To not attend a job interview with less than 24 hours notice?

[himyf]

I applied for a job in a completely different part of the country. It would be a big move for us but we’re flexible about where we live and the job was interesting so it was worth an application.

Today I got an email at 4pm asking me to attend an in-person interview at the location tomorrow at 12pm. The email said it would take 20minutes.

I emailed them straight back (no contact number given to phone them) and asked if due to the short notice I could attend on a different day this week or have the interview virtually, and they replied at 5.40pm with the exact same email as the first time - no acknowledgment that I had asked a question (strange).

AIBU to not attend? No interview dates were provided on the application/advert - if they had been I would have made sure I could travel on these dates. But at such short notice I simply can’t arrange to be half way across the country for a 20minute interview (which will clearly be a first round one anyway). I think not acknowledging my question about accommodating a different interview method or date and just resending the first email is their way of saying the interview can’t be moved, which is fair enough, but it’s very frustrating to be given such little notice!!!!

Yeah that’s absolutely unacceptable. Nope. There’ll be other better employers that don’t do this. Focus on finding those.

Thank you! I thought that too - possibly a bad sign for what they’d be like as an employer. I think I just wanted to sense check my gut feeling was correct!

Trust yourself more lovely.

Depends how much you want the job. Maybe this is the first test! Do you want to work for a company that has you jump through this stupid hoop? How desperate are you? How competitive is the job? How good would it be to get the job?

(In my line of work we get about 100 applicants for each job. About 20 would be desperate enough to travel a long way with no notice. The others wouldn't get an interview. (I've never been that mean to make anyone do this - but sometimes competitive roles can be filled so easily the employer doesn't need to consider your circumstances and might be happy if you decline and withdraw your application as its one way to whittle down the applicants).

Depends on many factors but wanting to meet you in person for an initial interview is perfectly reasonable, and possibly they want to get you in straight away because they liked your application. Even if they offered you a job could you move quickly?

@BaklavaRocks so you are happy to take the ones who have nothing happening and you intentionally exclude applicants who prioritise their existing commitments. I wonder how that strategy will play out long-term?

@BaklavaRocks I think that’s it - the job isn’t a step up (in terms of salary or seniority) it’s just a sideways move into a potentially more interesting area. This is irritating me and has turned me off the role. So that probably answers my own question!

And @balletflats I do think that’s a problem with a strategy like this - obviously some people have more flexible lives and schedules but many people won’t! I guess if you have that many applicants maybe it doesn’t matter!

Red flags all over

tbf I did this once, did a really shit interview and was offered the job anyway. In the end i turned it down as i had better interviews coming and i just knew i’d hate). Literally had one evening to prep (i’d applied right at closing date). I could feel they were eager to appoint anyone. Had to drive 30 minutes away and got totally lost trying to find the place. They may have mistook my annoyance (or rage ha) as confidence…

Not only is this employer broadcasting that they have zero respect for a prospective employee's time, they're showing that their hiring practices are set up to find the most desperate candidates, not the best ones.

Fortunately you're not that desperate so you can pass on this sub-par company.

Nope, I said I'd never be that mean.

Are you sure it wasn't one of those scam ads? I thought it was only money laundering and direct selling jobs with such short interviews and autobot replies on email.

I've never had a 20 min interview in my life, especially in person. Sometimes it's taken longer than that just to wait for the interviewer to show up! From the other side I've interviewed loads of people and even the ones I knew I wasn't going to hire in the first 2 mins still had longer interviews than that.

This is so interesting, I’ve just recently done a round of interviews (as the interviewer), and they were all about 20 minutes.

I’ve never done interviews before, and I’m now realising maybe I was a bit rubbish at them! What do you talk about for longer than half an hour or so?

OP, I wouldn’t have asked anyone to come in on such short notice without knowing their availability, but it’s the strange response to your email I’d find more concerning!

I've never had a 20 min interview in my life, especially in person. Sometimes it's taken longer than that just to wait for the interviewer to show up! From the other side I've interviewed loads of people and even the ones I knew I wasn't going to hire in the first 2 mins still had longer interviews than that.

20 minutes for a first-round interview wouldn't be surprising if that round is handled by a recruiter within HR rather than the hiring manager. In set ups like that the initial interviews would be used to describe the job, get more info from the candidate, and decide which candidates to send to the hiring manager.

But with a decent employer that initial interview can be done via phone or video call, and the auto-replies and short notice are absolutely red flags.

I had this once for a 2nd round interview, they wanted me to go to their head office 3 hours away the same week, when the job was about 10 minutes from my house, they would reimburse my travel costs only if they offered me the job. I took great pleasure in ringing them up to decline and telling them how ridiculous I thought they were.

I've been the hiring manager quite often in these situations (Finance IT) and, with good candidates, the interview ran on easily to the point where my HR colleague used to joke with me about it, Basically it became a chat between two professionals about how they did things and what their experiences had been so it was an interesting conversation in and of itself.

Their communication would be a red flag for me and would put me off wanting to work for them.

If they were interested in you they'd move the date.

Unless you need the job desperately and/or it's a very niche dream job, I'd walk away. The boss is almost certainly a nightmare, they'd expect you to ask how high every time they say jump, and there's possibly a whole heap of history behind it. Or a preferred internal candidate.

Everything sounds disorganised and lacking in thought for others. If you’re expected to attend a job interview that’s organised last minute like this, how easy will other admin be there, like booking leave or organising training? How often will they spring stuff on you and expect you to just deal with it? If they don’t read your emails properly, how well do they listen to staff? That’s not a good sign for an employer. Remember that you are effectively interviewing them too to see if you want to work there!

It sounds so strange that I wonder if it's an admin error. Surely they can't expect candidates to attend the following day, I'd imagine that many will have existing jobs that they need to arrange leave for!

thanks so much everyone - I feel much better about my gut feeling now and have just emailed to say I unfortunately won’t be able to attend tomorrow. It’ll be interesting to see what they come back with!

I don’t think it can be a dummy/fake job as it’s for a charity and the application was via their website, but I am wondering if there’s an internal preferred candidate and they just aren’t fussed about other interviewees. Who knows!

YANBU. Even if you weren’t that far away, it’s unreasonable of them. I wouldn’t appreciate being told about a job interview the day before even if it was down the road - how would I reasonably get time off work and what about time to prepare? I spend hours prepping for interviews, usually they consume my evenings for a few days before and I clear my schedule if I can, and if I’d got less than 24 hours notice and had commitments with my actual job or my child, that prep time is gone.

Sounds like a scam tbh

The best job I ever did, that changed my life (I stayed there 15 years and have multiple decent promotions ) I had only a couple of hours notice of the interview.

(it was only 30 mins down the road though)