Phone interviewer was an hour late calling me

[Anonymous]

A company approached me via LinkedIn about an open position and I agreed to a phone interview. We scheduled it for 10:30 this morning. At 10:45 I hadn't heard from the guy so I emailed to ask if he wanted to reschedule. He replied "Sorry for the delay, will call in 15 min." Did not call me until 11:30 and then briefly said "Sorry, got caught up in meetings" and then launched right into the interview.

My guess is he felt entitled to do this because I'm currently home on maternity leave and therefore don't have any work meetings to work around. Maternity leave or no, I can't imagine being so disrespectful of someone else's time, nor can I imagine any hiring manager at my current company (which, FWIW, is very male-dominated) being so cavalier about an interview start time. He seemed like a nice enough guy once the interview got started and I'm still somewhat interested in the position, but this seems like a huge red flag to me.

Do you work for an organization where something like this would fly? If so, is it symptomatic of a culture of entitled jerks and/or lack of respect for employees' time?

[Anonymous]

If something like that happens again just tell them that a later start time does not work for you. Intimate that you have another interview scheduled and you don't want to risk having your discussion with the first (late) firm going over.

[Anonymous]

That wouldn't fly at my company (also a very male-dominated company). An hour delay in calling someone would require an explanation, a sincere apology, and a reschedule regardless of whether or not the other person had something else scheduled.

That said, we contract with external recruiting firms quite often when doing large hiring pushes and a one or two of them have been real knuckleheads, pulling stunts like this. We don't know about it until/unless a candidate mentions it later in the process, at which point we may have already lost some great candidates. If this is an external recruiter doing the initial hiring screening call, I wouldn't hold it against the company.

Even if it was an internal hiring manager, he may just be an idiot and not reflective of the culture in general. I would take a wait and see approach and observe how they behave as the process goes along.

[Anonymous]

Stuff happens OP. Without further information it is hard to say if this is indicative of how the company might be to work with.

[Anonymous]

NP, this happened to me today except still haven't got the call. I want to leave on a professional notein the event interviewer got confused, but am not longer interested in position (had a few red flags beforehand but wanted to give interview a chance, stay open-minded). Any advice to follow-up so they know I was ready and available at arranged time, because if they call later I don't want them them to thiink I blew them off. However, I am not really interested in rescheduling.

[Anonymous]

unacceptable. I mean it would have to be a top top person or a top top top top org that could treat me like that. otherwise fuck them.

[Anonymous]

OP I screwed up and did this recently. Not for an actual interview but for a potential applicant for a position I am hiring. It was my fault and happened because I am massively overworked carrying the gap in my team. I emailed, apologized and rescheduled. Then I apologized profusely when we spoke. Stuff happens, but how people react matters.

[Anonymous]

Do you really want to work for someone like that?

[Anonymous]

Was it an outside recruiter or an in house HR person? I wouldn't necessarily hold it against a company if a recruiter did this, but it would give me second thoughts if it were someone in house.

[Anonymous]

Stuff happens OP. Without further information it is hard to say if this is indicative of how the company might be to work with.

+1 1 hour is no big deal in my opinion, but I'm a pretty go with the flow type of person. A few years ago, someone was interviewing me from Asia, and we set up a time to talk that was 11 p.m. DC. He sent me a message that he had gotten delayed. I went to sleep thinking that was it for the night, and at 2 a.m. the man called me and groggily I did the interview. It makes for a funny story a few years later.

[Anonymous]

Was the interviewer someone in recruiting or someone you would report to? If it was a recruiter, I'd let it go. If it was someone you'd be working for or with, it's a red flag.

[Anonymous]

It could be a one time thing, it could be common place. With one phone call that's difficult to surmise. If get a second interview hopefully you'll be able to gauge them better.

[Anonymous]

I once had someone call me AN HOUR EARLIER. I found out later that this was a common tactic from her. She wanted to see how prepared you were and how well you could "think on your feet". Well, I was still at work (I had planned the afternoon off so I could take the call calmly without fear anyone would walk in and hear me). The interview did not go well, but in retrospect I was glad. She sounded like a horrible person and I got my dream job a month later.

[Anonymous]

I recently had this happen too. But, when the internal recruiter was late and I emailed, she emailed back (30 minutes later) and said she needed to reschedule for the next day! A real waste of my time.

Although she apologized, it did set the tone and I realized after the in-person interviews that this type of thing was part of the culture.

I did not pursue the job.

I wouldn't say this is a definite deal-killer…but it certainly can be an indication of other problems with the company.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your thoughts, everyone. This guy isn't a recruiter and I would be working with him (but not for him). I actually have an acquaintance who works at this place so I think I'm going to reach out to them and see if I can get any insight about whether this is just one idiot or whether the whole company operates this way.