does it look bad if you can't attend a particular date for a job interview?

[allthreerolledintoone]

dh has a interview for the perfect job however its 200miles away from where he now works and he can't get any time off work as he's teaching that week arrraggggh. We really need to get him this job-however he's a little underqualified so dont want to be rocking the boat with his present employer.

No, employers are used to the fact that applicants can not always get the day off work when it suits them. In fact, it goes in his favour if he says that he cannot take a day off, shows loyalty.

They will reschedule another date.

I wouldn't be so sure they will reschedule. I've been offered interview dates I couldn't do and the answer was 'tough', no reschedule. Depends on job etc.

It doesn't look particularly bad, no. But obviously the risk is they either won't be able to or won't be inclined to reschedule.

If the interview is with a person or couple of people who are around all the time and fairly available generally, and/or they are very keen to see your DH, then they will probably reschedule.

If it's a panel comprised of very busy senior people who have juggled things around to find one day in their diaries that they can all manage, and/or will be travelling to conduct the interviews, then obviously rearranging isn't going to be straightforward. In that situation they may prefer to wait until after the interviews have taken place, and reschedule only if they are not confident that they will able to fill the post from the candidates who were able to attend.

Sorry not to be more positive, and I genuinely don't think it necessarily reflects badly on your DH, but it's just rescheduling may or may not be straightforward depending on the situation.

A lot of interviews these day involve quite large interview panels or group tasks so it may not be possible.

eg. The last interview I went for involved all the candidates doing a half-day group assesment morning (written tests, group tasks, discussions etc) so theres no way that they could have rescheduled that

Organising recruitment interviews is often a blardy nightmare slightly challenging...

oh poo i thinks its a pannel of three. H can do the week before or the week after. Why does everything have to be so difficult grrrrr

He should at least give it a go- give them a ring, explain the difficulty, emphasise that he's really keen and ask if it's possible to rearrange. If they say no, he can then make an informed decision about what to do.

Hope he can work it out.

Is that so common in UK now? I have been in Germany for so long now, it is not normally a problem to reschedule an interview.

My experience in the UK is (largely) this is the date and if you can't do it, well that's your problem! Unless it is for a v. senior position....

i'm with flowerybeanbag on this, there is no harm in asking and then making a decision based on that. I've been offered interviews that couldn't be rescheduled and some that could so it does depend on who is interviewing and what their schedule is.