Ask a Manager: candidate showed up in-person for a Zoom interview “to demonstrate their interest”

[minoanmiss]

As part of my job, I’m responsible for hiring processes for director level positions. We first conduct a phone screening, then a Zoom interview, and then pay for finalist candidates to visit our city for the the final round of interviews.

Recently, following the phone screenings, I scheduled Zoom interviews with our candidates. We use a self-scheduling system, and notified candidates on Tuesday that they could start scheduling interviews. The first available interview was on that Thursday. On Wednesday (so 24 hours after the self scheduling opened, and 24 hours before the interview), one of the candidates called me to say that they had driven to our city from their state about 12 hours away, with their entire family, at their own expense, to “demonstrate their interest in the position.” They asked if we would instead hold the interview in person, since they were in town. Our search committee was not prepared to hold this interview in person, as some members of the committee live far away, so I told this candidate that we would still need to hold the interview via Zoom. They expressed disappointment that we weren’t able to make it work.

I think this crosses professional boundaries and is a huge red flag. One of my colleagues was impressed by this candidate’s “go-getter” attitude and thought we should have accommodated the request to have the interview in person. What do you think?
What on earth, no! This is indeed a huge red flag.

This isn’t about being a go-getter. It’s about lacking an understanding of professional norms and being willing to push what they want ahead of what works for you, without regard for the process you already laid out. (They also apparently haven’t noticed at any time during the last two years that a lot of people work remotely or from separate locations now?)

This is someone who’s going to ignore clear instructions when work is assigned to them in favor, without thinking about what problems their “better” approach might cause. This is also someone who has muddled thinking about how much energy and how many resources are worth expending for what pay-off. (A 12-hour drive? With their whole family?!)

It’s particularly troubling that they didn’t think to check with you first. It would have been fine for them to offer to come in-person, as long as they waited to hear whether that worked for you. But simply showing up without bothering to check, and then being surprised when it didn’t work for you, bodes badly.

If they wanted to demonstrate their interest in the job, they could do that by, you know, interviewing for it and explaining their interest. No stunts required.

Your colleague who liked it isn’t thinking it through.

Comments

[lilysea]

This would be rude even in not!COVID times, but in COVID times, where someone is probably doing Zoom in order to avoid catching COVID, it could be lifethreatening to the interviewer, the interviewer's coworkers, the interviewers partner/parents/grandparents/kids etc etc

[pauraque]

I used to be a hiring manager, and if this had happened with an applicant I would have been horrified!!! Just as Alison says, this person is sending a very loud signal that they think it's fine to go charging in like a bull to do things their own way without regard for how it affects others or whether it's consistent with management directions. You do want employees who can take initiative, but for goodness' sake, it has to be balanced with common sense!

[oursin]

This sounds like All The Bad Advice that people get from parents or other persons of A Former Generation who are not clued in to the ways things work these days, dialled up to 11. But one wouldn't expect it put into practice by somebody who has, presumably, been out in the contemporary working world for some while - that is, assuming the 'whole family' actually consists of spouse and offspring, and not Mom, Pop, and assorted aunts, uncles and extended family, who have constituted themselves Their Kid's cheering section.

[green_grrl]

Yes, this kind of advice from elders gets nicknamed Gumption! on AAM. And not something I would expect at all from a director-level candidate. Yikes. I’m picturing one of those “eccentric” parents like from The Mosquito Coast or I Capture the Castle, piling the kids in the car without much thought to societal norms.

[shanaqui]

Somebody tries to do anything like this to me when we're hiring and their Zoom interview gets cancelled altogether, no interview for them, because oh hell no.

[raine]

I'm with you right there.

[movingfinger]

GUMPTION!