Job interviews are full of curveballs, assessing a candidate with tricky questions or how one sits or sips water. However, in this one interview, the issue was that the candidate showed up 25 minutes early.
Yes, you read it right: the candidate arrived early.
In a viral LinkedIn post, Matthew Prewett, an Atlanta cleaning service owner, shared that he didn't hire a candidate because he showed up “significantly early” for the job interview.
“I had a candidate show up 25 minutes early to an interview for an office administrator position last week. That was a major deciding factor in why I didn't hire him,” he wrote in the viral post.
However, Matthew clarified that being early is not an issue, but “showing up extremely early” can be viewed as a “negative” because it suggests poor time management or even worse – that the person expects to be “accommodated time-wise”.
“Here is why I saw this as a negative. Showing up early is good. Showing up extremely early can suggest that someone is not good with time management or that they expect to be accommodated time-wise,” he said.
Sharing the case of the candidate he rejected for being too early, Matthew said in the viral post that the man “showed up as if he was on time” – He “didn't make any comment about being early”.
Matthew explained that he had scheduled his day to be available about ten minutes before the job interview, and the candidate knew that the company had a small office.
“I was doing double duty as receptionist so him being early meant that I had to leave my office door open and have an entire phone call with him listening in. It was not something explicitly private or I would have asked him to come back at his scheduled time,” he said, adding that the candidate's presence made him “feel rushed”.
In his detailed LinkedIn post, Matthew said the man showing up early “demonstrated a lack of social awareness and a lack of proper time management as he was not coming from a great distance.”
He also said that if candidates look this up on interview advice sites, they will see that most suggest showing up five to fifteen minutes early and “advise against showing up significantly earlier”.
Here's how netizens reacted to the viral post:
Netizens were not thrilled about Matthew Prewett's assessment and said the “candidate dodged a bullet”.
“Absolutely not. What a ridiculous assessment,” a user said.
“Make them comfortable. Show them where the restrooms are, offer water or coffee, and maybe provide some of the company's marketing material or industry magazines to read while they wait,” another user suggested.
“Good candidates will err on the side of caution when planning their route - never know if a traffic accident or other unplanned event would otherwise make them late,” they added.
“Sounds like the candidate dodged a bullet here. Hope he sees this,” a user quipped.
“Wait, what!? You didn't hire them due to this? First off, this applicant showed up! Secondly, its great that they were early, it shows they care about being on-time. Lastly 25 minute's isn't even considered ‘too early’,” said another user.