Nairobi

Canceling an interview on the same day: Rude or not?

Saw a post on LinkedIn where this recruiter was saying that it is rude for a candidate to cancel "an interview the same day, hours or minutes before it's set to take place because all of a sudden you got another offer" and that essentially doing that will get you blacklisted by the company and recruiter.

Curious to get your thoughts on this one.

I think canceling minutes before is rude, but more than two hours is fair game. I feel like there is no point in taking an interview if you know that you will take the other offer. So to me, it's better to cancel the interview and respect people's time.

Is it rude to cancel an interview the same day?

Attached poll

Yes No

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

🤷‍♂ Poll

😳 Ethics

🤝 Interviewing/Offer

47 comments

Sort by:

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

ERP Sales

I think context is key, if you accepted an offer you got that morning. Then no its not rude, since its a waste of their time to conduct an interview of a candidate that is off the market.

However, if you cancelled the interview 5 min before since you accepted an offer a couple of days ago. I would say that isn't the most considerate thing to do, but you are still saving them 30min to an hour.

No matter what it shouldnt get you blacklisted. Its way better to do that, compared to a No-Call-No-Show. That is something I would understand getting black listed for

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

100% this. I was raised with some old school WASPy politeness engrained in me so I voted that it's rude, but if you just got an offer it's best not to waste anyone's time.

If you have the notice, give them that courtesy. If you can't, well you can't.

Nairobi

Politicker

I cannot figure out how to put a screenshot of the LI post here lol but yeah the recruiter is talking about canceling an interview because you got another offer.

"If you have an interview scheduled on the same day you receive an offer (or counteroffer), it is in your best interest to show up to the other interview - regardless of your job search status."

Which is totally dumb IMO

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Totally dumb. I'd be pissed if I had a candidate come on and say that without something else REALLY compelling to say.

And just take the screenshot, copy it, and then paste it into the body of your post. That way it displays instead of being attached.

Nairobi

Politicker

Totally agree with you. In that post, the recruiter was saying that no matter what happens (even if you get an offer the same day) you should go through the interview.

eyris

Fire Starter

Business Development Intern

If you cancel or reschedule to let them know it’s fine than no call or no show tbh

Sunbunny31

Arsonist

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

It sounds a little like “how dare the candidate entertain another offer!”.

Of course, as others have said, it’s situational. Courtesy is very important.

Nairobi

Politicker

Right lol as if that recruiter is only working with one candidate… Totally agree, there’s a way to cancel an interview last minute

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

I agree with that.

Mobi85

Politicker

Regional Sales Manager

as everyone else has said, it is situational.

I would prefer someone cancelling the interview 5 minutes before and me getting back 45 minutes to 1 hour vs. them sitting through the interview completely disengaged because they took a different offer.

eyris

Fire Starter

Business Development Intern

Exactly

detectivegibbles

Politicker

Sales Director

Nah. Shit happens. Be considerate and transparent. We all have lives.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Amen. Sounds like that recruiter needs to grow the fuck up.

Nairobi

Politicker

Right like that recruiter seemed entitled af

Anker

Opinionated

SAE (Senior Account Executive)

Yeah, I did recruiting for a short time (worst career move of my life) and my guess is that the recruiter is worried about looking bad to the client. I get it, trying to keep the hiring person happy and engaged as a client. But having you do an interview when there is no chance of hiring you? She should sell it to the client as “my candidates get HIRED because their good, and Nairobi is no exception, let’s find you another rock star.”

Nairobi

Politicker

Curious to know why recruiting was so bad? I always think that there's so much bad recruiting outreach out there that if you've done outbound sales, it could be easy

Anker

Opinionated

SAE (Senior Account Executive)

For me it was just a poor career match. “Selling” people just didn’t work for me. I know some awesome, reputable, and responsive recruiters and I know some I wouldn’t expect much from. Just like any sales role. For me, it was a move I made out of desperation to do something new and it was easy; I was working with them looking for a new role, they asked if I’d ever considered recruiting; and then they recruited me. Some may love it. You can meet some great people, learn a lot about the job market and the variety of roles out there, and make some good money. But when the job market gets tight again, it’s not at all easy.

eyris

Fire Starter

Business Development Intern

Exactly

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

It is situational and there is no right or wrong answer. If it’s done deliberately, it’s definitely rude.

Nairobi

Politicker

What do you mean by done deliberately?

boredAnti

Tycoon

That One Guy

Definitely situational

Nairobi

Politicker

Curious what kind of situations would you consider is rude?

eyris

Fire Starter

Business Development Intern

True

TheIncarceration

Politicker

SDR Manager

I agree with you. I feel like it'd be even more rude to take the interview knowing you're accepting another offer. That'd just be a big waste of everyone's time

Nairobi

Politicker

Right makes no sense why a recruiter would want to take an interview when the candidate is taking another offer… like do something else of that time…

eyris

Fire Starter

Business Development Intern

Agreed

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

Officer of ♥️

I hate it when people cancel meetings we set up but Id way rather not waste my time with someone who isn’t interested for the sake of politeness

SoccerandSales

Big Shot

Account Executive

I think it is important to share the context with the recruiter as well. A lot different if you are cancelling 5 min beforehand with no real reason vs cancelling multiple hours before because the role isn't feasible for you anymore

Nairobi

Politicker

Totally agree. There's a way to cancel things, don't be an ass about it

eyris

Fire Starter

Business Development Intern

Good point

witchbitch

Associate

As an agency recruiter, we ENCOURAGE candidates to cancel interviews after they have accepted and offer (unless of course it’s super short notice). I think the main thing is to have some common sense and situational awareness… a thank you note for their time also doesn’t hurt :)

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Life happens. IMO its only "rude" if they don't immediately reschedule for a new day/time.

Nairobi

Politicker

What do you mean by rescheduling? In that context, the candidate canceled the interview because they took another offer

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

Nothing is rude in business. It's just business. Companies will cancel 2 min before an interview because the position closed or they offered to another candidate. They will lay off employees with zero notice because of a complete inability to grow at a sustainable pace. I dont believe in notice. Nothing is rude. Companies just don't like when the things they do regularly gets done to them.

Nairobi

Politicker

Recruiters scheduling interviews but never showing up... Ghost you after having multiple interviews with them... the list goes on and on, you're right tbh

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

I've had my fair share of recruiters ghost me but God forbid you cancel a few min before an interview. It's annoying as hell

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

Cancelling the same day - I would think it's a wise move to save time on both shores.

Cancelling minutes before - I might not like it, but I would not blacklist someone based on this. I don't endorse cancelling any meeting (internal / external / interviews) just minutes before the start/

sketchysales

Politicker

Sales Manager

Respecting their time is a key point you raise but if it is the same day I would be inclined to still take the interview but be very transparent at the beginning and say something happened today and i accepted an offer etc etc. and the interviewer can decide at that point whether to carry on or not. As others have pointed out though if you are cancelling based on something that has happened days ago then yes that would be rude. Eitherway i would join and give them the option to continue.

mrosales

Politicker

Life happens. We can't control everything.

ken.weaverjr

Area Sales Manager

Just give the recruiter ample heads up.

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

I guess, the candidate should've attended and explained the offer he got once the interview was over and asked the interviewer if he could've matched it, if yes he could've taken his offer, if not he could've just apologized politely and chose the first offer he received so no one would be upset about it.

SynergySales

Member

Director

Having been the interviewer and had this happen to me... I'm very much okay with someone cancelling if they had no intention of continuing the process. I'd prefer more than 5 mins notice... but yeah; you accepted an offer, I'll cancel the meeting and wish them luck. No hard feelings there.

SDM

Politicker

Sales development manager

I agree with your thoughts... Cancelling minutes before is rude

SalesJesus29

Tycoon

Regional Sales Director

Obviously depends on a bit of the reasoning and time in advance that the notice was given. Always need to be respectful of everyone's time.

Shit happens all of the time - need to be conscious of time together.

twentythreeBMA

Good Citizen

Recruiter/placement/customer support

Had that happen to me without the even letting me know. I had to call them.

Yesticles

Principal Recruiter

It’s not that it’s rude, it just sucks.

As an agency recruiter, My clients all complete interviews they’ve booked before making offers. I expect my candidates to attend all booked interviews before accepting, as long as they are within a reasonable timeframe.

That said, any recruiter worth their salt will tell you to cancel interviews and stop all process to accept their offer.

You’re just doing yourself a disservice by not attending interviews already booked. At the very least it will give you leverage.

Anne Frankly, most of the time when interviews are cancelled same day it’s not because they received and accepted an offer that day.

Tl;dr: Try to give more than 24 hour notice if you’re cancelling, but it’s usually better to just attend.

punishedlad

Tycoon

Regional Partnership Manager

Personally, I'd take the meeting but end it very promptly by telling them the situation. I think that's more genuine and less likely to get you blacklisted since you were considerate enough to tell it to their virtual faces instead of an email.