Just going through some of my earlier material and thought you might enjoy this one from a few year ago. So my apologies to the 4 people who have already seen this..........

Changing jobs is tough on people. They’re usually not comfortable with it – no matter how caring, transparent and helpful you are. Quite often the very people who say they’re interested decide during the process it is easier to lie to you than face their fears.

Sure – the thought of a new desk, brand new company and a clean start are appealing. We all enjoy being wanted. It’s human nature. But once we begin moving from theory (talking about a change) and into reality (you have an interview this Thursday) people begin second guessing things……and they will make up all sorts of excuses to slow things down. They don’t want to tell you what is really on their minds – they’d rather make up a convenient/plausible story as to why they need to “do it later”…….

Why do I bring this up? Simple. I will not ever reschedule an interview once it’s on the books. Period. And I’ll tell you why. After tracking every bit of activity on my recruiting desk one thing became clear – I never placed anyone that had their interview rescheduled. While I have no scientific evidence as to why this is the case I do have some ideas.

When an interview is on the books – and my candidate calls to reschedule I tell them in no uncertain terms: Nope. Either you find a way to make it happen or I’ll tell the client you’re not interested.

I then go on to explain to them exactly why. I let them know the chances of a rescheduled interview turning into a hire are very near zero. If they truly are interested then they need to make the appointment.

Do this. You’ll be surprised at what you find. Once you confirm your position as the professional in the situation – you can have the REAL discussion. This is when the true concerns are brought to the table. It’s a delicate conversation – but one that must occur.

Note: Once I realized this simple fact (roughly 5 or 6 years ago) I stopped rescheduling interviews. Could I have overlooked a placement or two? Possibly, but that’s the risk I decided to take.

Views: 2358

Comment by Sandra McCartt on September 15, 2011 at 1:22pm

I had to laugh at the "next week" reschedule.  When i think of reschedule it's two hours, the next day or at the most two days due to something that can't be helped.  I also forgot that Jerry works in IT contractors a lot and IT contractors as a general group don't give much of a damn because there is always something else coming down the pike tomorrow. 

 

I have only had one who couldn't hit an interview schedule for a perm position his boss took the week off so he said he couldn't get in touch with him to get approval for a day off to go for an interview.  He was off the radar because he indicated that he couldn't go until the next week.  It was beyound my comprehension that if he was really interested he couldn't get approval from HR in the absence of his supervisor or just call in sick for a day.  So he missed the bus.  My glitches are less in terms of reschedule and more in terms of the interview never being confirmed due to all the problems.  If they don't happen pretty quickly at the get go that is where i drop them off the radar.  And i don't work contractors for that reason and several others.  :)

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