When is the best time to schedule an Interview?

Research published by Glassdoor, the corporate employment review site, suggests that Tuesday is the best day for an interview if you are a job seeker. Furthermore, according to Rusty Roefer from the organisation, mid-morning appears to be an optimum time to schedule the interview.

Of course, if you manage to get an interview, you will often have no control over the date and time, especially if the recruiter has a busy schedule, which you have to work around.

However, if you do get the chance, there are good reasons why mid-morning Tuesday might be a good slot to get.

In terms of time, early morning meetings should be avoided. The interviewer is likely to be distracted, both by any home issues that might still be on their mind, but also by all the emails and issues that have arisen overnight, as well as by thoughts of the meetings and other events scheduled for the day ahead. Equally, the last meeting of the day should be avoided. The recruiter is likely to be tired and thinking about getting home. They are likely to be anxious to get the interview finished as fast as possible, which obviously puts the candidate at a disadvantage.

Before and after lunch are bad times to schedule. If the interviewer is hungry, they may be tempted to cut short an interview in a pre-lunch slot, whilst afterwards they are likely to be soporific or distracted, especially if they have lunched well, or eaten a heavy meal.

So, logically, mid-morning appears as good a time as any for an interview. The recruiter will likely have been at work for a couple of hours, have cleared any urgent emails or issues that need to be dealt with, and still be relatively fresh and alert.

As for the day of the week, Mondays should be avoided, if possible. Hiring managers will normally face a backlog of work after the weekend, and interviews may then be squeezed due to lack of time. Fridays are also a bad day because people feel tired and are beginning to think about the weekend.

Tuesdays then are perceived as the best day because they come relatively early in the work week. People should still be fresh and ready to engage fully in the interview process, especially if you can get a mid-morning time slot.

There are no hard and fast rules, however. For example, if there has been a long holiday weekend, the first Tuesday back at work may not be a good time to schedule an interview at all. As ever, the best advice to candidates is to make sure that they are as well prepared for the interview as possible, whatever the date and time.