Little can jolt you when you\u2019ve worked as a recruiter for a while, but candidates who fail to show up for an interview will always haunt me. I had my first introduction to the quintessential interview no-show nearly three years ago on a gloomy day in October, the kind where rain \u2014 and everything in its course \u2014 falls frightfully askew.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe never showed up<\/em>,\u201d said the voice on the phone.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u201d I said, nervously shelling my hand over my neck. My palms were getting clammier by the second. \u201cThat\u2019s impossible. I just confirmed with her this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n This couldn\u2019t be happening. My first week on the job with our biggest \u2014 not to mention most profitable \u2014 client and I was already batting 0 for 1.<\/p>\n \u201cI, uh \u2026 er \u2026 let me call her quickly. This is so strange. You know, I\u2019ll bet she\u2019s just stuck in traffic!\u201d<\/p>\n I nervously dialed Jess, the graphic designer-turned-animator with a side of web development skill (or what we in the biz like to refer to as a Purple Unicorn), praying she would throw me a bone. I hopelessly clung to the idea that she had been hijacked by pirates on the highway or was running late because she was saving a drowning fawn from a sewage drain, or \u2026 \u201cOh!\u201d I realized, perhaps she had made it to the building but got stuck in the elevator on the 22nd floor sans cell service! Surely the hiring manager, who had already passed on 37 other interactive design candidates, would understand.<\/p>\n \u201cHey!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHi, Jess? This is Amanda from Creative Circle. Is everything all right?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, sure. Why?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe had an interview scheduled for you today at 1 p.m. with Christopher. The one you and I confirmed this morning. Remember \u2026 this morning?\u201d my passive aggressive, and somewhat confused, articulation now bearing a soft nod to Kristen Wiig.<\/p>\n \u201cOh right, yeah, I thought I emailed you. Sorry. I thought about it, and I just have too many other opportunities right now, so I think I\u2019m gonna pass.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n My arms started to feel like overstuffed sausages while beads of failure-infused sweat trickled down my back. No. No. No.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, um, but \u2026 the client \u2026,\u201d I panicked.<\/p>\n \u201cSorry, just not something I\u2019m interested in right now. I\u2019ll let you know when I\u2019m looking again!\u201d Jess chirped as she hung up the phone.<\/p>\n Cue the cacophony of strings. I was in the hot seat now. Not only did this very particular client deliberately change his flight to Boston to meet with the candidate on this doomed and gloomed day, but he had followed up with me not once, not twice, but three times in the past week to confirm that a formal, in-person interview was indeed a sure thing. No matter how you spin it, it was my neck on the line.<\/p>\n It\u2019s that dreaded phone call \u2014 or worse, email \u2014 that every recruiter encounters during their career, and gut-wrenching conversation to follow with an important client to let them know you have disrupted their calendars for nothing.<\/p>\n But looking back on that panic-ridden scare, there were Scorsese-red flags all over my previous conversations with Jess about this opportunity: her unwillingness to get on the phone during our communication cycle and her lack of questions or curiosity about the role, to name a couple. When it came down to it, we were both to blame, weren\u2019t we? She, for her lack of transparency, and I, for not paying attention to what she was really saying over our many email conversations about the role, otherwise known as an important part of my job. But that doesn\u2019t mean it would be the last of \u2019em. Much like the zombies in the apocalypse, the interview no-shows never really die.<\/p>\n Here are a few excuses I\u2019ve personally encountered since then that have sent me into a tailspin, howling at the moon:<\/p>\n