Interview dilemma

kazwookie

No way can you drive from Aylesbury to Luton in 1/2 hour! you need to rearrange.

The average interview is 1 hour long.

AP007

J_i_m wrote: »

Most of my interviews are scheduled at 30 min.

Then if MOST are you have nothing to worry about but I would be very worried.

Dan-Dan

Half hour interviews ? Hardly time to get aquainted , what industry are you in ?

J_i_m

The NHS, previously the clinical side, now moving to the admin side.

The vast majority of NHS interviews I've had (and I've had several) have been panel based with between two to three members asking questions. They tend to allocate no more than half an hour for the actual 'interview'. Some (though not all) have a typing or in-tray exercise to do in addition. So in those cases, the interview would then last between half and hour and the full hour.



You see, I'm not asking people to explain how an interview process works or how long it should or shouldn't take. I am well experienced at this in my chosen area of work. But I had came upon a organisational dilema where I had been offered two interviews (with minimal option to choose times) at similar times in different towns.

It was a "what would you do if" scenario, not a "please explain interviews to me" question.

kazwookie, is correct in saying that there is no way I could drive from Aylesbury to Luton in half an hour. But then again, I knew that already, both from personal experience and from putting co-ordinates into a route finder. It was another answer to a question that hadn't been asked.

Not that I don't appreciate the input that these people have taken time to post. But I was looking for the kind of responses along the lines of "Well.. in that scenario I'd do x or y", and not so much "interviews last more than half an hour" or "well you can't drive from a to b in half an hour".

mattcanary

J_i_m wrote: »

Thanks again for all the replies, there have been some interesting suggestions.

I will definitely try to re-arrange times for the interviews in an effort to be able to comfortably attend both on Friday.

However, I do not agree with this notion of simply turning up late and hoping for the best. It risks making a bad impression as it'd make me look unprofessional with poor time management and communication skills.

If the employer is inflexible with the time, which I half expect they will be because other candidates will have been booked in as well, then I will weigh up which interview represents the more attractive/realistic opportunity to me.

I agree. It is manners to keep both companies informed.

t0rt0ise

My experience with job hunting and interviews in the NHS has been as you state, OP.. with no option to change the time. Some of the auto ones give you no choice and simply say that if you can't come at the allocated time then hit the withdraw button. Others are not interested in flexibility as they have so many applicants to choose from.

I have also found that no interview I've had in the NHS has ever run to time. They usually allocate less time for each interview than necessary and they know it but still do it. Then they often give some sort of task beforehand and some like to photocopy everything you bring which takes time. I would cancel one of the appointments beforehand rather than turn up late or cancel at the last minute, that way you won't get remembered for if you want to apply again later.

J_i_m

I've called this morning to request a different time, explaining that I really want to attend the interview but have another appointment as well, and if I could reschedule my interview with them, and if not I'd cancel the other one to attend theirs.

The good news is that they haven't rejected the request out of hand, but they won't be able to confirm if they can facilitate it until tomorrow.

So as it stands at the moment, six interviews this week, wish me luck

J_i_m

Well, I managed to reschedule the Luton interview and comfortably attended both. I even had time to go home for some lunch in-between the two.

But a re-schedule was definitely needed as without it I'd have been approximately half an hour late for the Luton one.