Ask HN: Should I cancel my interview?
I have an interview with a company where I would very much like to work. I was planning on taking a month or two to prepare (while having a full time job), but a recruiter happened to contact me before I started prep. I scheduled the interview out two weeks, but I do not feel well prepared. There are algorithms and design sessions during this interview.
If I pass the interview, I feel it will be by sheer luck. (getting problems I'm familiar with)
This is a medium to large sized start-up.
If I go through with the interview and do poorly, I have no way of knowing when or if I would be given the chance again.
I don't believe another week of prep would have me in a much better position, so postponing probably wouldn't help that much.
If I cancel the interview entirely, I'm not sure how that will come across and if I will be able to try again at another point.
Today is Friday, the interview is this coming Tuesday.
Long time lurker. Happy to receive feedback from the community.
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13 comments
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The big risk is that the position might not be open in a month or two. That said, fast-growing startups and large startups often have evergreen positions, so that might be a small risk rather than a big one.
My advice: tell the recruiter straight up that you're interested but that for several reasons you won't be available to interview until October. You don't need to go into those reasons.
If the organization you're looking to join is minimally humane, they'll be open to giving you another chance later down the line. In the event of a rejection, ask whoever's communicating with you for feedback, and mention that you'd like to try again later.
Worst case scenario, it doesn't work out and you discover that this organization is not willing to help people grow and give them a second chance, which could be a sign of other cultural problems below the surface, and you dodge a bullet in the process.
Best case scenario, you're in.
The middle ground is that you know you can prepare a bit more and try again later.
I feel like there's little downside to doing right away. I'd say do it.
I would learn the maximum I can before the interview on Tuesday and hope for the best.
The only downside is that if you were planning to interview for a specific team, they might have no more spots by that time. But every time it came up, the recruiters assured me it wont be an issue and that there will be a team for me, even if it wasn’t that specific one. And for those where you just apply for a general position and get team-matched later (like in most cases with google or fb), this wont even come up at any point.
In fact, the recruiters themselves mentioned to me many times (when i entered those interview processes) to take my time with preparing and schedule for whenever i feel comfortable, explicitly stating not to rush, because they want to see you perform at your best, not to see how quickly you can cram the material. And they didnt bluff or just tried to be nice. Same with rescheduling, unless you do it like the night before (which would still be fine, but imo it is inconsiderate to the recruiter, barring some emergency or unexpected situations).
Wish I had known I could do this the first time I interviewed for big tech.
Done