Arriving Late For an Interview Part 1

Why do people fail in Interviews?

Well, you are reading this article means you want to be even more successful in your career and you want to understand the reasons for the failures of many people. Definitely you are going to get few inputs and finer insights that will make you a winner.

 This article is written after interacting with thousands of candidates and number of HR Managers.

It is observed that many people fail in interviews for very silly reasons. Thus it is obvious, if we take care of these simple mistakes, our chances of winning an interview will be brighter.

Come, let us start understanding the reasons.

1.    Arriving Late to the interview

This is the first and foremost reason. Though it appears to be very silly, it is very important in the angle of an interviewer.

If a candidate arrives late to the interview, the interviewer keeps the candidate away from the race. The candidate may be well qualified, he may be very well skilled and he may be willing to work for this company, the HR manager does not feel confident to take the candidate.

When I interacted with couple of HR Managers, what do they think about the candidates who arrive late to the interview? They answered very clearly.

Arriving late gives many signals about the candidate, they said. It shows that

·         The candidate is not really interested toward the job, or he does not like the company.

·         The candidate does not have proper time management. If he cannot arrive in time to such  an important occasion, how can we depend on him for future assignments

·         The candidate has other priorities

·         The candidate is not systematic

Now, you're running late for the job interview you worked so hard to get. Every time the perceptions of the interviewers may not be true, for some genuine reasons, you may be late, yes, but being late makes a bad first impression, but if you handle the issue well, there's no reason why it should ruin your chances of landing a job. If you do find yourself running late for an interview, don't give up

What is the solution?

Once my guru told me a golden rule regarding the punctuality. Still I am following it. “If you are schedule to reach by 10 AM, and if you reach by sharp 10 AM, then also consider that you are 15 minutes late” sounds crazy? Yes of course, but it has great profound truths in it.

In simple words , where ever you are supposed to go, reach there at least fifteen minutes in advance.

By reaching 15 minutes in advance gives you many benefits

·         You can be in a relaxed mood

·         You will be familiarised with the ambience of the company

·         You can get to know which block, which floor, in which room the proceedings are going to take place

·         You can get time to fill the forms and registers, if any

More importantly, you can gain the good first impression. And you know that the first impression is the best impression.

One word of caution. Never go too early to the interview place. It may be counter productive. They may think that you are too desperate to get the job.

To sum it up,

·         Never go late

·         Never reach at the nick of the time

·         Reach at least 15 minutes in advance

·         Never reach much in advance, 15 minutes is ideal.

All the best