How would you feel if your interviewer kept you waiting for 1/2 an hour ?

[clumsymum]

Been for a 2nd interview this morning. This was conducted in an hotel, not at the place of work.

The interviewer (financial director) was HALF AN HOUR late, although just before the appointment time he did get the agency to phone me to say he would be "delayed by a few minutes". When he came in, he just said his previous meeting had overrun.

In my experience, this kind of thing shows a bit of a cavalier attitude to staff.

I'm also a bit worried, cos they are recruiting this as a part-time job, to replace someone who is currently doing full time hours.

If he didn't apologise for keeping you waiting then that is rude but he did get the agency to warn you (even though it was more than a few minutes) and explained why. I wouldn't take too much from this unless he had turned up late without warnng you or explaining. As for the hours I would keep schtum. If you end up in the job you can then be the judge of whether the hours are suitable. I think you have to assume they have altered the job or believe this is a p/t role instead. It would be difficult for you to question this without soundding as though you are questioing them particularly if you are not even in the job.

I wouldn't assume that a meeting the financial director was in overrunning by 30 minutes was indicative of a 'cavalier attitude to staff' either on his part personally or on the part of the company in general. It could easily be a one-off or a particular unforeseen crisis that had arisen.

If he didn't apologise then yes that's rude, but thinking of all the things it could have been causing a financial director to be late, you really can't expect more of an explanation than the meeting had overrun.

If they have specifically advertised for someone part time to replace a full time person, then it's reasonable to think they've thought that decision through, but I ddon't see anything wrong in asking what's changed, I think that's a perfectly reasonable question. Obviously roles evolve, structures change and business requirements change so it should be a fairly straightforward question to ask when talking about how the role fits in the organisation in more general terms, the team and other related subjects.

Not sure how easy it would be to discuss that now though, if you've already had a second interview. Is there a third interview you could ask at?

Having interviewed staff, internally and externally for a number of years (literally hundreds), yes there are times that it has started late. On one occassion i was the only manager on the floor and had to take over a customer call on my way down.

Is this the only thing you don't like about the company? What explaination would have been 'good enough'?

Okay, I'm over-reacting.... But when I was in management some years ago, I would NEVER have allowed myself to be that late conducting an interview with a prospective employee.

It sends out all the wrong messages about the ethos of the employer/attitude of the director to his staff.

And I bet he would have been REALLY unimpressed if it had been 1/2 an hour late for him.

lol yes he would but lets be honest thats the way it is

Problem is clumsymum, without knowing exactly what caused the delay, it's impossible to say whether you would have allowed yourself to be that late in those circumstances.

You say you would NEVER have allowed yourself to be that late, but I can see that it's perfectly possible for something absolutely crucial to happen in a meeting requiring a finance director to have to deal with it straightaway. Taking it to a bit of an extreme, if he was being grilled by shareholders at an annual meeting, for example, he couldn't walk away from that because of being late for an interview.

Of course he may have been doing something completely unimportant and just being disorganised or something, in which case YANBU, but the point is there's no way of knowing.

back in the day when I was interviewed for a training contract, the panel turned up over 20 minutes late because their lunch had overran . In this instance I would give the benefit of the doubt re:lateness, but would gently ask how the part-time hours would fit.

I've interviewed loads of people and have on several occasions been late. As a senior manager, especially in today's pressurised work environment & all the pressures of the current climate it's just one of those things. As an employee you'd then have to put up with meetings with your manager starting late or being cancelled at the last minute if you're in a corporate climate - afraid you're frankly just less important than a client or the next layer of senior management! Don't worry about it, but if it's going to stress you out then don't go for the job or it'll annoy you forever!

well I can beat all that, I went for a PT job at Morrisons last week, I had to sit and wait by the busy checkouts for 45 mins!!!

I got so fed up, I went and did a bit of shopping lol

I win - I was kept waiting for an hour before an interview the other day as they were conducting an IT test as well WHICH WAS NOT TIMED hence all the interviews over-ran as everyone was taking as long as they liked! Surely the point of a test is to see how you perform in a controlled situation?!