Definitely a dealbreaker; if she’d called in at 9:55 (i.e. 5 minutes before the interview) then that would have been acceptable, but 15 minutes after the interview was due to start? No way.
Stuff happens. I agree she should have called earlier, but if you’re having another round of interviews it’s worth calling her back and seeing if she’s on time then.
I had an interview once a friend was meant to be driving me to - it was miles out of town and not on a bus route. She didn’t show. No phone call, no text, nothing. The interview was at 5 and at 10 to I had to ring the guy and reschedule. I felt like a total ass. I did get offered the job though.
If someone turned up late to a job interview, I wouldn’t have even bothered to do the interview. Lateness is a pet peeve of mine.
Count me in the camp of people who have been late for interviews due to circumstances that were more or less beyond my control*, showed up anyway, interviewed and did not get the job.
In my mind, 1/2 an hour late for the interview is a very bad thing, but if the candidate otherwise knocked your socks off, it might be worth giving her another chance. If she were merely “fine”, an interchangeable cog in the wheel, I’d let the lateness be a dealbreaker.
*In one instance, the interview was at 7, and took place two hours away. I left by 1, knowing it was snowy out. Ended up in a ditch, drove myself out of it, spent a lot of time driving way less than the speed limit, but ended up showing up for the interview more or less on time, if slightly discombobulated. Didn’t get the job.
I’m willing to buy that she got lost and it took a while to find a safe place to make a phone call.
What we don’t know is the candidate’s attitude. Was she falling-on-the-sword contrite, was she flippant, was she somewhere in between? That would make a difference to me. If she came across as “I don’t care enough about this job,” I’d let that be the dealbreaker. If she came across as caring about being late, I’d give her a second chance.
Robin
I would say it’s a major blow but not an automatic disqualifier. I was half an hour late on the first day of a new job once, because I was let down by my street directory (it told me two streets were connected, they actually weren’t, I was walking). If she isn’t clearly better than the other candidates, though, then let her go. You can only choose one, after all.
I would be willing to accept all kinds of reasons, even fairly weak ones, but it has to be something better than stupidity and disrespect.
If I had a job interview in a unfamilar location and I really wanted the job…
I would figure out how long it would take to get there, then I would add between a half hour and an hour depending on the length of the trip.
Then I would get there and find the building, then I would find somewhere close by to get coffee and wait and get mentally ready for the interview, then I would walk into the interview 3 to 5 minutes early.
And if by chance I got really lost or had car trouble, I would then be able to call well in advance.
And this analysis of whether being on time and/or “having a sense of direction” is important to the job is silly. It’s about being able to plan your time and , when things go wrong, using problem solving skills to make the best decision.
This stuff is important to all jobs. I would think they would be especially important in an investigor job…getting to the motel with your camera 10 minutes after your subject and his mistress have left would not be productive.
If it was me I would be down the street an hour or more before the interview, drinking coffee and eating something tasty and reading the book de jour. So I am thinking…not enough commitment.
Now I have to ask, what kind of investigating? And what kind of qualifications? I work in data analysis and all I care about in employing people is whether they enjoy snooping around, trolling through data, making connections but I don’t care about any sort of formal qualification.
It’s not “being mean”. I’m hiring people to do a real job that can cost companies millions if they don’t do it properly. I mean if they can’t show up to the interview on time, how can I trust them to fly halfway across the country to meet with a client in a strange city?
When you work in the adult world, people generally don’t like to deal with a lot of bullshit or have their time wasted. Which is what you are doing when you are late to a meeting or interview.
Pretty much a deal breaker with me. When I am hiring people it generally is for a reporter. If the person isn’t prompt enough to make it to her interview with me for a job, how prompt is she going to be with the subject of a story? So even a few minutes puts her chances for the job at risk.
If she were truly interested in the job she would have checked where the place was before hand and possibly even made a dry run. Heck, in this day of GPS systems, cell phones and google maps, unless she showed up bloody or in handcuffs, she didn’t have much of an excuse.
Nobody has brought up the most important point. Is she gorgeous?
I’m with accidentalyuppie. I always leave at least a half-hour lead time for an important appointment. At least a half-hour, more if the possibility of getting lost exists. There are no excuses, scheduling or otherwise. I wouldn’t have wasted my time or the applicant’s by interviewing her after that.
Full disclosure: for many years punctuality was one of my very few positive qualities.
When I introduced myself to her, she apologized, but didn’t make a big deal about it (neither did I), or tell me she’s NEVER late, this was just a fluke, etc. Just “sorry to keep you waiting”. It’s not the type of investigator like they use on “Cheaters”- it’s for a Public Defenders office, so it’s more talking to witnesses, etc., as well as some administrative duties. But yeah, punctuality is important (I can’t think of a job where it wouldn’t be).
And there’s nothing weird about the location- no one-way streets or secret hidden entrances or anything. It’s in a courthouse on the main drag through town.
That’s certainly your prerogative. But you are deciding just how important being on time is–in this instance, not as important as the three hours you might “waste” (assuming you had the 3 hours to spend). Again, completely up to you. Just as it’s up to your interviewer how important to weight the instances where you rolled the dice and were late.
The situation described would be a deal-breaker for me. As already said in this thread, an interview is one of those instances where lateness is excusable only under very unusual circumstances, and then only when accompanied by a professional and courteous phone call warning your potential employer–a call made at 9:30 for a 10:00 interview, for example–“I’m very sorry, but I just blew out a tire. I’m about 15 minutes away, but I’m afraid I may not get there on time. Would it be more convenient for you to reschedule, or shall I call you after I take care of the tire?” Something like that.
Calling 15 minutes late because you’re afraid you missed the cross-street, and you didn’t? Sorry. Don’t bother showing up. I have quite enough stressful distractions in my job. Managing this latester will not be among them.
I only have one suit - which I wear to interviews.
I read up on the job before I turn up and have questions of my own ready. (My best one was when I asked about the Company Pension Plan. I was 22 at the time!)
I have never been late for an interview. (Once when there was an accident on the Underground, I took a taxi instead.)
If it was hopeless, I would phone before the appointment time.
I know employers value this stuff.
I have always either got the job or been complimented on my approach and been told about another vacancy coming up.
Another vote for not hiring her. The job interview is supposed to be like a first date - everyone on their best behaviour, putting their best foot forward. If her BEST is tardy, that automatically eliminates her for me.
ETA: “Tardy” sounds so school-marmish. Is there a better word to describe the condition of being late?
I was late for an interview once, and didn’t have a cell phone with me to call them. I had the address, and Google Maps directions with me, and am generally very good with maps and have a good sense of direction.
What happened?
Turns out they were on a small offshoot of a road called Streetname WEST, while the entire rest of the road was called Streetname. I could not find their number on Streetname, which is where Google sent me, and didn’t understand why. I suppose I should have noticed when I looked online to verify the address, and I do consider the whole thing to be entirely my fault and yet… well, apparently, it happens a LOT. People always go the wrong way, and they were used to it. The first thing I said, after apologizing, was that I understood if they didn’t want to have the interview, and I thanked them for their time. They still interviewed me, and I got the job (a student position, btw), and I was never late again and I think I was more than able to prove that I am a smart, capable worker who just happened to have a bad moment at the wrong time.
If there are other interview rounds, give her a chance. If not, and someone else is just as qualified, then give the job to the other person. If she is the absolute best candidate, then give her the benefit of the doubt and hire her. Sometimes things just go wrong. It’s human.
ETA: I was about 15-20 mins late, depending on my watch versus their clock (I was later on my own watch than theirs!)
Then I think you’ve answered your own question.
As for jobs that don’t require promptness, my job (budget coordinator) doesn’t. As long as I ultimately get the task done, it doesn’t matter if I come in at 6:30am or 10am.
Another obvious example is sales. Just about all of the successful salesmen I know aren’t prompt. In fact, I think Type A planners (e.g. the type who’d map out their driving strategy the day before the interview) are the wrong personality types for sales. You need to make your client relax, and when you keep checking your watch because you have another meeting scheduled in a half hour and you have twenty five minutes of travel time (!!!) ahead, your personality isn’t going to help you close any deals.
So. Back to the OP. If it’s really important for your investigator to get information out of people, then I’d say their ability to make people relax is more important than their promptness. Working with the public requires a certain personality type, and it’s not Type A.
Lets flip it around for a second. I went on a job interview with a company. First of all, the headhunter didn’t tell me what floor to go to. Forgivable as I can figure out where reception is once I get there (and I generally assume headhunters to be morons). But apparently the woman at the company who I was supposed to meet forgot that I was coming and was out of the office. So I have to bounce back and forth to three different reception desks while everyone figures out who the heck I am and what I’m doing there.
Eventually we figured out they forgot my interview. Of course by that time, I was done with them and refused to reschedule.
You don’t have meetings? You don’t have deadlines?
Most jobs don’t require you to punch a clock at the beginning of the day at 9. Most jobs do have specific tasks that need to be completed on time.
Are you kidding? A salesperson who can’t make their salesmeetings on time generally doesn’t stay a salesperson for long.