Recruiter missed interview prep call before final interview: best way to handle?

[Woollyguru]

My daughter has a final interview on Monday.

On Thursday the internal recruiter called to say he would set up a 15 minute interview prep call on Friday.

On Friday she was on the call for 45 minutes and the recruiter didn't attend.

She now doesn't know whether there is information she is supposed to have been given prior to the interview on Monday that the interviewers will assume she has, as they won't know the prep call didn't take place.

She immediately emailed the recruiter on Friday asking if the call could be scheduled for Monday morning but there was no reply.

This recruiter also during the process disappeared for 3 weeks, not responding to any emails and came back saying he'd been on holiday (without putting on ooo).

What's the best way to approach this? I think if the prep call doesn't take place on Monday morning then she should flag it before the interview starts and just say there was meant to be a prep call on Friday but it didn't take place and is there any information she should have that she might be missing because of that.

It puts her at a disadvantage compared to other candidates who's prep call did take place.

Surely the prep call is just a quick check in to make sure she’s still going to attend, and a bit of a heads up as to what questions they might ask. It won’t be anything deep and meaningful in a 15 minute call, and I wouldn’t flag it to the interviewer. They won’t care and it might make them think she comes off a bit ‘if I don’t do well this so why’ which is maybe not the most brilliant start.

Just make sure she has done all of the possible research she can on the company and typical questions asked for her industry and role, that will serve as better prep anyway.

But she doesn't know what she doesn't know.

She can't assume there would have been no relevant information during the call otherwise why have it?

Did she try to reconnect the meeting? I had one yesterday where no one else was there, but I reconnected and there were people chatting together. I wonder if the same happened to her?

Yes she did try. The recruiter definitely wasn't there and he would have tried to contact her if he thought she hadn't joined the call.

This particular recruiter seems a bit rubbish, he disappeared for weeks during the process and didn't respond to anything and later came back and said he'd been on holiday but hadn't bothered to put his ooo on.

As you can see from the recruiter who posted above, it’s totally standard ‘this is how you do an interview’ stuff. Eminently Google-able.

Recruiters are thick as pig shit so I wouldn't set any score by what they say.
If there is a form or something she's not been given she will just have to say that.

Yes I am bitter, in case anyone is wondering.

I agree!

The problem of course is without having had the call she won't know whether it would have imparted anything of importance that she might need to know for the interview or if it was just talking about basic interview stuff she already knows.

Thinking about it and looking at the recruiter's profile on linkedin I doubt he would have told her anything particularly useful.

Such a helpful response here.

Internal recruiters give prep calls with generic advice on smiling and what to wear? Is this something new, or something that happens in public sector? I’ve never had a prep call.

I've never had one either. It seems to be a new thing hence no idea whether it's important that it actually took place.

I told my daughter that behind the scenes of any corporation, despite their slick marketing, it's generally chaos, disorganised, mistakes being made everywhere but covered up and many incompetent people in jobs they should not be in.

Wow way to get her excited about a job 🤣

I’m really shocked that a recruiter thinks asking tge question ‘Have you got any feedback for me’ at the interview is a good question. Who are these people who ‘love’ that question. I have interviewed for years and find it a really bizarre question to be asking at interview. You’re not going to say, ‘Your answers lacked detail. You waffled and you definitely don’t have to job’ are you? I give feed back but after the event when they know if they have or haven’t got the job.

It's the truth. Unless you're a doctor no job is worth getting overly excited about.

Aww that’s your decades of being jaded in the workplace talking though; let her be excited?

She should telephone them on Monday, first thing.

She emailed them on Saturday which she thought was pointless thinking nobody works at the weekend. But people including me have outlook and teams on their phones and sometimes do have a quick check of emails during the weekend.

And it turned out apparently the recruiter had an "emergency" at the exact time of the call and couldn't drop her a quick message to let her know... but replied to her email on Sunday evening and arranged the call for this morning. It's all a learning curve for her about how things work behind the scenes.

You really need to let her lead her own life. You sound far too involved.

As a recruiter in tech with 20 years of experience hiring globally I was going to write a long response. But now I see we have already concluded recruiters are thick as pig shit and incompetent people in wrong jobs, because a guy missed a call, so will save myself the trouble.

I hope it goes well for her. I always tell candidates - the interviewers want you to do well. They want to find and hire the right person, not spend hours and weeks interviewing. Good luck!