So I have been in the process of interviewing at a big company in town. The pay is high (for the area and type of job) and there were about 20 applicants for the job. I have some experience with jobs of this nature, though it isn’t a job related to what the field for which I am currently enrolled in school.
I apparently passed their assessment test with flying colors, and a formal interview was scheduled for Wed of this week. I got a call yesterday saying they would like to postpone the interview until Tuesday of next week. (thankfully it is spring break and I don’t have classes in the morning)
My initial thoughts are that it is bad news. I have never had an interview, one made a week in advance, postponed. My girlfriend says that if they had found somebody else they would probably have canceled the interview.
What are some thoughts on this? Bad news like I dread, or just suddenly overwhelmed at the HR? Personally to me the length of the delay suggests they hired somebody, and are foreseeing another similar position come up, or they already hired somebody and don’t want to just cancel it, though I have no idea why.
If I were you, I’d feel like it was bad news. I felt that way when an on-campus interview was changed to a phone interview, even though the phone interview was sooner and I was told that it was a scheduling conflict on their end.
On the other hand, even large, well-staffed HR offices have employees who have deaths in the family, heart attacks, car accidents, or various other things go wrong which may neccessitate postponing something–like a job interview. So, you’d better still be prepared to put your best foot forward, or you’ll not get the job because of you, not because of whatever’s going on behind the scenes.
I’d think it’s more likely that someone who was going to take part had a scheduling conflict. If so, waiting to make sure that everyone can talk with you would indicate a higher level of interest.
You don’t say what kind of job, but it’s easily imaginable that something came up with one of the groups that wants to interview you. Either someone had to go out of town or there was some kind of all-hands-on-deck emergency
Yes, it’s possible that they have extended an offer, but it’s not too likely or they wouldn’t have bothered to schedule an interview in the first place.
Since they rescheduled the interview, I’d say you still have a shot. Even if they have already filled the gig, you’ll benefit from the experience of interviewing. Give it your best effort and see what happens…
Accept it at face value. If they’ve filled the position, they would most likely just cancel. No point in fretting that there’s an ulterior motive. Worst case is that you get interview experience.
I am planning on still going, but I was hoping to work all during spring break. Oh well.
As for the job type, it is pretty low level type of packaging/warehousing type of stuff. My schooling is in the IT field, and while my other part time job is related, this job was going to be for the money. I was initially worried I wouldn’t even be given a chance, since I put on my resume that my expected graduation date was May 2008. I have plenty of experience at that type of work, as I did it for like 8 years before I went back to school, but I didn’t know if they would want to hire somebody that will graduate college in a bit more than a year.
Speaking as someone who schedules several interviews a day, it is really no big deal at all.
Last week I rescheduled 3 when the manager became ill and this week I rescheduled one due to a meeting that a manager got pulled into at the last minute.
Honestly, it makes me view the candidate a little more favorably when they are flexible and don’t mind rescheduling.
Things come up and interviews postponed. It means nothing. It’s better to be one of the last interviewed, because the people often become a blur over the week. They can remember the last good person to come in, so that person gets the job over the first person interviewed with the same skills.
The last time I had an interview that was postponed, I got the job. I work there now. It could be that the person who needs to interview (not the HR person, but the person from the actual dept) had to go out of town for business or needed to take some emergency family time. It could be anything. Nothing to worry about yet, in my opinion. But, like you, I still did.
I was the last person interviewed and it was a couple days after they thought they were done interviewing. Being last doesn’t mean you’ll get the job of coarse, you still have to be skilled at the job. They do remember you better though.
Oh, no. What it suggests to me is two scenarios I’ve had very frequently:
One of the people who should be at the interview can’t. May have had to travel urgently, may have had a family crisis, may have come down with the flu.
Many of my last jobs have been some sort of subcontracted arrangement. There have been as many as three companies between myself and the final client. Everybody is in a hurry to get my answer, but oh my, when I answer there is always somebody in the chain who can’t be bothered to answer / is suddenly questioning whether this new person is really needed / has a crisis elsewhere. Even for non-subcontracting jobs, it’s perfectly possible that “someone in the decision line is hemming and hawing.”
So all in all, it’s not bad news. The interviewing process for the job I now have included a twice-postponed interview and another that had been scheduled but got dropped completely because the twice-postponer convinced his boss to just take me. Previous job had three postponements.
I’ve worked in companies where people who graduated while there got earmarked by HR as “offer to them any job related to their field before we bother look elsewhere.”
You really don’t have enough info to know if it’s good or bad news, so why not assume it’s good? It seems likely that they would have just said no and canceled if they were not interested in you. There’s some level of interest, so be pleased with yourself and be confident!
In fact, you may have earned some points for being flexible.
I put something suggesting this on my resume. I wrote that I was looking for a part-time job in an IT related field, or a part-time job at a company I can get a foothold in for when I graduate.
I have a couple friends that are in the lower end IT field (network techs, basic maintenance, etc), and they have no schooling, they got the job because they were hired internally. They have suggested to me that if a company has an opening, often they promote internally. I don’t know if this is true or not, but I need a job now, while I am still in school, so I might as well see.
