Interview I'd prepared for cancelled at 8.30 am on the day of the interview! Can I claim compensation for my wasted time?

[curiouserand]

Was invited to interview last week. Required to do a big presentation as well as the interview. Spent about 2 days preparing it, not on a topic I was familiar with or would need to know for any other purpose. In contact with the company about details of what was required on the Friday afternoon.

Rung up at 8.30am on Monday morning to be told they'd given the job to an internal candidate, so my interview was cancelled.

Couldn't believe it - had wasted so much time preparing for the interview (the presentation mainly but also on getting ready in other ways). And I'm a freelancer so I had missed 2 days of work to do this. And all for a job they must have known when I spoke to them on Friday they'd already offered to someone else and were just waiting for him/her to get back to them.

This is so unprofessional - they've suggested a couple of other jobs with them I could interview for but not posts I'm interested in and would require a whole new presentation as different roles and frankly they come across as a company I definitely don't want to work for anyway.

But can I ask for compensation for my lost earnings, do you think?

No you can't, disappointing but there is nothing you can do about it

The time would still have been wasted even if they hadn’t cancelled the interview - in fact you’d have wasted another day to attend, all the while they know that it’s going to an internal candidate.

that is rubbish. are they even allowed simply to do that?
otoh, at least they are being transparent. no going for an interview just for the performance

I'd say you dodged a bullet there

It is worth a professional letter of complaint, if only so they can improve their procedures (and to check someone internal wasn’t just trying to eliminate you).

Is there sufficient commercial value in your presentation to offer it to them for a fee? You might pick up some freelance work that way but barging in asking for compensation will ensure nobody who hears about it will ever offer you an interview or work again

No you have absolutely no legal right to compensation here, and frankly you will come across as very odd for even suggesting it.

You can't request compensation. It's the nature of interviews. It's quite possible that you've had wasted the time anyway; plus extra, if you'd turned up and presented and then they'd turned you down for the internal candidate.

It's bad form and it sucks; but it's one of those things that you just have to let go of.

No of course you can't

I would keep it cordial - you never know when you might run across someone you deal with there again. People move jobs all the time so if you shout too much, you could be poisoning potential future relationships with more than just that one company.

It is extremely annoying from your point of view, I do appreciate, but you've no legal right to compensation, so the possibility that you stand to gain anything from this course of action is vanishingly small.

No. And there was no guarantee that you would have got the job so the prep time would have been also wasted in this scenario . It’s the painful side of looking for another job / more work . I’ve stopped looking for the time being for this same reason. Just seem to spend my time researching companies, driving , talking to recruitment agencies to be told “im not quite right.”

Good luck in your search !

Have you not been a freelancer for very long? I've been freelance for over ten years and have spent a huge amount of time on proposals, presentations, discussions, applications, research etc. that didn't ultimately result in any paid work. That's the nature of work and I agree with a previous poster that demanding compensation for this would be very strange and rule you out of future consideration.

Uh... no. Of course you can't. Yes, it's annoying and disappointing, but perhaps the material that you have gathered can be used to help you in your next interview.

GorgonLondon and Anchor

Of course it's in the nature of applying for jobs that sometimes you might not get them (this wasn't a freelance proposal, by the way, this was an application for a permanent full time job).

But this job didn't actually exist - that's what I'm cross about. Not that I didn't get it, but that I couldn't have got it. Because there wasn't a job available. That's why I'm angry. And why I think they have a moral though obviously not legal obligation to compensate me for my time.

I wouldn't have minded if I'd done an interview and so had the internal person and any number of other people and they'd decided on merit to hand it to the internal person. It's that they made a decision to choose the internal person but couldn't be bothered to tell me and so encouraged me to waste a large amount of my work time.

They should have told me when I spoke to them on Friday afternoon that they had already offered the job to the internal person.

Agree I dodged a bullet though!

In future don't go to interviews if they want you to do a presentation at it. Fine at second interview, utterly unacceptable at first.

I once wasted a couple of days preparing a presentation and as soon as I walked into the interview I knew I couldn't work with the guy concerned, just had a feeling. Had to sit through 1.5 hours interview knowing I would not proceed.

Since then I have always told internal people at any job not to ask candidates to prepare anything until second interview. They want to weigh you up too. Public sector interviews seem to be worst for this.

Totally understand why you are angry OP but I don't think you can do anything about it, sadly.

"But this job didn't actually exist - that's what I'm cross about. Not that I didn't get it, but that I couldn't have got it. Because there wasn't a job available. That's why I'm angry."

Why do you think it didn't exist? There was obviously a job and it seems like there was at least a possibility that the internal person may not be appointed/accept? If it was the kind of organisation where they are obliged to go through an interview process even when an internal candidate has been offered and accepted, then they wouldn't have bothered telling you at all.

"I wouldn't have minded if I'd done an interview and so had the internal person and any number of other people and they'd decided on merit to hand it to the internal person. It's that they made a decision to choose the internal person but couldn't be bothered to tell me"

But they did bother to tell you. They didn't let you show up and go through a presentation unnecessarily.

"They should have told me when I spoke to them on Friday afternoon that they had already offered the job to the internal person. "

Why? If the internal person had refused the offer then they would have wanted to proceed with the external process.

I agree with you it's very, very late notice, and it's annoying. Ideally if they don't have to go through a competitive selection process in order to appoint an internal candidate, or don't feel they need to compare that candidate with external options, they should exhaust the internal avenues completely before involving external people, rather than doing it simultaneously. That's not great.

But I imagine there were reasons for doing it simultaneously (exhausting an internal process before you can even start an external process is very irritating for a manager who just wants to get on with it and get someone in place), and I would say this internal appointment before the process had finished was probably not entirely expected, and they either expected to know much sooner, or expected to have to go through the external process.

It's irritating, but I don't think it's more immoral than making you go through a procedure they know isn't going to be successful.

I would send a letter pointing out the waste of your time, yes. i wouldn't expect compensation.

i would also leave a public review outlining your experience (e.g. Glassdoor or what's popular in your sector).

It sounds like they found the person they want, and didn't see the point in wasting any more of any other applicants or their own time carrying on interviews after that.
I'd be disappointed but would understand their reasoning.

@louharrisismyhero that’s a pretty good way to burn your bridges! I’ve interviewed maybe a hundred people and if any of them had written to me complaining I’d wasted their time or posted complaints online then frankly I’d think they were loons and never invite them to another interview again.

@PalePinkSwan I'm involved in hiring at work (not in HR). I don't think the process that the OP has outlined is fit for purpose - it's not fair to the candidates, and I work in an environment where we make people jump through multiple gates to even get to a face to face interview.

Regarding online interviews - perhaps this is sector specific, but yes, many of my own employers are prolifically profiled on websites like Glassdoor and Indeed and places such as professional forums - in fact, my own HR team responds to the anon negative reviews on several of them as part of its daily operations. I appreciate that may not be the norm elsewhere.

online interviews = online reviews!

That’s interesting, have to say I’ve never come across it in my sector!

OP - this happened to me too years ago.

It is soooooo disappointing - mainly because of the huge emotional & professional effort you’ve put into the prep, rather than not getting the job.

I felt like holding a party at home to present the fantastic 30 minute piece I’d put together!

The company is demonstrating unprofessional process. It happens, but it’s likely they would be shit to work for.

Noting you can or should do, unfortunately. But HUGELY annoying and you are right to be livid.

It's pretty shabby behaviour on their part to have had communications with you on the Friday, when they would have been cognisant of the investment of effort needed for the interview, only to pull out on the Monday.

I can kinda see where you're coming from, re compensating you for your 2 lost days' income as you are freelance, but I wouldn't take matters further, as it will reflect negatively on you even though they were in the wrong. And another opportunity for them to reject you, so don't put yourself in the firing line.

Think of it positively, you're proud of what you produced so you have the skills and aptitude to do the same again. Keep up with job search, you may find you can up-cycle the core elements of the presentation for a different interview

In future don't go to interviews if they want you to do a presentation at it. Fine at second interview, utterly unacceptable at first.
Not always unacceptable. I sit in interviews for training positions to help as audience and the candidate is always asked to do a presentation. If they cannot do this then they cannot deliver training so kind of the whole point.

To the OP, at least you haven’t wasted the time at the interview.