wouldn't want them to spread germs all over the office.)

Turn it around I would view an employer/company in very good light if the were prepared to reschedule

This is great for you. When I had covid I had horrendous brain fog. I couldn't focus on a Tv programme and could barely string a sentence together. 3-4 weeks after catching Covid, I was over the worst of it and went out to eat for lunch and couldn't process what the waiter was saying to me. That was when I was over the worst of it!!!! There is no way I'd have been capable of doing a viva or a job interview or even holding a reasonable conversation when I had Covid the first time. It was like my brain had melted! Don't assume that everyone who had the same thing experiences it in the same way and is capable of the same thing. My DH has completely different symptoms when we had Covid for the first time at exactly the same time.

She could have (and probably did) spread it to the others who reacted as you did.
Not a great thing to do at all.

I missed an interview once because I was in A&E literally fighting for my life, I then had to have six weeks bed rest, the employer was not interested

I'd just give them another interview date if possible.

On the other hand, I'd definitely rather not employ someone who turned up to an interview ill, as I wouldn't want someone liable to spread illnesses in my office.

Arranging interviews isn't always straightforward, we would need to have the same panel members to make it fair, availability sometimes means this just isn't possible. Also, rooms need to be hired etc. it's not about not giving people a chance, sometimes it's just very difficult to arrange another interview with the same people, managers in my organisation have many commitments to juggle and can't just take another 1/2 day out to interview one person. It also means those interviewed at the original time would have to wait until the other person had their interview before finding out the outcome, we usually let people know the same day.

coxesorangepippin

I'd have trouble taking them seriously
Why though? Do you time your sickness so it doesn't cause any inconvenience?

I gave a job to someone who rearranged because his flight was cancelled. Didn't hold it against him at all. Life happens. He was the best candidate.

I'd feel the same about illness. In fact as someone who is immune suppressed I would prefer someone who rearranges if they are ill over someone who comes and shares their germs with me

Turn it around I would view an employer/company in very good light if the were prepared to reschedule
Yes I would still be interested. Maybe the main recruiting manager was off sick or something.

I'd let them reschedule, assuming they were actually ill/had a crisis and didn't just have a sniffle.

When I used to be involved in recruiting I was fairly lenient on things like this. I also used to copy CVs and remove the personal information of the candidates so that the team who were looking to set up interviews would do so on merit and not on any bias.

I remember our senior management saying during the covid pandemic that actually everything put in place for covid was sensible and should be adhered to for all viral illnesses in future. Our workplace has over 2000 people in it, and coming in while infectious and ill wasn't to be applauded or encouraged
I tend to agree - its a short term gain to drag yourself in with a horrible cold, but potentially a longer term problem if you infect multiple colleagues on the day

coxesorangepippin · Today 17:25

I'd have trouble taking them seriously

Why on earth? People don’t choose to be ill.

Even if they were in the HDU with sepsis?

Why? It was online. They were 100s of miles away 😂

You mean ... somehow passed covid to someone over the internet?? 🤦🏼‍♀️ The viva was online!