November 23, 2009

What time is best to bring up time off in an interview?

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Since most of this holiday week will be spent by hiring managers either taking the whole week off or clearing their decks so they can get out early, it seems appropriate to talk about a sometimes touchy subject: Whether or not to bring up pre-booked future travel plans in a job interview.

One Hire Ground reader recently told me that he was scheduled to have an interview for what he considered to be his "dream job." However, he also had booked a week-and-a-half vacation overseas with a group of friends for spring of 2010. The trip involved nonrefundable tickets and was made well before he knew about the job opening. He was debating whether he should mention these plans during the interview or wait until after any job offer is made.

This is a really gray area with no right answer, since it depends so much on the type of company you're interviewing with. But my feeling is that being honest and up-front about your availability is usually the best policy. You don't want to start asking for three-day weekends right off the bat, but most employers will look favorably upon you for showing concern over possible schedule conflicts. Several times the issue of pre-planned trips has come up in job interviews I have had personally, and every time the interviewers were very accommodating.

But I can understand how, in this recessionary climate, many job seekers are apprehensive about giving hiring managers any excuse to give them a thumbs down. My advice is that if you get a feeling the job you're seeking is a very time-sensitive position, perhaps it's best to wait until the second interview before bringing up potential conflicts. In the initial interview, it's imperative that you get your message across that you and your skills are the perfect match to fill the employers needs and solve their problems. The rest is just details. If you are, indeed, the right candidate, the company will happily give you a break on a few days of vacation.

Whenever I have dilemmas such as this, I remember some advice from my father: If you feel you have to bend over backwards to please a company over the little things, is it really a company you want to work for? In other words, if an employer considers a pre-planned, nonrefundable trip five months in the future a potential red flag in their decision to hire you, odds are that there will be other petty, inflexible demands they will impose upon you as an employee. If that's true, is it really the "dream job" you thought it was? Something to think about.

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

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