How to take time off work for an interview? When to go to interviews and look for a new job, if you are still working Ask for interviews

  • 10.11.2020

It often happens that a candidate continues to work for a current employer while looking for a job, so the question arises, how to go to interviews if you are working?

I'm not going to teach you exactly what to lie when you go to a meeting in another office during the working day. Employees who value their reputation meet with recruiters after work so as not to arouse suspicion or (the last option is the most profitable, this can be done safely during lunch break from any meeting room). If you do not have such an opportunity, then, as they say, "all means are good in war."

However, do not forget that the recruiter who will meet you and conduct the interview may also ask how you manage to attend interviews as a working person. Get ready to answer this question. The recruiter may ask you about this in order to understand how you part with your current employer, how open and honest you are.

And also you should understand that the fact that you are looking for a job behind your back from the employer “does not paint you”.

the most correct and profitable option indicate that the employer is aware of your dissatisfaction (tasks, department, new goals, etc., etc.), so the fact that you are looking for a job will not be like a bolt from the blue for him.

How to come to a job interview if the employer understands that you have started looking for a job and deliberately does not let you go?


Usually a potential employer does not ask a candidate how he manages to attend interviews while working at this time, we are all adults and understand everything. Therefore, you should not raise this issue yourself. If you get a call from work while you are waiting to meet with the HR manager at a new employer, be careful, you may be asked where you are and what you are doing, outright lies, if heard by a new employer, will not contribute to a good impression of you.

How long to come for an interview?

After all, it won’t be possible to come much earlier, time is running out?

  • Notify the HR manager that you are still working, describe the situation (I will be driving from the center at 16.00, maybe + - 10-15 minutes, I will have only an hour “Will we make it?”) in this case, even if you will be late, it will not be critical.
  • Try to plan your time so that meetings fall in the morning or evening, then you will have the opportunity not to break the day and continue to work effectively with your current employer, on the other hand, you will have the opportunity to leave early in the morning and not be late.

Which Interviews Should You Avoid?

Unfortunately, a large number of fraudulent employers makes us more vigilant about who to interview and who not. You should be concerned if:

  • salary has a very large range, for example, 30,000 rubles-250,000 rubles.
  • if you cannot find a company on the Internet; Now every, even the smallest organization, has its own website
  • if you understand that your experience does not match the job description, for example, a programming specialist is invited to the position of "account manager"
  • if your experience is not enough to take the position, for example, you are a specialist with two years of experience in sales, and you are invited to a managerial position.
  • There are obvious contradictions in the job description, for example, “head of customer service without work experience”

In all other cases, go bold: even if you don't get a job, get experience.

The boss has changed, the salary does not cover expenses, there are no prospects for growth - there can be a lot of reasons for dismissal. But the hand still does not rise to take and write a letter of resignation. An uninteresting job, but a more interesting one has not yet been offered. They pay little, but enough to live on. And yet an ordinary position better status unemployed. stay? Not! Quit? Not! Looking for work at work? Yes!

Deal with conscience or necessity?

And eat a fish, and not choke on a bone - this proverb is thrown at those who want to find new job while still employed. The ethics of such a search is still a big question.

“If we talk about how it should be, of course, it seems to me that this is wrong,” says Vadim Ustyuzhanin, development director of the Expert Personnel Center. “Although it all depends on the specific conditions and relationships that have developed between the management and the employee.

It happens that the employer does not fulfill the terms of the contract, the situation in the team is unfavorable. Then thoughts of imminent departure may arise. However, it often happens, as the cat Matroskin said in the cartoon "Winter in Prostokvashino": "We survived. We can say that we found him in the garbage heap, washed him, cleaned him of cleanings, and he draws figs for us!"

That is, if in the first case a person has at least some moral justification for such behavior, in the second case, no matter how hard you try, there is none.”

Meanwhile, the practice of looking for work from work has become increasingly popular in recent years. There are many reasons for "treason" to the employer.

“Situations at work can develop in different ways: sometimes relationships with colleagues fall apart, sometimes you stop speaking the same language with management, and most often there is a justified desire to grow further and higher,” comments Anastasia Tsarik, consultant at Penny Lane Personnel recruiting agency. And not every company can provide this opportunity. Therefore, there is nothing surprising and shameful in the search yet. lost job No".

And yet, the main thing that pushes employees to look at other employers without ending their relationship with the previous one is the desire or need to reduce the risk of losing their job and income.

"Reality Russian market The current labor market is such that looking for a job after quitting is not only dangerous, but also harmful,” says Katerina Lukyanova, Senior Consultant at Consort Group BLM. - After all, often recruiters look with distrust at the fact that the resume already contains the date of dismissal from the last job. "Why did he quit? Characteristic? Or maybe he was fired? So to speak, he was asked to leave his job? Or maybe ..." - and hundreds of different similar formulations involuntarily come to the mind of recruiters.

In addition, according to the expert, the country's economy is now going through a difficult period, companies are cautious personnel policy, thereby significantly tightening competition between applicants.

“The search for a new job can drag on for a month or six months. And each of us has a number of obligations: the maintenance of the family, utility and loan payments, and much more. Hence, it turns out that many candidates start looking for a new job while still being employed. This allows them to more comfortably survive a difficult life stage, avoid severe stress, as well as give yourself the opportunity to choose,” adds Katerina Lukyanova.

Go unnoticed

Reduced risks, wide choice, new opportunities... It seems that finding a job from the office, compared to an honest dismissal to nowhere, consists entirely of advantages. If not for one but...

Such employment requires remarkable abilities from the "defector". Artistry, ingenuity, spy endurance and caution are just a small part of the talents that every renegade must possess. Indeed, in most cases, the employee until the last moment has to hide from the employer his intention to change jobs.

“Of course, if there is such an opportunity, it is better to notify the manager in advance, having discussed the conditions for leaving,” Vadim Ustyuzhanin believes. “Although people are different, and the reaction can vary from understanding and a compromise solution (the manager himself offers new working conditions, so that the need for care will disappear) to instant dismissal.”

“From the point of view of the employer, this is always some kind of betrayal,” says Katerina Lukyanova. “How is it, we give them shelter and bread!” employers are indignant. “And they (employees) look around and are interested in new vacancies on the labor market, instead of bringing us maximum profit!”

Therefore, the option when an employee honestly asks for interviews is, of course, worthy of respect, but in some ways it is tantamount to a letter of resignation. The chances that, having toiled about the interviews, the employee still decides to stay in the company and will work as if nothing had happened, are minimal. In addition, management, having learned about the search, may begin to urgently look for a replacement. And it is not known who will find what they want faster: the company of a new employee or the employee - a new company.

Invisible resume

As a rule, the first stage of a job search is posting a resume. Needless to advise you to post it on work sites from home, and not in working time and even more so with the help of a working computer.

“Today, many offices have installed programs that control the activities of an employee during working hours,” says Vadim Ustyuzhanin. “Therefore, trying to secretly find another job, you can easily suddenly lose the existing one. With bad advice."

“Most employers are now closing access in offices not only to social networks(where, by the way, it is also possible to find a job), but also to job sites, thereby reducing the risk of losing good employees, — continues Katerina Lukyanova. “Therefore, it is better to post a resume from home: there is an opportunity not to be distracted from the process by endless calls and questions from colleagues, to focus on the main thing and avoid annoying mistakes.”

Resumes must be posted privately or under a pseudonym. Fortunately, today almost all job portals provide such services.

Experts also advise when looking for work from work to make your resume as informative as possible. Post a photo, indicate age, salary amount, describe in detail the skills and work experience and requirements for desired position. This will allow at the initial stage to weed out all unwanted employers and to reduce the number of unnecessary meetings to the maximum.

Escape to an interview

Working with a standard 5/2 schedule from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. leaves little room for privacy. It is inconvenient to go to doctors, notaries, government agencies, and even more so interviews! Practice shows that taking time off without arousing suspicion is one of the most difficult moments when looking for work from the office.

Most employers are sure that even if an employee asks for time off once a month, this is a lot. Personal problems cannot always cause sympathy. It follows from this that it is worth responding only to the most tempting vacancies or knowing a few simple tricks on how to run through interviews during working hours.

Arrive late, leave early and have a long lunch

Naturally, the most convenient time to meet with potential employers is during non-working hours. Therefore, try to schedule interviews either in the early morning (before the start of the working day), or in the evening (after work), or at lunchtime.

“Explanation of the morning interview: I’m sorry, I overslept, I need to go to the doctor, get tested, I got stuck in a traffic jam,” advises Katerina Lukyanova. - Meeting at lunch (or rather, instead of lunch) is the most common option. Evening interviews - under any pretext to take off a couple of hours early.

As a “good” reason for leaving work, you can use the advice of users of the Rabota.ru forum:

“Tell me what you need to see a doctor. If asked which one, feel free to answer: "To the gynecologist." Usually they don’t ask more questions and let them go.”

“There is something sacred – children and parents. When you say that you need to leave for their problems, as a rule, they let you go.

“Shortly before the moment when you need to leave, ask one of your friends to imitate an “urgent” call from home - a pipe in the toilet burst, a grandmother fell ill, a cat is giving birth, etc. But only that the call was with witnesses.”

“I propose to “become” a witness to the accident. This is not only an excuse for a sudden absence from work, but also room for further maneuvers. As a witness, you must be summoned to court, and you will also have to appear for an official examination.

Get sick on your own

If your boss only let you go for a couple of hours, and there are several interviews, try scheduling 2-3 meetings for one day, and then feigning sudden food poisoning. Many applicants believe that this The best way get yourself a full time job.

“Early in the morning, call work and say: I got poisoned, I can’t get up. I think everyone will understand that it’s impossible to get to work in such a state,” Seagull, a user of the Rabota.ru forum, advises. - At the same time, do not forget to add: now it will become better - I will run to the pharmacy for pills so that I can be at work tomorrow. This will give you an alibi in case of calls to your home phone, and also make it clear that you can do without sick leave.

There are several definite advantages to this method. First: it is not necessary to look sick before and after. It is enough to talk on the phone in a slightly dying voice. Second: with such symptoms - a stomach ache, vomiting - even the most strict boss will agree that there is no way to go to work. Third, it only takes one day to recover.

If several interviews are scheduled for different days at once, then the well-wisher forum user advises using a sick leave.

“This is done as follows: you go to the clinic and tell the doctor that last night the temperature was 37.8-38.0, and in the morning it was as if you had drunk an effective cold remedy and the symptoms disappeared (but this is probably temporary). You also add that the pressure has dropped - 105 to 65. Usually the doctor listens and writes out a sick leave. True, in the morning the next day you have to take a blood test.

take a vacation

Those who do not mind devoting their holidays to looking for work can have at their disposal at least two weeks of free time. The only thing that is bad about this option is that you will not have to really relax later. At your old job, you spend the entire vacation on interviews, and at a new job, the first vacation is possible only after six months of work.

You can also split the vacation into several parts, take days at your own expense, or even go on vacation without pay. One "but": all these options are possible only by mutual agreement with the employer.

finish line

Congratulations! You went through a series of interviews, passed all the tests with dignity, and you received the desired offer. But do not rush to write a letter of resignation. Experts recommend signing a job offer with a new employer or labor contract with a delayed start date. For example, in two weeks. In this way new company will let you know that she has stopped searching and the vacancy is considered closed. And you already with a feeling of full confidence that you are expected in a new place, write a letter of resignation.

A trip to the hospital. Finding a new job without leaving the old one is fraught with some inconvenience. After all, in order to go to an interview, you will have to find a good reason that would justify the absence from the workplace and not cause unnecessary suspicion. The most common reason for being absent from work is going to the hospital. Asking the authorities for this reason will not cause any particular inconvenience, and you can always come up with some kind of disease, especially since if you leave for a few hours, then draw up sick leave will not be needed. And if one of the colleagues asks about what the doctor said, then you can always get rid of general phrases.

Child. Thinking about how to take time off from work for an interview so that it does not arouse suspicion from colleagues and superiors, you can voice the cause of problems with the child. For example, that he had problems at school and they urgently needed to be resolved. You can also say that the child needs to go to the hospital or he urgently needs to be taken to his grandmother, since he cannot be left at home alone. And to make it more believable, you need to ask for leave on the day when the interview is due, then fewer questions will be asked, since the matter is urgent.

Arrival of relatives. Before you find a job to your liking, you will have to send your resume to many companies and go for an interview more than once. And if you work at the same time and look for a new place at the same time, then you will need to find a rational explanation for your absence, and this reason may be the arrival of relatives who must be met, because they do not know the city. However, you should take a few days off so that this does not arouse suspicion, you will also have to tell your colleagues a little about who arrived and what gifts they brought, so that everything looks more authentic.

Registration of documents. When asked how not to go to work, bloggers advise telling the authorities that you need to draw up some documents, for example, for a house, a car. As a rule, the director will not delve into the essence of the problem too much, and will give his permission to leave. True, upon arrival from the interview, you will need to complain to colleagues about the boorish attitude of one or another state employee. the authority in which the document was drawn up, so the story will look more believable, and no one will doubt its authenticity.

Family problems. When wondering how to find a job at home, so as not to arouse the wrath of the authorities because you have to go to interviews, you should take time off from the director due to unexpected family problems. Moreover, it is not necessary to go into details, since most managers are not interested in the personal lives of their employees, as this is unethical. Of course, there are many reasons to take time off from work and go to an interview, but you should not do this too often, as this will look very suspicious and suggest that the employee is just looking for a new job.

Question from Andrew: old work not satisfied. I want to find a new one. But there's a problem. If you work 5 days a week, full time, when do you go to interviews and look for a new job?»

Yes, full-time employment has its drawbacks when looking for a new job.

The most difficult thing is to explain to the employer the reason for your departure during working hours and keep your search for a new job secret for the time being. I understand that it will not be possible to keep it a secret for a long time ... But we are all trying to do this - to keep a secret until the last.

Usually those who started serious search work and set out to resolve this issue in a short time, they are trying to get out. They find compromise options. They negotiate with someone, they change with someone, they are delayed after work. There may be many options. The main thing is to want to find them.

Usually, if you are looking for a job and, in principle, are a good specialist, many recruiting agencies shift the work schedule of their employees in order to be able to interview just such candidates. Reputable agencies that are engaged in exclusive recruitment, the so-called headhunters, make appointments with candidates either during breaks or after work.

As for interviews already directly in the company, I think it’s possible to get out and figure out how you can leave work for 1-2 hours.

In order not to drive like a stunned hare through all the interviews in a row and not to ask for empty interviews every day, my advice about the specificity of your expectations will come in handy.

It is at this point that you already need to understand what kind of vacancy you are applying for. Then you can easily decide for yourself the problem of whether you should go to this particular interview. You will know how to properly prepare for an interview, what questions to ask at the agency, at the company that invites you for an interview.

Your certainty in your job search will help you minimize the hassle of interviews. You will have the opportunity to go to 1-2, maximum 3, interviews and get a good job.

Remember, you may be called for many interviews. Someone will just want to get acquainted, someone will hope to persuade you to another job, someone will simply call for mass character. The choice is yours - whether to go wherever they are called, or only where you want.

Another skill that will come in handy in this case, learn how to ask the right questions over the phone when you are invited for an interview. Already at this stage, you can easily “weed out” companies that obviously do not suit you. And that means less time off from work.

This skill is very valuable. The ability to ask the right questions will always come in handy. You will know exactly WHAT you agree to and WHAT you are offered by asking questions.

And this skill will save you a lot of time looking for a job, nerves and even your money. But the chances of finding a great new job will greatly increase.

Alla Kasatkina

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Going to an interview, you never know for sure what you will face.

Sometimes 10 minutes is enough to understand that this job is not for you. But you don’t want to leave, because people are polite, communication is pleasant, and you think that contacts will be useful in any case. So you sit, chat, answer questions and sometimes smile.

It happens differently: when after 10 minutes it is clear that there is no point in staying. In this case, it is wise to get up and leave so as not to waste time. Since there will be no sense from the interview anyway.

In what cases can you say “Goodbye!” to the employer? and leave the meeting place?

1) You are given a cold welcome

The receptionist says, “You know, there's no one there. I’ll try to find our HR now… If no one arrives in 15 minutes, you will have to come another time.”

Nice business. You've got an appointment, right? This means that the person responsible for the interview must be in place. If he had a force majeure, he should have warned you. If you didn’t warn, or they forgot about you at all, this is a bad sign. This means that the organization of work in this company is not built as it should be, that irresponsible employees meet here, and the company does not care what impression it makes on potential employees.

"Goodbye".

2) The interlocutor behaves rudely

“Wow, how much you managed in the last year! What is it, all of you?! Probably, you only gave instructions to your subordinates, but you attribute all the merits to yourself.

Such a strange manner of communication is most likely a sign of a stressful interview, when you are deliberately unsettled in order to see who you really are, without embellishment.

The employer has the right to arrange a stress interview, and you can pass it if you try. The question is different. If the employer in the very first meeting plunges you into a state of discomfort, anxiety, self-doubt - how can you be sure that this will not happen again and again if you get a job? Consider whether the game is worth the candle. If you do not want to work in conditions of high alert all the time - "Goodbye."

3) During a conversation, you cannot insert a word

It is not clear why the employer invited you - it looks like you were there as a listener. The employer talks about wonderful projects and prospects, asks questions and answers them himself, pours and pours information, as if from a cornucopia, and you once again try to insert a question or a remark - unsuccessfully.

The employer, obviously, is not interested in the applicant. He will choose the applicant for the position “mechanically”: someone will fit more in terms of work experience and skills than others, and they will make an offer to him. Or the employer will be based on personal sympathies: whoever likes it more will be offered a job.

Do you want the employer's sympathies and moods to play a decisive role in your work? Instead of a professional assessment by objective criteria. You do not want?

"Goodbye".

4) The office is ugly

That is, untidy, untidy; the shelves are covered with dust, there are crumbs on the bedside tables, there is a mess on some tables, the window sills are littered with papers.

If an employer cannot clean up the premises in which he and his employees work, how does he manage to put things in order? Most likely bad. Therefore - "Goodbye."

5) You just really want to get up and leave

You yourself don't know why. It's just that you are uncomfortable here, uncomfortable - in a word, bad. It’s hard for you to even breathe here, and it seems that your head hurts. You automatically answer questions and think only about how to end the interview as soon as possible.

Perhaps your psyche reacts this way to some irritants: noise, stuffiness, unusual fuss, verbosity of the interlocutor, etc. Of course, maybe you will work in a different room and among other people who will not cause such a reaction. Then it's worth continuing the conversation. But if this is a small company, and the interview takes place in the same room where you would have to work, you should say "Goodbye."

It happens that relationships with work are built on the principle of “be patient - fall in love”, but how much time of your life will you spend to “endure”? And is it necessary. There are other employers, and other offers. Find the best.

5 situations in which you need to get up and leave (from an interview) was last modified: June 9th, 2017 by Elena Nabatchikova