Two interviews in the wrong order - what would you do?

[IonaNE]

I am in the UK but not born here, so some of this might be cultural. Some of it is inexperience, I have never been in this situation before. I am currently unemployed. I have 2 interviews on the same day (am/pm). The dilemma is this:

Job A is a small company, about 30 miles countryside commute, would be quite bad in the winter; work on weekends, too. But full time permanent job. This is the morning interview.

Job B is big company, 2 mile commute, Mo-Fri. Word of mouth, so no official ad, so I don't know yet whether it's permanent (in fact it'll probably be a 6-month contract) and probably 2-3K pa less than job A. This is the afternoon interview.

All my problems would disappear if the two interviews were the other way round. My question is how to play this? If I am offered Job A on the phone before the interview for Job B, and I accept it verbally over the phone; then I also get job B, can I retract from job A? (I am aware of verbal contracts.) I obviously don't want to risk rejecting job A before knowing the outcome of the other interview. What is the acceptable thing to do in this case?

Keep your phone off until you've done both of them.

They're unlikely to offer you the job on the spot to be honest.

Even if they do, accept it verbally but still go for the other interview and see what happens.

Your decision might be made for you and what will be, will be.

Why wouldn't you be upfront and say thank you for the offer. I'm really interested but I've one more interview elsewhere and will let you know by x date?

Agree, don't answer your phone and good luck!

If they offer you Job A on the spot (unlikely) or within an hour (more likely), you say that you have another interview on the same day and need to find out more about that job before you can firm anything. However you will let them know by time/day X.

If JobB offers but you want to hold out for JobA,then you tell them you'll decide within (short period) & ring JobA to give a decision ASAP.

If either JobB or JobA people get shirty about a few hours delay in your decision then you probably don't want to work for them.

Thanks for the quick responses! I have been toying with the idea of having my phone off - I know it is unlikely that I'll be offered job A on the spot, but that interview is quite early in the morning whereas the other one is late afternoon, so I'm afraid of a phone call at, say, 3 o'clock.

But I was also thinking whether being upfront about it, like thinkfast and lljkk say is acceptable?

In my line of work, if you are offered a job but aren't sure, it is common to say something along the lines of - I'm really keen but have to discuss with my partner to work out the commute / wages etc and I'll get back to you tomorrow. 50% of the time it is genuine discussion, 50% might be fake but that is OK.

It's quite normal to consider an offer overnight. Less normal to receive an offer on the same day as interview!

I would always be upfront about having another interview and getting back to them. Shows that they're not the only game in town also, iyswim. If they really want you, they may offer to pay a bit more.

Thank you very much again.
Parietal, would employers not expect me to have worked out commute, wages etc before even applying? Would that not give the wrong impression?

Update: I did not get Job A (first interview) and I am really glad that I didn't. :) Waiting for news on the second interview.

Btw the 1st interview was 10 am and the phone call came at 3 pm, so they did let me know the same day.

Update 2:
I got the second job, yay! :).
'Thank you' to everyone for the advice.

Great news!

Congratulations!

Hooray!

Yay, congrats! :)