to decline an interview with less than 24 hours notice of details

[spirit20]

I received an invitation for an interview tomorrow. The interview invitation came on Monday, where they said they'd send further details of what I would have to prepare later on. When nothing had arrived by last night, I sent a follow up email asking if I needed to prepare something. I got an email this morning asking me to prepare a 50 minute training session and a 10 minute presentation. I was caught up in my own job until around 5pm today with no time to plan anything.

As things stand, I can pull something together, but it's going to be a massive rushed job and not allow me to show me at my best. AIBU in thinking this is too short notice, and a red flag for the company?

I would decline. Remember an interview is a two way process -their approach tells you so much about them and not in a good way!

Yeah, fuck that. I would also decline the interview.

It does give the impression that it would be a pretty awful place to work. However, it could also be a HR recruiter that’s fucked up by not sending it to you earlier and actually you’d have nothing to do with them once/if hired. If you were keen on the role up until now I’d reply and ask to reschedule to early next week to allow adequate prep time. See what they say?

Thanks all - think I'm going to decline! Frustrating, as I put a lot of time into the application.

Yes decline. They appear to be wholly incompetent.

I would be worried they have someone earmarked for the post and “have to show they’ve interviewed others fairly”…

I’ve turned down interviews with this sort of notice. It’s unfair and it says a lot about what they are like as a company IMO.

How much do you love the new role and the package that goes with it? It’s not worth declining the chance of a great new opportunity to prove a point to yourself…

While I agree with what everyone else is saying, if this is a job that you really want for whatever reason, you don’t have much to lose by at least going to the interview.

Yep. A 50-min training session will surely take several hours to prepare. They have probably set that task because they have internal candidates who they know already have one ready to go.

I would be put off by their approach. If the interview was on Monday and you had the weekend to prepare, that would be reasonable but what they ask tells me they expect the unreasonable from their employees.
lifes too short for that if you have work and or other options

Do you work on a school? Id say that is very typical of a teaching interview notice period and activity.

But in any other industry it would be laughable.

Could you prepare a training session on "The correct way to interview people"?

I wouldn’t decline outright but I would say “given that the details of the training session have only been sent today I would be more than happy to go ahead next week but I feel that tomorrow is too short notice.”

Huge red flag

It does depend on the sector. If the job you are applying for would reasonably need to prepare something like this at short notice then yes it’s a reasonable request. If not, then no and you would be right to tell them to piss right off.

I’d tell them sorry but I’d need time to prepare…. In between the lines … don’t fucking expect your staff to break the in back with insufficient time to prepare… I wouldn’t want to work there!

This nails it for me

Another vote for asking to postpone until next week.

I have had similar and on that occasion they had someone lined up who was internal. I’d decline if something similar happened to me again.

Last time I was in this situation I declined the interview. HR called me a couple of days later offering to reschedule which I agreed too and I was subsequently offered the job!

Thanks all - very good advice here. I've emailed (well, I've written an email and scheduled it to send tomorrow morning) and declined, stating that given the short notice, I don't feel I would be able to present myself at my best (or words to that effect).

It is indeed a public sector role - and it definitely crossed my mind that they have someone lined up for the job. That's my main reason for flat out declining it - if I thought it was a fair fight, I'd go, do my best and at least see what feedback I got that I could use for my next application. But as things stand, I know the feedback would be relating to the fact that it would seem rather last-minute (lacking in-dept research etc.), so it would be of no use to me.

It isn't actually a school job though, for the poster who commented that. Interesting you mention that though, because I worked as a teacher for over 10 years before switching careers recently. I disagree that's common in schools though - you'd normally get at least 48 hours notice of the lesson topic to prepare and even then, it's just a lesson, not a presentation as well. When I was Head of Department, I'd never have dreamed of giving someone such short notice.