Balancing interviewing with current work schedule
I'm in the interview loop with few companies, while working on my current job where it's becoming difficult to manage the interview schedules. A recent recruiter scheduled rounds with 5 one-hour slots spread across 1 to 3pm on 2 consecutive days, as the interviews need to happen during working hours of interviewers. Recruiter also asked me to manage the slots provided as there are many candidates and they are looking to fill the open position soon.
While I already politely communicated to the HR that it's difficult for me to take out this amount of time from my work day and provided with alternative options for early mornings or evenings, I was wondering whether the current job market expect candidates to comply with such scheduling requests, even if it creates friction with their current job?
![Senior Software Engineer [E5] at Meta company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fmeta.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3Da7a5bcc0-e178-4b5b-b71e-09bf6c6aefae&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
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Discussion
(2 comments)- 15 months agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
This is more common at smaller companies that have a limited number of people who can interview. Larger companies are usually more accommodating since they have thousands of people who could interview you.
I don't think there's an expectation that you have to work around the company's schedule, but it is true that employers have more leverage today.
- To find a mutually agreeable time, I'd both (1) suggest a few times that work for you and (2) ask for a range of options when the company could interview you. You can ask if another team/person could interview you if the bottleneck is one person's availability.
- As always, the best thing to do is build leverage by getting other competing offers.
- 1
5 months agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroAt the end of the day, your interviewer is another hard-working engineer who wants to protect their schedule. Since the hiring company has more leverage, this is entirely fair. The setup you got (2-3 hours of interviews each across 2 consecutive days) is pretty standard, so the onus is on you to make it work. If it was something insane like 1 hour each across 5 days, I would push back more and maybe decline the interview altogether (assuming you have other leads).
That's the awkward part about onsites. They are long and need to happen during working hours. As the candidate, you either need to carve out a block while working and hope nobody finds out what you're doing or take PTO.
Here's another good thread that's more about the overall balancing between current job and interviews: "How to balance interview prep with a job?"
