Making Time for the Interview Portland ME

I cannot begin to tell you how many times my clients and friends talk to me and ask my advice about interviewing. Of course you would expect this given what I do for a living. What I mean is, they need guidance about making time to interview; yes, they don’t know where to fit it into their hectic schedules. For those people actively looking that are not presently employed this is not an issue. Many of the people that seek my advice are working; they cannot find time during their hectic workday to get to interview. At some point, we have all been in this quandary – how to conduct the job search when there is seemingly little to no time to actually TRY and get another position.

Of course I have a few of my own ideas regarding the matter; I will share them with you here and hope that you can appreciate the humor. We have all experienced these things to varying degrees so here goes:

The Lunch-Hour Interview. How stressful is this? To interview during lunch you have to be able to go to your regular job, which might be casual dress. So, you bring a change of clothing in a shopping bag (how inconspicuous), which you will need to leave the office with so you can change in the bathroom at the company where the interview is being held. Naturally, you need to leave your office early so that you can get to the interview with enough time to change and wipe your brow of the perspiration that has formed there from the running around that you have done. You want to appear calm, cool, and collected during your meeting, so you will take a few minutes in the reception area to ‘get it together’. The quick change in the phone booth resumes once the interview is over because you have to get back into your ‘regular’ clothing or else the gig will be up when you arrive back at your office – seriously late from your ‘lunch’. Needless to say, lunchtime interviewing is not ideal unless the position you are pursuing is on another floor in the same building where you work. This presents other problems, of course that I won’t even get into here.

The Day-Off Interview. This situation is much more ideal; but, it also presents its challenges. You decide you are going to arrange for more than one interview to maximize your time. You have successfully coordinated three (yes, three interviews) in one day. You have enough time to make it to all of them. As long as the transportation system is working, there is no foreseeable problem. You are getting ready; the phone rings. It is Sally from the first company you are seeing. They need to push your appointment back 45 minutes due to various business circumstances. This should not be a problem; you left enough time to get to the second interview so you agree and forge ahead. The phone rings again; this time, it’s Jane from the second company. They need to move your appointment to the very end of the day for reasons not explained to you. This is an issue because you already have an appointment for company #3 at the en...

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