Offer interview times candidates can actually pick
Scheduling an interview shouldn't take four emails. How to offer times that work, what to include with an invitation, and how scheduling works in HireDec.
“Would Tuesday work?” “Tuesday’s tough, how about Thursday?” “Thursday morning is full, afternoon?” Every round trip adds a day, and in the meantime the candidate is interviewing elsewhere. Scheduling is where a lot of hiring processes quietly lose time, and sometimes the candidate.
The fix is simple: offer several good options at once, with everything the candidate needs to say yes.
Offer choices, not a single slot
- Offer a few times, spread out. Different days and different times of day. Someone in a job can often only talk early or late.
- Be explicit about time zones. Candidates increasingly interview across borders. Name the time zone, or better, show each time in theirs.
- Keep them available. If you offer a time, hold it until the candidate answers, or say by when you need an answer.
Say what the interview is
A good invitation answers the candidate’s questions before they have to ask:
- how long it takes, and whether it’s a call, a video meeting or on site;
- who they’ll meet, and their roles;
- what it covers, and whether there’s anything to prepare;
- where it happens: the meeting link, or the address.
Candidates who know what’s coming prepare for the right thing, and the conversation is better for both sides.
Confirm quickly, and keep it together
Once a time is picked, confirm it, put it in both calendars and keep the details in one place. When the meeting link lives in one email thread and the agenda in another, someone ends up searching for it five minutes before the call.
How scheduling works in HireDec.
- Request an interview with between one and twelve times, in a slot editor that works in your time zone.
- The candidate sees them in theirs, and choosing a time becomes their next action: Action required · Choose interview time.
- When they pick one, your team is told (“Maya picked Mon, Sep 28 at 10:00”, shown in your time zone) and the interview lands on your calendar and theirs.
- Meeting details stay with the application. The candidate has the details and a Join button on their side; you can edit the meeting details, mark the interview done or cancel it.
- Nothing gets forgotten. Your calendar shows the interviews across all your jobs, and the invitations still waiting for a time.
