To ask to postpone my job interview this afternoon?

[poiuhgf]

I have a job interview this afternoon on Teams. I've been unwell the last week and have struggled to prepare for the interview, and just don't feel well enough to put my best foot forward.

The interview is at 4pm, would it be incredibly rude and unprofessional to email and ask to postpone it? Should I just prepare as much as I can and push through?

I wouldn't no. A lot of people, myself included, run very tight diaries with most of their day accounted for. That slot that was allocated for you could have been spent elsewhere if the interviewer had known so you'll really mess up her diary.

You should definitely push through. I went to an interview for a job I really wanted but was not at all well (kidney infection) and even fainted in the interview (🥴) but I got the job!

The only time I've ever done this, I'd been up all night puking and it was supposed to be an in person interview at around 11am. I contacted them at 9am to explain that I couldn't travel on tube as was still very sick and they really didn't want to be in the room with me and my germs. It was rescheduled to 5pm that same day and online so I had some time to nap, shower and then do interview and they weren't exposed to my germs!

This is far too short notice though and doesn't sound like you're ill now.

This.

When we give an interview list to HR we’re meant to include ‘reserve’ candidates in case some can’t make the interview. Much more likely for a reserve to get an urgent query if they can make your interview slot today than for them to reschedule you.

I would do the interview but at the start apologise if you aren't quite your best as you have been unwell - might help if you have a croaky voice - however you really didn't want to miss this opportunity of an interview as you're really interested in the post etc would be more impressive. I'd move on to other candidates if you postponed at this late stage.

Agree with all the comments. I tried to rearrange an interview once when I had an ear infection that was so painful I couldn't get out of bed, was waiting on a GP appointment. The company refused to postpone and I wasn't offered an alternative option. Lost out on the job.

Acceptable to cancel now if you've suddenly been hit by a raging D&V bug in the last hour or so, not if you've been feeling ill for a week and haven't been arsed to prep. Should have told them yesterday.

I wouldn't if I were you. I'd rather someone gave a slightly weak interview and acknowledged at the start - sorry, I've been really unwell this week so please bear with me if I take a second to process things - than someone who just didn't bother prepping cos they felt a bit under the weather (unless you'd been seriously ill, of course).

I once asked a week in advance to postpone an interview (literally the day I was offered it) because I would be in a different part of the country, in person interview. They said no. It’s really hard to get a panel together so often it’s now or never! It’s also incredibly crappy for the other people they’ve interviewed having to wait days for you to be done (Incidentally they didn’t recruit from that round of interviews and did get back to me but I think that’s more likely than delaying one person by a few days)

It depends on how competitive the position is likely to be.

I was never in a position where I could reschedule an interview as getting a panel together was challenging and it would not be fair on other candidates to have to wait for up to a month to reschedule for one person. If you were the preferred candidate on paper and none of the others interviewed were appointable, I may have then considered setting up a separate date for you depending on the reason as to why you cancelled on the day. But I may have also re advertised.

It wouldn't look good, but if they really liked your CV they might still give you another chance

What kind of companies do you all work for? I work in IT and people cancel/reschedule interviews all the time and it's not an issue. Depends on the role and type of company. We swap interviewers in and out and have a large pool of interviewers. I'd rather not interview someone who is obviously unwell.

It would definitely raise an eyebrow where I work if you asked to postpone on the day, but we would do it. It may go slightly against you though in the final decision if you were against equally good candidates.

I don't recognise the 'interviews happen when they happen' model - interviewing is a 2 way street, we work out times that suit us and the candidates. Though I did have one candidate who every time I offered her a slot had an issue with it even though I was bending backwards around her. After 3 tries to get it in the diary I told her we were withdrawing the interview offer.

@Brainstorm23 public sector. We had quite strict guidance about what we could and couldn’t do in terms of recruitment and very little wiggle room. Interview panels could not be switched for a single candidate, so unless we could reschedule quickly with the same panel, someone wanting/needing to change the date was unlikely to happen especially for more senior posts. Using Teams gives a little more flex as the panel doesn’t have to be in the same location, but still not as flexible as a lot of the private sector due to the recruitment guidance.

Yeah that's what I thought. Private sector or at least my company is completely different.

I get that if you're applying for a specific post then that all applies. But if not I'd reschedule every time.

Nobody actually asked the OP what the job actually was!

@Brainstorm23 I work in financial services. We often have to recruit at pace. We can be a bit more lenient with internal colleagues, partly because we will know if they've genuinely been off ill, and will accommodate holidays as long as we are told in advance but something like this, we would either struggle to accommodate without inconveniencing other candidates/missing deadlines and it would just leave us with a negative impression of the person.

I should have probably elaborated more on my illness. I have had IBD symptoms the last week, but yesterday they started to ramp up (probably triggered by stress). I won't go into specifics because it's TMI, but I would not have been able to sit through the interview.

I did end up cancelling the interview soon after posting this, with a sincere apology for the inconvenience and late notice. It wasn't a panel interview, just an interview with one person, thankfully they have responded to ask me when I am free to reschedule.

Also, recruitment in my field tends to be that they just advertise job roles all the time, and see what comes in rather than it being for a specific start date as there are a shortage of candidates.

I know in the past when I interviewed for the NHS they gave me a slot for an in-person interview and wouldn't reschedule even though I emailed as soon as I was notified of the interview date that I would be abroad so unable to attend. So I know other industries are a lot more strict with interviews

Oh dear @poiuhgf Glad it worked out and you cancelled despite everyone telling you not to.

You did the right thing and hopefully you can reschedule and get the opportunity to present the best version of yourself. If it was me I probably wouldn't even remember you'd cancelled as I do so many interviews!

Well that's good to hear. Hope you feel better soon, apologies don't know what BD symptoms means but hopefully you can concentrate on getting better and have time for prep. All the best.