Interview at a house

Flyonthewall

Hi.

I applied for a job and got an interview, but the interview is at a house (in the middle of a housing estate).

The company I applied for has more than one business location and I expected the interview to be held at one of them. There should be multiple rooms in which they could hold interviews at the business locations.

I'm not sure if I'd be expected to work at the house as I probably wouldn't really need to be at any of the business locations to do the job.

I'm just wondering what people think about this. I'm not sure what to do. Would you cancel the interview, try and rearrange the location or go to the house?

Thanks.

TELLIT01

It's possible that everybody is still working from home and the office buildings not currently available.  If you are concerned you could get somebody to go with you but wait in the car whilst you attend the interview.

Flyonthewall

TELLIT01 said:

It's possible that everybody is still working from home and the office buildings not currently available.  If you are concerned you could get somebody to go with you but wait in the car whilst you attend the interview.

Thanks for replying. The business locations are definitely open and very few staff, if any, would be working from home.

Jillanddy

For a variety of reasons (and we are working from home) I would be shocked if anyone was conducting interviews at a private residential address - the legal ramifications of doing so for both the business and the householder are scary.

NBLondon

It might just be at the hiring manager's or HR manager's house because they are working from home but I'd be a bit suspicious.  If there are actual workplaces open - I'd expect the interview to be there.

Why not just call back "I just wanted to check the address" and see if they have an explanation.

General_Grant

Was the interview arranged with you by the company itself (using genuine email address for example) or via a reputable agency which knows the client?

oh_really

Can the interview not be conducted over zoom or similar?

Flyonthewall

NBLondon said:

It might just be at the hiring manager's or HR manager's house because they are working from home but I'd be a bit suspicious.  If there are actual workplaces open - I'd expect the interview to be there.

Why not just call back "I just wanted to check the address" and see if they have an explanation.

Thanks. I have contacted them, just waiting for a reply. If they are working for home I'd expect them to either go into work for interviews or be doing online interviews. 

If I were in their position, I wouldn't want people coming to my house for interviews! If I couldn't go into work or do online interviews for some reason then I'd be looking at renting an office space or meeting at a neutral location (a cafe, maybe).

Flyonthewall

oh_really said:

Can the interview not be conducted over zoom or similar?

It could as far as I'm concerned, but I don't know if they have a reason why it can't. I am waiting for them to reply.

[Deleted User]

Can you suggest a hotel - one time I got interviewed for a telesales job in a hotel because a) there was no private space really in the office and the b) the Director felt wrongly quite embarrassed by the look of the office, plus it was middle of the sticks with the hotel being much more common ground.

More recently a friend had been offered/declined an interview at what can only be the Directors home I am sure so perhaps it is becoming more common regrettably. (not that they really want to work for another tiny company and interview for a role that was ambiguous to start with so address wasn't the main concern)

Flyonthewall

Deleted User said:

Can you suggest a hotel - one time I got interviewed for a telesales job in a hotel because a) there was no private space really in the office and the b) the Director felt wrongly quite embarrassed by the look of the office, plus it was middle of the sticks with the hotel being much more common ground.

More recently a friend had been offered/declined an interview at what can only be the Directors home I am sure so perhaps it is becoming more common regrettably. (not that they really want to work for another tiny company and interview for a role that was ambiguous to start with so address wasn't the main concern)

Thanks, that could certainly be a possibility.

If it were a company with one person who worked out of their house and currently had no staff then I would understand (although still suggest online/a neutral location), but it's not. I hope it doesn't become more common, it could lead to some very unsafe situations for people.