job interview

poppy25 · 31 January 2006 at 2:57PM

I sent out an application for a job in a school and this morning i recieved a letter saying i have an interview on friday which i am really pleased about

but i have a dilema and not sure how to tackle it, the job is term time only so therefore im assuming you can only take holiday during the school holidays which is fine except i go on holiday in october for 2 weeks and its been booked for a yr now

what do i do, do i tell them in the interview (but then im worried theyy wont chose me because of this) or shall i say nothing and IF i get the job say something then???

intel · 31 January 2006 at 3:00PM

They will ask you if you have any holidays booked or any questions.

So tell them then, Its ok as they expect prior engagements and its a long way off so its not like they cant find a stand in for your holiday time.

Katie_Bell · 31 January 2006 at 9:36PM

Just be honest and tell them. By the way, are either of the weeks during half term? Cos then you'd only be missing one week.

Savvy_Sue · 2 February 2006 at 7:34PM

And half term in October round here is just over a week (that's what difference a six-term year makes!)

I'd disagree slightly with Intel. If they ask, tell them. If they don't ask, tell them when they offer you the job. If they ask if you have a problem with taking holidays out of term-time, say no, not normally, but you've got one special one booked but you'll never do it again, honest miss (or sir!)

Katie_Bell · 2 February 2006 at 9:08PM

Good luck with your interview tomorrow.

Zeldazog · 3 February 2006 at 11:21AM

poppy25 wrote:

what do i do, do i tell them in the interview (but then im worried theyy wont chose me because of this) or shall i say nothing and IF i get the job say something then???

I could be wrong on this, so don't quote me, but I would have thought that they can't actually refuse to offer you the job on the basis of a previously arranged holiday.

Hope it went well.

Savvy_Sue · 3 February 2006 at 9:22PM

Zeldazog wrote:

I could be wrong on this, so don't quote me, but I would have thought that they can't actually refuse to offer you the job on the basis of a previously arranged holiday.

As someone who's been involved in recruitment, I'd certainly NEVER not offer a good candidate a job because they'd got a holiday booked, even if the time for which it was booked was very inconvenient or it was longer than I'd normally let them take so early! In fact I recall saying to a colleague at the end of three secretarial interviews, during which two candidates appeared to be unable to type, that I wanted candidate A, I didn't care that she hadn't so far stayed in one job for more than a few months, and I didn't care if she was hoping to come to us while she saved up for her next round the world trip, she was SUCH a good candidate that she was worth it! Especially compared with the others!!!

But seriously, I don't think there are any hard and fast rules for the reasons for not offering someone a job, as long as you can demonstrate that you didn't discriminate against anyone. If there were two equally good candidates and one had an inconvenient holiday booked, that might swing it in favour of the other, but it's rare to have two equally good candidates. Actually, where I worked it was quite rare to have more than one plausible one!

Zeldazog wrote:

Hope it went well.

So do I. How did it go?

Red_Elle · 4 February 2006 at 7:58PM

I'm a recruitment consultant and would always advise my candidates to be completely honest and upfront at interview, as this will create a good impression in itself. Interviewers rarely ask about holidays booked at first interview stage unless they are about to offer on the spot, which is more common than people think. So I would mention it. I'd say something at the end of the interview like, "Thanks for your time. I'm very interested in this position having heard more about it from you. I do have a pre-arranged holiday booked for such and such and I hope that that does not disadvantage me in any way, but I do like to plan ahead and make any potential employers aware of this."

job interview

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