Turning up late for interview - Aargghh !

[psychocandy]

First time I ever did this in my life yesterday. Let down badly by public transport.

Unfortunately, other than planning to arrive hours before you need to its difficult to foresee these things. Luckily, did manage to get message through to client.

Those of you responsible for hiring etc - showstopper for you if someone does this or understanding that it happens?

[GB9]

I have been late for interviews twice and got them both, mainly because I let the client know and secondly because I was incredibly apologetic.

Lesson learned though and now pitch up an hour before and get a coffee locally if possible.

[psychocandy]

I have been late for interviews twice and got them both, mainly because I let the client know and secondly because I was incredibly apologetic.

Lesson learned though and now pitch up an hour before and get a coffee locally if possible.

Good to hear. Yeh did let them know and was very apologetic.

Then again, I did think, perhaps working for a client who didn't accept that tulip like this happens might be an indicator of what they're like to work for anyway....

[Coalman]

I've turned up at the wrong site before because the agent was a numpty.
Had to travel another 2 hours to actual site.
Still got role though!

[JoJoGabor]

Then again, I did think, perhaps working for a client who didn't accept that tulip like this happens might be an indicator of what they're like to work for anyway....

I know, Ive had the interviewer turn up late a couple of times, and still taken the role and regretted it. If they cant be arsed to be professional and turn up on time to see you, in my experience they usually keep that attitude when working with you. I'll generally not accept the role or accept further interviews if that happens now

[MyUserName]

It is not a deal breaker if there is a valid reason. I have been late for an interview once when I had two delayed trains and one completely cancelled. I got there about 5 minutes late.

However, the interviewers both seemed more interested in showing off their MFC knowledge rather than interviewing me and when I politely explained that the class they were asking me about did not exist and they might mean another one (I think it was CFrame and CFrameWnd but I cannot quite remember, it was something like that) they seemed pretty annoyed. They also thought I made up virtual inheritance and whilst I was promised a white board and a projector screen, they neglected to mention that these were setup so only one could be used which shafted my presentation. It might have been that they were both only a year or so older than me but I had worked for a year in industry as a C++ programmer as part of my sandwich course so knew a lot more than the average graduate about it so they were a bit put out that my knowledge was comparable to theirs.

I do not think being late made a difference, I think they were arrogant tossers regardless of what time I got there.

[CoolCat]

Depends where and when the interview is. If its central London and first thing in the morning, then anyone working there expects trouble with public transport to cause late starts now and again. If its middle of the afternoon somewhere in the sticks where every other person on site gets there by car it will probably be frowned upon.

[psychocandy]

Depends where and when the interview is. If its central London and first thing in the morning, then anyone working there expects trouble with public transport to cause late starts now and again. If its middle of the afternoon somewhere in the sticks where every other person on site gets there by car it will probably be frowned upon.

Central london it was.

[hyperD]

Turned up 4 hours late for my current role. Well, it was SWT and the storm in October. They were very nice about it. I lost half a day's invoicing!

[SteelyDan]

Central london it was.

So you got greedy on your 3 possible options, and then you were late?