You can, and you must, negotiate reasonable date and time for the interview

An I.T graduate phoned me recently. She had just received the phone call at 15h30 from a certain company. She is being invited to attend an interview for internship the next day at 7h30, in Sandton. She is staying in Vanderbijlpark.

She has agreed to the interview and is frantically summoning me to help her prepare for tomorrow's bang bang. We meet. She is in a panic mode. She has been down with flu the past few days and her voice is gone. The doctor has ordered her to rest. And it gets worse. She will be using public transport and, as far as I know, the earliest taxi out of Vereeniging to Joburg CBD (where Noord long queues await her before reaching Sandton) is around 06h am.

I suggest to her that she calls the person who phoned her to explain that tomorrow is too short a notice; that she is using public transport therefore she might not make it in Sandton on time; that her voice is gone and surely the interviewers will not enjoy those moments where they will be tilting their heads to bring their ears closer to the whispering candidate.

After a brief hesitation, she makes a phone call. The employer can hardly hear her. I take over the conversation to explain the situation; to request alternatives and indicate her dedication to the interview. ‘Okay,’ says the employer, ‘We will see #name of applicant# on Monday at 8h30 then.’ The employer representative appreciates the honesty and advises applicant to call on Monday should she sense that she could be running late so that they could wait for her.

There are several lessons we should draw from this experience, which is something I often share with the students and professionals. Some of them are:

1.     Although the youth employment opportunities are scarce and the country is being driven to the brink because of it, we should never appear desperate to the point of over-committing when we know that we lack the resources and have little time at our disposal to be ready for job interview.

2. Employers may give an impression that they are doing us a favour by inviting us for job interviews, and be unreasonable about timing but, we are also selling our skills and potential therefore open communication and demonstration of negotiation skills are necessary; they enhance the very interview which, in my view, has already started.

3. When we are not ready for the interview, we are not ready and we should be willing to politely explore alternatives with the employer.

4. An interview which is arranged within 12 hours, even 24 hours, is extremely unreasonable to the employee, unless in exceptional circumstances which I cannot think of right now. We deserve adequate time to prepare and employers know this.

5. [Please add your comments…]

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