How to cancel a job interview

Interviews! The gateway to moving up the career ladder. But what do you do if you find yourself wanting to cancel one?

Despite our best intentions, life can be unpredictable and interviews may need to be cancelled (or postponed) - sometimes right at the last moment! While this obviously isn’t ideal, handling the situation with professionalism and courtesy can keep your reputation intact and keep the door open to reschedule, or be considered for future opportunities.

Reasons why people may end up cancelling interviews:

• Personal emergencies

The candidate or a family member has suddenly fallen ill or has experienced a bereavement.

• Logistical issues and external circumstances 

Train delays and traffic do happen and weather issues can also prevent people from arriving at the interview location on time, if at all.

• Technical problems

A poor internet connection, an ill-timed power cut or a Wi-Fi outage might be an issue for virtual interviews.

• Miscommunication

A double booking, or confusion over the date/time of the interview.

• Anxiety or low confidence

Feeling unprepared or underqualified can add to already heightened nerves.

• Lack of interest

The candidate may have lost interest or motivation in the job since they scheduled the interview, or discovered during their research that the job or company doesn't align as well as they previously thought.

• Another offer has come up

They may have accepted a job offer elsewhere or already received a counteroffer from their current company.

So what next?

If you think you need to cancel an interview, notify your Recruiter as soon as you can. Give them a call (emails and texts aren’t always picked up immediately), and tell them what’s going on. Your Recruiter is there to look after you and help you manage the situation. Sorting out tricky situations like these is a big part of their job, and they really will want to help you get the best outcome possible.

For only an hour of your time, you’ll be able to get more information about the role, get answers to any questions you may have, and really scope out whether the opportunity is right for you. An interview goes two ways - you get to ask questions too and it has to be the right fit in both directions. It’s better to have more information than less, and more options than less, so why not find out what you could be missing?!

If you’re feeling anxious or unprepared, your Recruiter will offer you some support in this area (a few days in advance of the interview ideally!), and if there has been a miscommunication, an emergency, or a logistical issue, they will help you rectify this or rearrange the interview. Interviewers understand things do come up, and should be happy to reschedule.

Very often we will encounter candidates who are concerned about how it might look to want to reschedule an interview and understandably don’t want to mess people around. But it’s very, very normal for things to come up to cause them to hesitate, need to reschedule, or just take some time to think. Recruiters deal with these things every day. In most cases, there’s probably a conversation to be had before cancelling. Take the opportunity to talk it through with your recruiter so if you do decide to cancel, you deserve to be 100% certain about this so you can walk away sure you have made the right decision.

It’s not true that people just don’t show up to interviews for no reason. There’s no reason you could have for wanting to cancel an interview that is not allowed. If you don’t want to go, there will be a reason behind this and that reason is valid. If you simply feel like you don’t want to go, this could mean you’re not interested enough in the role and don’t want to waste the firm’s time. It could mean you’re feeling under-prepared or under-confident and need some extra time with your Recruiter to feel ready.

So, there’s no need to fall into the trap of being one of those candidates who fails to show up. Whatever it is, your reason for not wanting to go is ok. Have a chat with your Recruiter and let them look after you. We’re here to help!

If you're looking for career advice or support with an interview in risk and compliance, give us a call on 0207 117 2542 or email us on jobs@ajfoxcompliance.com.

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