To think being 50 minutes late for an interview isn't acceptable?

[DareToCare]

This is from the employer...

My interview was scheduled for a certain time, I got there 10 minutes early and announced my arrival etc. All fine. 20 minutes later, someone comes and tells me "sorry, but they're running a bit late".

45 minutes later and I'm still sitting there.

They shoved quite an extensive few tests in front of me before the interview started, after being 50 minutes late.

Needless to say I was quite frazzled but done them anyway. They weren't very apologetic and didn't seem bothered that I had to wait, as if it was them doing me a great favour.

AIBU to say this is highly unprofessional?

I wanted to add a different perspective to an interviewee being made to wait. Earlier this year, my brother was employed by an oil company from a wealthy Arab nation. The job he does is very well paid but also incredibly important as it deals with the safety/protection of workforce. My brother was head hunted and they flew him to London for his interview. He was originally told that he would be interviewed at 9am, however when he got there, there were a room full of other applicants and it soon became clear that it was running late. Certain applicants became aggressive and disrespectful to the office staff, my brother intervened to protect the office staff, encouraging the aggressive applicant to calm down. Then a young man (also an applicant) started asking all of the other applicants questions, several of the other applicants were verbally abusive and telling this man to f off. My brother thought the young man was anxious and to diffuse the situation, he spent time helping him calm down by asking where he was from etc. When they eventually were brought in to be interviewed, the men who had behaved aggressively/ abusively were sent straight out. When my brother went into his interview he was warmly greeted and congratulated on a very successful first part of the interview process. All the applicants had been told to arrive for 9am and were made to wait several hours to be seen. The young man who was nervous was actually an actor/ mole who was employed to irritate the applicants to help the company judge how well the applicants would cope under pressure. The panel had watched the entire situation play out, from within the interview room. My brother was offered a job there and then and that was before his presentation on his job role.

My brothers job is a very lucrative one and I realise that the likelihood of the NHS using similar interview techniques is slim. However on the off chance that someone might end up in a similar situation, I thought I should share my brothers experience!

Deliberately or inadvertently They have tested to see how much bull shit candidates are prepared to take.Run for the hills!!

oh my god rescue, what a lot of trouble they went to to get the right applicant - thank god for your brother - but would he come across this situation in rl? Was he aware this might be a set up?

Not so much the late interview as schedules do change but the lack of respect shown towards you, would be a concern. See if they offer and decide then. I would raise it though even if you turn them down.

All those saying it's expected to wait that long, when I do interviews this happens.. surely you apologise for delays?

Rescue that's crazy.

Every time I read about job interviews and recruitment etc on mumsnet all I can think is how little employment law there must be in England compared with N Ireland where I live. You'd never be allowed to use things that happen outside the formal interview as part of the selection process here.

Scottish, I'm not saying you were wrong to make that decision however the other applicants aren't asking you to run to their schedules, they want you to stick to yours.

Scottish's decision was absolutely spot on. I know in the past my employer has missed people with excellent technical skills because they applied a very narrow definition of "good" when it comes to hiring. Recruitment-types seemed to like people like them, without understanding the needs of our (quite nerdy) business. Thankfully we seem to be moving away from that, and acknowledging that we are better with a diverse set of people.

Basically, if I was kept waiting I'd assume a situation like the one described upthread where there was some kind of crisis or the one Scottish gives. I wouldn't expect an explanation (they might not be able to share the info with me, for good reason) and I wouldn't take offence.

My time is not more important than that of those handling an IT crisis or of another candidate.

I think the OP is saying that she wouldn't have minded if they had apologised and given her an explanation as to why there was a delay. For example, a previous candidate might have faced a train delay and that might have led to the next interview being delayed as well.

They should have checked with her that she was happy to wait that long or did she want to reschedule? She might have had other commitments for all they knew.

I'm surprised by the consensus here. I do interview days where it is applicant after applicant all day. Of course things happen.

So explain; apologise. People are usually understanding if something has gone wrong. They tend to be less understanding if they're just left sitting there wondering if they've been forgotten.

OP: The employer is NHS and the excuse was they were seeing someone else first so ran late. ... They weren't very apologetic and didn't seem bothered that I had to wait, as if it was them doing me a great favour.

This is exactly how NHS hospitals routinely treat their patients.

I'd say making people wait as if their time is cheap and unlimited is endemic in NHS culture. Unfortunately, the attitude has percolated from patients into potential employees as well. Well, once you get in, hopefully you get the benefit of this laissez faire attitude towards other people's time.

I've never met a Dr or worked with a Dr who doesn't apologise for running late! I'm not sure it's how the NHS treats their patients entirely.

I sort of felt like that in the interview for my current job OP. Interview was about three sections, including interview, presentation and tests. The interview panel were running late so HR man did the tests firsts, then the presentation then the interview. I was invited to an interview but received no info regarding the rest..... so what I thought would be an hour long process at10am turned into a 4 hour long process from
10am to 2pm as they left me waiting.

They then kept me waiting 3 weeks until informing me I had the job and another 3 months sorting out a contract and references.

It's a good job though, and everyone says HR are poor.