Spinoff to resume question - arriving late for an interview?

I was conducting a group interview this morning - there was alarge group of no shows (which I never understand) but a woman arrived 30 minutes late!

If she snuck in quietly and maybe afterwards told me she was sorry - there was an accident on the LIE, her kid broke a bone, etc, then maybe I would let that slide, but in the middle of the interview, as she was coming in, she took out a document and started telling me how much extensive training she had in this area. I told her "OK" and continued with the interview. Then she said "I just wanted to let you know."

As if she was God's gift and the carpet should have been rolled out for her late a$$?

Again, I thanked her, and moved on. When I directed questions her way a little later on (saying "since you had the training in this area" she then back pedaled and said, "yeah - it was 2 years ago though" - so if you don't have the info from the training - why even mention it???)

But really, isn't a lateness to an interview a real no-no, unless some act of God happened?

Message edited 11/11/2009 11:24:52 AM.

Re: Spinoff to resume question - arriving late for an interview?

I have never conducted or taken part in a group interview, but I would think that would make it even worse, b/c you are interrupting.

If it were a regular interview, I would expect people to call & apologize & ask if it is possible to reschedule.

We had someone call b/c her car wouldn't start & was very apologetic about it, so my boss told her to call back when it was fixed & we'd reschedule & she never did, even after my boss contacted her asked if she was still interested.

I also don't get no shows, but maybe they are people who were running late & were too embarrassed to call or show up late.

Re: Spinoff to resume question - arriving late for an interview?

I am a stickler about punctuality. One-offs happen to everyone but I detest when people are consistently late.

Whenever I interview, I plan to get to it 15 to 20 minutes early. If I'm sitting in the parking lot waiting for the right time, fine. But I've never been late for an interview.

Lateness without a valid excuse or a call ahead to tell us is disrespect in my book and does not bode well on a first impression.

Re: Spinoff to resume question - arriving late for an interview?

Yes, it’s a pretty big no no without calling and letting someone know. Sometimes with interviews the person interviewing is on a really tight schedule and they can only do this specific time slot and its been planned for weeks etc, I have had instances where candidates have turned up late for Interviews and they are turned away. Sometimes if they call and let us know, we can rejig the timetable so that they can have their exercises, interviews at a slightly different time. But if you just show up late, yeah, turning people away is an okay thing.

Remember, I work in bulk recruitment so I run Assessment Events and Interviews every single day of the week, just today I have organised two Assessment days. I have one scheduled for tomorrow with three candidates, my admin assistant put in confirmation calls (like we always do the day before the AC) , one candidate said, I will be there no problem, rang back in an hour and told me he took another job!! Another candidate rang and told me that the job didn’t pay well enough for him, but if we wanted to hire him on an interim basis, we could do, and another one simply dropped out.

Re: Spinoff to resume question - arriving late for an interview?

This day is getting even better - we just had another person coming in at 11 (for a 10:00 interview) and refused to leave!!!

I finally came out, and she was apologizing, usually she is early, so professional, 3.9 GPA, but her best friend's mother has cancer and (something about doing something for her, with her, etc - I tuned it out )

again - how is that professional in any way?

Just to shut her up and get her out, I simply requested her resume to look over. I think she knew that was pretty much it, so she stood there rambling trying to get out all this info about herself as I politely pointed her towards the door.

This job is to provide therapy for students with autism in their homes. Professionalism and punctuality (not to mention a reasonable amount of common sense and intelligence) is required!!!! What are these people thinking?

Re: Spinoff to resume question - arriving late for an interview?

I have conducted many interviews
and I do not tolerate lateness or no shows. If they call and it was an emergency or "an act of God" I would have to think about it.

Re: Spinoff to resume question - arriving late for an interview?

I will not see someone if they arrive late, particularly in this economy with so many people desperate for jobs. Plan ahead----get there 2 hours early if you have to....just don't be late.

Re: Spinoff to resume question - arriving late for an interview?

When I was a supervisor, I hated interviewing for this reason. It seemed like I would attract every kind of nutjob with every kind of excuse in the world for being late. It's pretty sad too that with the way the economy is these days you have people like this who show up. But it doesn't surprise me in the least that these are also the types of people out of work or looking right now.

I also hate those know-it-alls who really know nothing. I don't work with kids, but I work in human services with adults and we seem to attract a strange bunch from time to time.

Re: Spinoff to resume question - arriving late for an interview?

it's a no-no. i learned the hard way. i am never late for anything, but i got stuck in a crazy traffic jam where i didn't move for over an hour. i arrived about 30-45 minutes late. they still did the interview and campus tour (it was for a student affairs job at a campus in NJ) but needless to say, i did not get the job. i received offers for every other job i interviewed for at the time in that field, so i really think it was because i was late. it just makes a bad impression and honestly, i don't blae them for not offering me a job. i held everyone up and it just looked unprofessional, even though the circumstance was outside of my control.

Re: Spinoff to resume question - arriving late for an interview?

I have personally never been late for an interview. If I were running late for some reason like an accident, I would call ASAP and apologize!

Re: Spinoff to resume question - arriving late for an interview?

Lateness for an interview is never a good thing, and I could overlook a few minutes maybe, but 30 minutes is ridiculous. And at the very least she should have tried to save face with an apology.