Hey guys! 🌟 #JobInterview #LateStart #ProfessionalEtiquette
So, picture this: a fresh graduate, eager to nail a scheduled job interview, arrives early, prepared, and excited. But what happens next? A two-hour delay that leaves everyone feeling like they’re in a time loop. 😅
I found myself in this exact situation recently, and let me tell you, it was a rollercoaster of emotions. From anticipation to boredom to eventually saying “enough is enough” and walking out. 🎢
Now, I can’t help but wonder – was I wrong for leaving? Should I have toughed it out and waited for who knows how long? Did I just ruin my chances at a potential job opportunity because of an unexpected turn of events? 🤔
If you’ve been in a similar situation or have any advice to share, please let me know! I’m all ears and could use some guidance through this job interview maze. Let’s chat! 💬 #JobSeekerStories
Remember, the more perspectives, the merrier! Let’s turn this into a learning experience together. So, what’s your take on this? Let’s have a conversation! 😉👔 #CareerDecisions
Employer here.
No, you were not wrong. In fact you had the patience of a god damn saint.
Respecting someone, and by extention someones time, goes both ways.
Things come up and planq change, and here is where communication comes in.
I was late to conduct a jobinterview once. When I realised my applicant would be waiting for 45 minutes I called him personally and told him that even if he wasn’t willing to wait, he could go have lunch on me.
You can tell how people view/respect you by some very basic things in the beginning. (Spelling your name correctly, being on time, taking your schedule into account,…), these take no time/energy and if they lack, run.
You did the right thing, any employer willing to let this be the first impression runs a horrible work-enviroment and is likely looking for doormats who will put up with (borderline) abusive nonsense.
Do not accept this.
Lol nah. Good call.
Nope and you know you made the right call because THEY called. But also don’t go in 30 minutes early, 15, MAX.
You gave them an hour and forty five minutes too much .That’s time you’ll never get back.
The rule of thumb is 15 minutes. If the interviewer has not arrived, onsite or virtual, end the interview. If asked why you left, remind them your time is just as valuable as theirs.
I have gone so far as to have my candidacy withdrawn.
When someone does not respect your time, professional or otherwise, they do not respect you.
You gave them an hour and forty five minutes too much .That’s time you’ll never get back.
The rule of thumb is 15 minutes. If the interviewer has not arrived, onsite or virtual, end the interview. If asked why you left, remind them your time is just as valuable as theirs.
I have gone so far as to have my candidacy withdrawn.
When someone does not respect your time, professional or otherwise, they do not respect you.
I’m not trying to be mean, but I’m a little disappointed in you because you waited that long for them. Don’t ever let anyone disrespect you like that.
On the other hand, I’m sorry that happened to you, and I’m only concerned/upset because something similar happened to me, and I didn’t learn from it. I’ve been stood up THREE separate times by the SAME EXACT company, i.e., the first two interviewers never showed up, and the third final one showed up 30 minutes late. Mind you, these were phone interviews, but like the old saying goes, “Fool me once shame on you…. etc, etc.”
Yes, waited WAY too long.
This has happened to me more than once. The first time I waited like a good little soldier and was treated like shit through the interview (the guy literally took calls from other applicants while he had me in front of him).
The second time the HR lady breezed in 30min late with a latte, looked in my direction and made a “oh yuck interviews today” face, then had her assistant say she’d be with me shortly (another 30min). At this point I was determined to waste her entire fucking morning like she did mine. I asked for a tour of the office, asked in detail what every department did. She mentioned they had catered lunches on Fridays, I chatted her ear off about the restaurant.
2 useless hours have gone by and we’re just now sitting down to start the actual interview. I ask her every question under the sun about training, customers, marketing, you name it. As the meeting was winding down I asked her to validate my parking “since I’ve been here since 8:30am”.
I didn’t expect a call back but I hope I threw off the rest of her day.
Send HR and email, “no thanks. Your company wasted my time and didn’t communicate any changes. Regards, [name]
You did the right thing to leave. I would have recommended though that you text or email your point of contact that it’s well past your interview time and that you’re leaving because of that – before you actually leave. I think it’s always good not to burn a bridge that you probably did by ghosting them, even if leaving was justified. It’s a small world and you don’t want this interaction to ruin something else.
Best of luck on the continued job search.
One time I went to a job interview for an entry level marketing coordinator position out of college.
They had me sit in an empty room with no furniture for nearly an hour and a half. Just as I was about to leave, my interviewer pulled me into their office.
Turns out it was a common tactic by scammy commission only door to door sales companies to see how desperate you are for the position. They think if you sit for almost two hours you’re either young and naive or desperate for employment.
I’ve learned since that If a company cannot respect your time as a prospective candidate, they certainly will not respect you as an employee.
I would have left in thirty minutes. If I was responsible to get there on time, at least be respectable and tell me what’s the hold up.
I worked in an environment where being late to a meeting was a given due to people organizing meetings back to back at the opposite side of the factory (almost a kilometre long). However, after 5 minutes, sometimes 10 minutes if the subject was important enough to wait, we just ignored the missing persons or cancelled the meeting altogether.
But for interviews, there was no way the interviewer should be late. If an emergency occurred (which could happen depending on the industry), they would either reschedule or send a backup interviewer.
It’s a matter of self-respect, as far as I see it, you should have left ages before the 2-hour mark. They left you sitting there, past the scheduled time, with no apology, no proper schedule, simply wasting your time and effort.
For the future set yourself a limit. Arriving 15 minutes early, not 30. Leaving after 15 minutes max.
As far as I am concerned, everyone in that situation that held responsibility over the schedule, should feel ashamed of themselves. Imagine working there, sounds like a nightmare.
You had a lot more patience than I would have … I think I would have asked for an update after 30 minutes and then tell them “Sorry, I scheduled the interview during this time but I cannot risk getting late to work / appointment etc. so please contact me once they have the time and can concentrate on the interview – bye”.
But yea – sometimes even if the job sounds great and you really don’t want to drop them but in my 30+ years work experience, if an interview goes like that – then the whole company is a car crash.
ESPECIALLY since the guy that was late was your / would be your manager. So imagine you need something from him and he baheves like that (as employee). You’d just be on your way out again.
I would simply move on for now.
Well, my feeling is that you had already waited a while, what’s your hurry?! Seriously, it’s bad form for them to be that late, and shows some organizational issues, but you don’t know what the reason is, and it could be something important. So, my recommendation is to always wait it out.
You’re not ‘wrong’, but you’re not going to get the job.
Also, never get there too early. Wait outside In your car until 10-15 minutes before the interview. Now, I’ve seen that the majority of the comments are against waiting, and I get that. It is disrespectful of your time. One thing you could do if this ever happens again is to ask the HR rep to please reschedule the interview as clearly this is not a good time. If they refuse, then leave. And do not answer their calls.
You are absolutely not wrong for leaving but definitely do not give these clowns another chance.
Those 2 hours could be more applications for you to submit instead of waiting on incompetent management.
The #1 thing I look for in hires is “agency”. I want people who can make good quality decisions, and drive towards the highest value thing they can do. The last thing I want are robots who will mindlessly stay in one direction.
I would never intentionally make a candidate wait 2 hours for an interview… but if I fucked up, and 1 candidate did wait, and the another didn’t… i’d probably give that second candidate a call back. You showed the ability to prioritize.
They clearly don’t value you or your time. Red flag and you didn’t do the wrong thing.
When I was interviewed as a graduate for my current employer over a decade ago they did a day long assessment centre type process which culminated in a partner interview at the end.
The partner who was meant to be interviewing me went AWOL (it’s a big corporate law firm these things happen), HR told me and said not to worry because they always had a back up partner lined up for exactly these circumstances. S/he was nowhere to be found either. By this time I’d been sitting around for maybe 45 minutes. So then they apologised profusely and said they could either get someone else in, but they’d have to do a bit of reading first and it would be another half an hour of waiting or they would be happy to reschedule if I needed to go. I said I’d wait, had the interview and got the job.
Now my point here absolutely isn’t that you should have waited, my point is that there’s a big contrast in how they dealt with the lateness. They were super apologetic, did their best to fix it and gave me frequent updates. The HR where you were interviewing did none of that.
I never give them more than 10 to 15 minutes of tardiness. After that, it’s their responsibility to reach out.
100% this is a red flag. Same thing happened to me (albeit virtually) with an interview with CEO. I should have run fast and far at that time. It was a sign of things to come. Congrats on dodging that bullet and best of luck with your job search!
I have a 15 minute rule. Not online or picking me up from the lobby… Im out.
You did the right thing. Can you imagine their response had you been two hours late? Sounds like you avoided a train wreck of a company.
Hell no, I once left an interview cos HR was 5 minutes late.
I would have left after 30 minutes without an update. It’s extremely rude to keep people waiting like that, and 2 hours is unconscionable. If they were delayed or in a meeting that ran long, they could have excused themselves or emailed HR to let you know. Nothing short of incapacitation is a valid excuse.
I also wouldn’t show up that early. I get not wanting to be late, but 15 minutes is plenty. Showing up that early can also be perceived negatively, so if you are to arrive early, I’d say keep it to 15 minutes max.
not wrong but im just going to point out this part:
>(my phone is always on silent, not even vibrate)
youre not wrong about the res but this but this seems like deliberate design for miscommunication that will burn you sooner or later. You want (or wanted) something from this employer, and I assume if not this one, then others. Intentionally making yourself difficult to communicate is not a good idea.
I really like to work with people who have their phone on silent during business hours.
Not wrong. It may have been unavoidable, who knows what happened to the HM? So while it may not be anyone’s fault in particular, it’s perfectly reasonable to leave and ask them to reschedule. I would have sent that request preemptively via email on my phone as a left. But you weren’t wrong. You may have dodged a bullet, or maybe their HR just sucks. I’ve had similar things happen in the past and if I can’t guarantee the HM will be there I’ll just ask the candidate if they want to leave and reschedule. That’s how HR should have handled it, not just let you sit there.
No, you’re not wrong for leaving as 2 hours is too much.
Though I do understand your sentiment as a fellow fresh graduate and its a bit frustrating that certain companies feels like your time is in their hands.
I sent my application in this certain company last month, around the first week of April and the HR simply told me that they will give an update but no specifcs. However, I did not hear anything from them at all. No phone call, emails, even a simple text message. I actually forgot about it until I received a message last Thursday from that company. And I was so frustrated at the content. Their HR sent a message saying that I have to report two hours later for the initial and final interviews. Received the message around noon and the scheduled interview was 2PM. Immediately declined after reading the message.
They basically ghosted me for more than a month then suddenly requesting to poof in their office like I have teleportation skills was really rude and full of bs. I would have accepted if they informed me at least a day earlier.
Then that mentality of a fresh grad kicked in, thinking guiltily that perhaps I am actually the entitled one for declining simply because of the time when a company already reached out.
As a fellow fresh grad and job hunting sufferer, wish you the best OP. Hoping for a successful job hunt for you!
You probably dodged a bullet. If the company is that lousy with their time management, then I can only assume that the company would be a total mess internally.
you’ve just saved yourself, that work environment is definitely not a good place to work for. I can tell. Any managers and HR would be prepare before hand since they are already busy throughout their day in the work schedule.
The only thing you didn’t do correctly was silently walking out. That was a pretty strong FU in corporate circles. The polite thing would have been to inform HR (by voicemail or text if that is your only option) that you could not stay before leaving.
If you find yourself in this situation again, 15-20 minutes before you leave inform HR that if it gets to be (time), you’ll have to leave because you have another commitment (they do not need to know what that is) and there just won’t be enough time to both get the interview in and get to that appointment. Politely offer to reschedule because neither side would want to be rushed. If they can’t make it happen, then thank them and walk out.
Yes, making people wait can be a tactic employed by companies to see how candidates handle it. If that was the case here, you may have self-eliminated. The strategy above is a nice reverse-screening process for candidates to employ against such companies. Any company that eliminates you because you politely asked to reschedule after they were late? Probably for the best.
I’m just an employee that gets pinged to do these kinds of interviews from time to time.
Your time is just as valuable as mine.
I would be super embarrassed (and probably get into hot water with my manager) if I missed our appointment or was significantly late (more than 3-4 minutes).
You dodged a bullet by removing yourself from the situation. A company that will treat you like that when they’re trying to get you onboard will treat you like that when you’re an employee. It’s disrespectful and unprofessional.
Good luck with your job search.
No
>So am I wrong for leaving?
No, but you should have left at least an hour earlier than you did.
Nope – not at all!
On the flip-side, I had a candidate this morning just skip our interview time, ignored the meeting invite they ACCEPTED yesterday, ignored two phone calls I made 5 minutes apart after they failed to join the online meeting and now, three hours later emailed me and said they were sorry they were feeling “under the weather”. Too late now! I would’ve gladly rescheduled their interview for later today or next week if they had let me know before, or even shortly after the scheduled time; but wasting my time as the hiring manager is just as bad as a hiring manager wasting a candidates time. So no, I won’t reschedule that interview!
Hiring manager here who generally is pretty relaxed, but I get anxious myself if I think I might need to be more than 1-2 minutes late to an interview with a candidate. No way would I ever make someone wait longer than that without letting them know and asking if they would like to reschedule. This goes both ways (employers and candidates) – its called basic human decency!
My dude, you apologized for leaving after they were 2 HOURS late?! You’re wrong for apologizing, not for leaving.
I wouldn’t even consider rescheduling. That was wildly unprofessional on their part
Wait… this was a group interview and the manager didn’t show? Not just a one-on-one?
IMO being “late” was deliberate. It was a power move, intentionally designed to weed out anyone who wasn’t desperate. Because you left, you’re not desperate enough for the company so you’ll never hear back from them and you dodged a huge bullet. If you would have stayed, you’d likely have been hired but the job would have used you, abused you, and tossed you out like trash when it was done with you.
No. You’re not wrong for leaving.
Who knows why the manager was late. Could have been carelessness. Could have been a family emergency.
If you’re interested in the job, I would contact HR and say something like,
“I understand that the manager could not make our scheduled interview. I would like to set a time to reschedule the interview. I had other commitments that I needed to keep.”.
Keep it short, professional, and don’t over explain or apologize.
Personally, when I’m job searching (and I currently am) I want every iron in the fire as possible, until I land.
30 mins is the max and only if it comes with ass kissing/sincere apologies from them.
2 hours? That’s just them being completely disrespectful of you.
Good decision! They were trying to gauge how desperate you are. Those who stayed, received a very low paying offer and most likely took it