Employers increasingly jilted by job seekers

A 40-year-old candidate for a job as an accounting manager didn’t show up for an interview with a pharmaceutical company, claiming his dog bit his face, says Jack Manning, president of executive recruiting firm Manning Associates.

"Of course we assume it’s the truth," says Manning. But it turned out someone from Manning’s office saw the applicant at a bar that same weekend and his face looked fine.

On another occasion, a female applicant for a marketing position called to say she couldn’t make the interview with a technology company, saying her boyfriend had walked out with her wallet after the couple had fought.

Manning called her bluff and offered to send a cab to pick her up. "She took the cab and ended up getting the job," he says. "You never know."

One of Alliant Technologies’ Conde’s strangest no-show stories involved a young man trying to get into an IT support position in a hospital.

The applicant didn’t show up for the first interview because he said his grandmother was admitted to the hospital, so Conde rescheduled the meeting.

"When the day of the interview arrived I received an e-mail from the candidate. His e-mail informed me that he had actually lied about his grandmother’s illness and had in fact gone to a party with some friends, making him too hung-over to make the original interview."

He wanted to reschedule again, but not surprisingly, Conde passed.

That’s the chance job seekers take when they find they have better things to do than show up for an interview. Some hiring managers say they keep a blacklist of applicants who failed to show.

But at a time where everyone is predicting a shortage of workers in the coming years as baby boomers retire, it may be hard for companies and staffing firms to be setting aside any names. And with all the turnover these days, there’s a good chance someone you diss today may have moved on by next year.

So why show up?

1. First and foremost, it’s the polite thing to do. Were we all raised by wolves? (Something my mother would ask right about now.)
2. Even though it’s a tight labor market, and people do move on, not showing up can come back to haunt you. You’ll risk being labeled unreliable, and word could get out that you flake out.
3. You might actually like the company and the job.
4. You can learn to become a better interviewee. The more interviews you go on the less nervous you’ll be when that big job opportunity comes a knockin.
5. Connections, connections, connections. You never know who you’ll meet during the interview process. It could be a manager who ends up mentoring you, or an employee who goes on to another firm you ultimately end up interested in. Getting a great job is all about networking and what better way than meeting people face-to-face.

If you get a better offer, however, Godin says a job applicant would be nuts not to blow off a previous interview commitment that conflicts.

"Get as many job interviews as you can on Monday, and then take the best ones," he explains. But, remember to call to cancel the ones you can't attend.

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