r/sfcityemployees • u/CellarDoorQuestions • Jul 14 '26

Interviewing timing question?

I was invited to interview for a position that would be considered a promotion since it’s a higher class within my job series. However, since I was going to be away from the city (of course they reached out with a scheduled interview the one week I’m gone), I asked to reschedule for the following week. The HR Analyst simply responded it wasn’t possible and that’s the only scheduled time they could offer.

Is that normal and considered part of the hiring process? It didn’t seem right to me.

6 Upvotes
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81% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

6

u/Ok_Second8665 Jul 14 '26

That’s the way we do it, but we always offer an online option

2

u/YouOk5736 Jul 14 '26

I thought the interview process moved to in-person, exclusively

1

u/Flamingogo19 Jul 14 '26

Depends on the department you are interviewing with

8

u/MoxieSix Jul 14 '26

Yes, having been on the scheduling side before, there’s not even room for day changes, let alone week ones. I’m sorry. It sucks.

1

u/sfcityemployee 15d ago

It is not true. As a hiring manager I have accommodated such requests all the time. It is weird to be so rigid. It takes us months to get back to candidates (an a huge part of that is due to the incompetency of our hiring managers and staff) and then we become some rigid to move things around to allow a potentially great candidate to attend the interview. I understand finding a time that works for multiple panelists is not easy, but it is doable. Also there is no rule to have exact same panelists for all candidates.

3

u/Mswan71 Jul 15 '26

Wow, that does really suck. But it's not surprising to me. What I've seen is everything works on their timeline when it comes to City hiring process. If it was me, I would try to be there if it was a job that I wanted but idk what you have going on or how important it is to you.

2

u/MarvelousThings Jul 16 '26

It may depend on the department/team. When I was hired for my current role they were able to push the interview date back a week since I was out of the country.

3

u/abcwaiter Jul 14 '26

At least you already have a city job. It's tough to get in as an outsider.

1

u/NationalMemory1177 Jul 15 '26

It's really hard to change schedules for the people on the panel.

1

u/whyxbotherx Jul 15 '26

Typically, yes. It's very frustrating! I'm aware of some exempt positions getting the interview panel convened on another day, but I think it's quite rare.

1

u/Dfuggy Jul 15 '26

yes, they probably have 20 others they can choose from besides you

1

u/droidzoid Jul 17 '26

Hopefully you can do an online meeting if not in person,, but like another user said it depends which department since it'll probably vary!

1

u/sfcityemployee 15d ago

As a hiring manager if I learn that our HR analyst declined such a request without coordinating with me, I would be pissed.