Would you book a day off work for a job interview?

[futureplans20]

I work in recruitment (not agency), and recently I’ve noticed that many candidates expect us to make adjustments for them regarding interview scheduling. Specifically, they are unwilling to take a day off work or use their annual leave, preferring instead to attend on their day off. However, our company policy requires that two interviewers be present, which makes it difficult to coordinate both interviewers on the same day due to their busy schedules, resulting in limited available time slots.

We try our best to accommodate people, and if someone is unable to take time off work or has other commitments on a specific day, that is understandable. The issue arises when people choose not to request / even ask for the time off and expect us to bend to suit them.

This was not the situation during my job search. I felt fortunate to even receive an interview invitation, but it appears that circumstances have shifted. It's odd considering the current state of the job market, and apparently, people are desperate for employment. Clearly, they don’t want the job that much though.

I had a conversation about this earlier with one of my hiring managers, and it made me think. What are your thoughts?

Yes, I would book a day off. I think you're right - the more unaccommodating they are at this stage, the more flakey/unreliable they're likely to be further down the line!

Of course! I think it's normal to have to take a day off!

We tend to offer slots across a few days and then it's first come first served, so if we have 6 candidates we offer 6 slots but they can pick which one works best, it works for us too because we never have a full day to give to recruitment! Some organisations make you book leave really far in advance or have restrictions

Depends on the labour market. Oversupply of candidates - meh. Move on and get someone else.

Not enough candidates to fill roles - the candidates hold all the cards and you're gonna have to suck it up.

Depends on the interview. If it's a job I really wanted, or if I wasn't happy where I was, then I'd take a day off. If I'm only interviewing because a recruiters got in touch with me and I'm using the the interview to gauge my own interest, then I'm not going to waste a precious days holiday on it and if they can't accommodate me then oh well.

The shoddy way I've been treated by employers and recruiters previously, despite going out of my way to accommodate them, means that unless it's a dream job, I'm not booking time off.

If the company is professional, accommodating, and responsive maybe I would. If I have to chase at any stage, nah.

Amusingly one of the biggest recruitment agencies was amazing.
I found the smaller ones to often be rubbish.

I would. But not everyone would. As someone said above, it depends on the supply and demand. If you are desperate for candidates, you'll have to change your approach. On the other hand, if candidates keep losing out on on interviews because they won't use leave, then they will have to change.

The best way around this is to state the i terview date in the job advert. That also allows plenty of time for candidates to arrange a dental appointment if they dont want to take leave.

Forgot to add, my current job accommodated me as I explained I had to spend the majority of the day doing handover and didn't want to leave my current employer in the lurch. It was my last day due to redundancy and I requested a late interview.

Some workplaces require a lot of notice to book a day off so it may be difficult to some. In the past i’ve been offered interviews 3 days in advance or less so not enough notice to book leave.
Can’t pull a sicky for an interview as that would be suspicious for a reference

I would book it off. But I’m in my 50s and it would never have occurred to me not to. I’m one of many applying for the job. If you demonstrate that you’re going to be an awkward arse before your first interview (personally, I like to wait a few months before I unleash that side of me on my colleagues 🤣) then already you’re a less favourable candidate.

I would book leave. However, I work in an essential public service where I cover a rota, and cannot do so at very short notice. I do roll my eyes when applying for jobs in this field that recruiters are surprised I can't book a day off with 48hrs notice, when I know they'd have a fit if one of their team members tried to do the same.

Not all jobs can accommodate booking annual leave at short notice. The expectation that people use annual leave also disadvantages working parents who have to use all their annual leave to cover their children's school holidays, teacher training days and sick days.

If the recruiting organisation wasn't prepared to be flexible by allowing me to interview on my non-working day, or at least give a choice of a couple of different interview days or scheduling the interview for the end of the day so I could leave work early rather than taking the whole day then I would find that off putting.

I'm currently job hunting and agree with PP, the way organisations treat candidates these days is shocking. Applications ignored, not so much as a 'thanks but no thanks' e mail, ghosting after interviewing, candidates waiting weeks and weeks in between rounds....I can understand why people aren't falling over themselves to take annual leave for an interview, when the most likely outcome is that post interview, they will never hear from that company again.

Yes I would book time off. Whenever I’ve been involved in recruitment at work we have usually supplied a list of dates to the recruitment team or for internal candidates gone straight to them
suggesting a time. I think replying with I can’t do that because I’ve got holiday booked or whatever is fine but if they get too fussy it doesn’t give a good impression and makes me think they aren’t really serious about the job

I have always booked time off for interviews. However, my experience has been employers wanting to arrange dates at very short notice and it’s tricky to keep asking for last minute leave on random afternoons without arousing suspicions at work, so I don’t blame candidates for trying to arrange it for their days off.

5 interviews (not an unreasonable amount in the current job market) would be 5 days off. How many parents have 5 days annual leave to spare? The expectation to take annual leave is just another barrier which makes working and career progression harder for working parents, in particular mothers.

In the last few years, as an employer I’ve had some interesting chats with younger members of the team about both annual leave and sick leave. One team member requested to work from home one day as her parents were visiting and she wanted to catch up with them. When I said she’d need to take it as annual leave she said, ‘but that’s my holiday time to go on actual holidays’.

I’ve actually heard that a few times since, that ‘holiday leave’ is for ‘actual holidays’ and they prefer the employer lets them WFH or give grace for things outside that. So perhaps what you’re experiencing is that mindset?

I’m very much in the half and half crowd. An x time in three days isn’t going to work for me generally. My current employers sent an invite to a booking platform so you had a choice of wed / Thurs morning or afternoon over a few weeks. For me that’s a decent balance of flexibility for both sides. They are relatively flexible employers.

How could you manage this though?

• X number of leave days
• interviewing with say 3-5 companies, that’s at least 3-5 days of leave or half days
• I get to second with 2-3 companies another 2-3 days or half days
• then I get to 3rd/final with 1-2 another day or two
• plus many people will need to interview with more than 5 companies

I personally have always told my employer I am looking and pop out and then make up time where the job allows, but I work in that sort of space, appreciate not everyone does.

Interviewers need to have a bit of common sense too. Not everyone can take time off at short notice. In the City sometimes interviews are scheduled before or after work to allow for this.

I don’t mind using leave where it’s a final interview stage for a role I really want. Otherwise, no.

Even then, I have bitter memories of a third-round interview I had to travel three hours to Heathrow airport for (despite the business being based half an hour away!) which resulted in two months of silence. Finally, an absolutely furious recruitment consultant called to say he’d been told they’d chosen someone else and they had refused to give a shred of feedback on either me or his other candidate.

Too much shoddy behaviour from employers.

No can do, our annual leave is booked weeks or months in advance. It’s day off or nothing. Same for medical, dental etc.

Depends on whether the person has days they can take.

AL could be fully used up for child care, or their AL entitlement is used up and doesn't restart for a while, or they work in a role where short notice leave is not permitted.

I've always been able to take a day off but my mate who is a TA couldn't. When I was still in the police and looking for a new job, I struggled to get time off and was lucky to blag a day with less than 2 weeks notice without disclosing why I needed it.

I have never applied for a job with anything more than 2 interviews. I agree that if an application process has that number, there needs to be a meeting halfway between both parties.