I am on the road this week in Dallas interviewing candidates with one of our clients and a situation came up in the last 24 hours that speaks to proper etiquette during the interview/hiring process. There are certain expected behaviors that should be followed by both the employer and the candidate in any process.

Yesterday, I received a phone call in the evening from a candidate who wanted to tell me that she was canceling our interview scheduled with her for early this morning. She knew that I was traveling from Minneapolis to Dallas and had even confirmed her interview with us late in the afternoon the day before. So less than 18 hours before the scheduled interview, she calls me to tell me she just got back from a second interview with another company, was offered the position and “just had to accept it.”

I don’t question that she had a great offer or opportunity – my question is her timing. Once you arrive at the night before a morning interview, it is proper business etiquette to complete the interview the next day. It is certainly an employee’s market right now and I think some candidates take liberties they normally wouldn’t dare in a slower job market.

I personally encountered a similar situation in my own career many years ago. I was living in Boise, ID when my wife and I decided to move back to Minnesota. I lined up several interviews in Minnesota over a couple week span.

The job I wanted the most was smack dab in the middle of my interviews. I completed my first interview with this company and they immediately had me meet with the President and several other execs of the company. They offered me a job on the spot. They told me they were aware that I still had a number of interviews to complete the next week, but they were excited for me to join the firm so they offered me a position and gave me 2 weeks to give them an answer.

The offer, the company and the position were all solid, but I had no idea what the other opportunities had to offer. So I went into each interview concentrating on the opportunity and familiarizing myself with the companies (and them with me). I ended up getting a couple of additional offers and used them as a comparison to the first offer I received (and later accepted).

Posted By Lee Fratzke | Hiring,Hiring Salespeople,Interview | | Comments(0)