Interview: Lost Opportunity becauase Out of Town

I do not know if there is a way to actually remove your resume from the market when you are not proactively searching. But on rare occasions, I do get an opportunity that is of interest. The latest one was basically for the same job but higher salary, so I went along with it.

I had a phone interview and thought I did decently well. I was a little concerned because we did not get very technical. Since a headhunter had found this position, I had to wait for the interviewer to speak with the headhunter. I guess technically he would be consulting agency looking to hire me for their client... but they are still basically headhunters providing a service layer for the client.

I heard back in two weeks from the headhunter that his client wanted to bring me in for an on-site interview. Unfortunately, I am out of town for a while working on a project for another few weeks. I had explained this situation to him and the client during the phone interview. One of the questions I had asked the interviewer was how quickly they plan to fill the position. His reply was that they would like to fill it quickly but will take their time to make sure they have the right person.

As an alternate solution, I offered a video conference but the headhunter rejected that idea. So, I guess I am just out-of-luck on that opportunity. It actually did sound interesting and I had intent to consider their offer.

Another practice that I do not fully understand is expectations to have an on-site interview the next day. I am not sure how they expecting those working to be able to do that. I would think that you want to find the best candidates, but it seems that is not the case.

Even if I was in town, I would not have scheduled time off. I may request for time off possibly the following week if my work was light and not critical. I believe that I should at least give 2 weeks of notice. Also, anything less than a week gives me the impression that they are in a rush to just fill a position. Then, it is not one that I want to leave my current employment for. From my experience, these types of hires rarely consider your future within the company. If the interviewer had answered that they planned to fill the position in two weeks, I would have politely declined earlier and saved us both time.