Good day ~

I have a question here and hopefully you guys who are more experienced can give me some opinion.

Scenario
If let's say I have been invited by two companies for their interview where company H is the company I wanted to join first and company D is the second.

However, the director of company H went on holiday and he can not conduct the interview until when he is back, say on next week. However, company D contacted me and arraged an interview on 9th June and somehow, the director of company H also arranged another interview on 9th June.

It is unethical for me to turn down the company D interview since I promised it first and perhaps I can just talk to company H to change the time.

But my problem arise here, with company H, I had to change the time for the previous meeting due to my exams and presentation where I asked to change the date after agreeing to it (also due to the fact that the company are not reimbursing my travel and it takes me 5 hours to get there, with a train fare more than 100 GBP - this is my miss for not confirming everything and I apologized to the director personally).

The director of company H has yet to set another interview date with me but chances are it will be on the same date as company D (since I gave him a list of dates I am not available due to exam).

So my question now is,

1) Should I wait for the director of company H to contact me and pray that it wouldn't be on 9th June.

2) Should I send an updated list of time where I am not available to the director of company H (including the fact that I am not available on 9th June) before he contacts me?

Personally my choice falls on (2) though however, it will be the second time for me to update him with the time I am not available. Will I tarnish my reputation in company H even before the interview of is it okay for me to do so?

Or is there any alternative?

Thanks

lets say if u free on 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th.
give 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th to company H, give 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th to company D

Well, the date for D has already been fixed which is 9th June and for H, they have yet to fix a date.

Though however, I will only be free after 8th and before 13th so I don't think I have much choice.

I think you can go with (2) and I do not see any problem with updating people with the latest information. This is being considerate. You do not want people to schedule something on a day when you know you are not available.

Dreamer

Thanks alot, is the reply below enough?

*I apologize for asking so much since I do not want to do anything wrong that jeopardizes my chance with this company as this is the company I want to work for the most.



This post has been edited by Geminist: Jun 2 2006, 11:56 PM

U're repeating sentence.......it makes u sounds desperate.

Noted, will edit that. Thanks.

Geminist,

I really do not know how the culture in UK is. But, in USA, everyone is at equal rank. Your time is as valuable as everyone's else time. Plus, you are an engineer. So, do not sound too apologetic. And, you are getting too long winded.

<<Dear Dr. -removed-,

Good day Dr. -removed-, this is -removed- here writing in with updates to my time which I am not available.

Below are the following time where I am not available.

---
6th June - 9th June
13th - 14th June
16th June
---

Thank you very much for your time and your understanding. Please accept my apologies for any inconveniences caused.

>>

That is all I will write.

Dreamer

I probably go with dreamer101's letter. Don't have to be too apologetic because I am sure that British people are quite understanding. Good luck in your coming interview

i feel it looks better to give the available time instead of not available time.

just my opinion.

Thanks for the suggestion, will send out the letter soon. Also, I think I should stop being so apologetic at times.

Thanks

*Do pour in other suggestions if there are any, so that others might benefit too.

IMHO, giving them the dates that you're not available is a better option. It shows that you're ready for interview and not forcing them to choose the from the given dates.

Thanks for the input guys !

I have another 3 scenarios and hopefully you guys can help me out.

Scenario 1
If the interviewer asks this question.
Aside from us, are you going for interviews with other companies and what are the name of the companies?
The truth is I have another 2 interview to attend to, but this company H is the company I wanted to join the most. So how should I answer this question? (My proposed answer below).

- I will be honest and tell them about these two companies and their name as well (if he asked for it - and he did last time)
- I will say NO, I'm only with you.
- I will say yes I have two second stage interview with other companies but I hope that I can keep the privacy of these companies. (Their nature of business is related to company H though not direct competitors)

My own idea is to go with the third one, since it's really unprofessional of me to review other company's name and in addition, their nature of business are related. I don't wanna go for two since it'll make him think I am desperate for the job. What say others?

Scenario 2
Let's say if during the interview, I am asked to explain an engineering design to him. And perhaps I am still lacking in presentation skill, I can't really elaborate that well without a piece of paper. So is it okay when he asked me to elaborate a design, I can request for a piece of paper to draw the design out and explain to him?

Scenario 3
The interview is the week after next, but I'm already preparing for it. The problem is, the devision of H I wanted to join, they don't have sufficient information on their website (ie. case studies). But I really wanted to know more about some of the projects in the division I wanted to join. So how can I get my hands on the information? Should I ask for them before or during the interview? My own choice is to ask for more information about the division before the interview, but I do not know how. (in the mean time I am also Googling to get as much information about the company/division as I can).

Thanks for the help.

*Forgive me about not using the pinned thread, I wanted to find out to these scenario and prepare my best for the interview with H. I'll merge everything together later on Thanks.

This post has been edited by Geminist: Jun 10 2006, 03:57 PM

1) Do not disclose the name of the companies. Do not say I hope. Just I say I feel it is not proper for me to disclose

2) What is wrong about asking for paper?? And, why you cannot bring your own paper and writing pad to show that you are prepared.

3) Just say that I would like to know about your projects o that I can demonstrate how I can contribute to the project...

Dreamer

Erm, I have a little bit of trouble here.

After confirming everything with H, this news came up.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/12062006/325/unio...il-strikes.html

Theoretically, this wouldn't affect me. But no one knows for sure. So now, should I inform the director regarding this news and that I might be late to the interview? Or should I just leave it?

*Just FYI, I have booked the ticket and everything so it's not possible for me to amend anything.

Scenario 1: Opt for ur 3rd option but add up something that show ur interviewer ur prority r given to company H . Anyway u better think of another sentence if ur interviewer ask u ...."Y can't u tell me...i don see any harm"

Scenario 2: It's just a paper.....if a paper can makes u present better then why no? But...do bear in mind, some interviewer might see it as u didn't prepare well....Since it's just papers...u should have brought urself. So....bring some extra papers lo

Scenario 3: I know u should find some info bout the co...but personally i don think asking the company itself is a good idea cause it might sounds like u're trying to look for a shortcut to their information........it doesn't matter whether they will belive u or not when u say u can't find info bout them in other media....the question here is how will they see this act?

N for the strikes,....y can't u amend ur ticket? Is it fully book or wat? If it's not then it's still can be fix.....The strikes is going to happen at ur side or the Company H side?

This post has been edited by eivan120: Jun 13 2006, 01:14 PM

Scenario 1: I agree with what dreamer101 said. Normally, I would tell them I got an interview coming up (if they ever ask) but will not review the name of the company. If they still insist, be polite and say you do not wish to do so.

Scenario 2: It is alright to ask for a piece of paper during interview. The main purpose IS to get the clear message across. However, bring along a few pieces of A4 papers and keep it with your documents. So you could bring it out fast if you ever need on at that instance.

Scenario 3: At times, companies do not want to review their projects much. Therefore, prepare yourself whatever it is neccesary. I wouldn't recommend to ask them before an interview. Besides, interviewer wants to hear a spontaneous answer from interviewee whenever he/she ask a question. It shows how well you are prepared or how fast you could solve a problem.


I think the lecturers are going on strike because of their payroll. It happens almost every year.

This post has been edited by goliath: Jun 13 2006, 12:17 PM

I have a new question here. I was promised to be contacted back within two weeks time by a company (a huge one). After two weeks, the company didn't contact me back so I decided to shoot an email to them and after 1 week, I still didn't receive any reply from them.

What should I do in this case?
1) Continue to wait?
2) Shoot them an email?

Any opinion?

This post has been edited by Geminist: Jul 13 2006, 11:11 PM

Hi Geminist,

Is there someone that you can call?? E-mail is not 100% reliable. Are they suppose to call you??

Dreamer

They are supposed to snail mail and email me. Yes, I have someone I can call which is the director, the HR or one of the team leaders within that division.

If I were to make a phone call, who should it be to? The director or the HR? My preference is with the director is because he was the one who invited me to the interview and he was the one who coordinated the interview.