Cancelled flight for callback interview scenario Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm sitting here at the airport waiting for my flight to DC. Flight was initially for 7:50 pm, but then got delayed until 9:40 pm. The new estimated departure time is 10:30 pm.

Anyway, what exactly do you do if your flight gets cancelled? My callback is at 10 am and so, I guess if the airline can rebook me for a flight at the crack of dawn, I might make it just in time. However, if they can't, is there some protocol I need to follow to avoid appearing completely incompetent? Are firms usually pretty cool about rescheduling?

[bk1]

I'm sitting here at the airport waiting for my flight to DC. Flight was initially for 7:50 pm, but then got delayed until 9:40 pm. The new estimated departure time is 10:30 pm.

Anyway, what exactly do you do if your flight gets cancelled? My callback is at 10 am and so, I guess if the airline can rebook me for a flight at the crack of dawn, I might make it just in time. However, if they can't, is there some protocol I need to follow to avoid appearing completely incompetent? Are firms usually pretty cool about rescheduling?

Email your recruiting contact at the firm right now and tell them the situation.

[lolwat]

E-mail & call to leave a voicemail IMO. Redundant but it will make sure they get the message.

I think they will understand but I don't know what they can do about it because scheduling attorneys for interviews isn't always the easiest thing ever. I would still do everything I can to get there in time. I had a clerkship interview once, the flight got cancelled and I told the airline to go fuck themselves, carpooled with a couple other guys and drove like 10 hours to get there by morning. It sucked, but I got there in time, and it made for an interesting answer to "SO HOW WAS YOUR FLIGHT? "

[skw]

I'm sitting here at the airport waiting for my flight to DC. Flight was initially for 7:50 pm, but then got delayed until 9:40 pm. The new estimated departure time is 10:30 pm.

Anyway, what exactly do you do if your flight gets cancelled? My callback is at 10 am and so, I guess if the airline can rebook me for a flight at the crack of dawn, I might make it just in time. However, if they can't, is there some protocol I need to follow to avoid appearing completely incompetent? Are firms usually pretty cool about rescheduling?

Email your recruiting contact at the firm right now and tell them the situation.

I would not email anyone unless you are unable to make it tonight. If your flight is cancelled, you are almost certain to be rebooked for tomorrow early and still make the interview. If you are cancelled tonight, email the contact with whatever the rebook plan from the airline is. The firm will understand this is not your fault and it won't be a big deal. I don't think emailing your recruiting contact before you actually know the situation is helpful and could possibly reflect poorly on you if you end up flying out tonight but are just delayed.

[Anonymous User]

I'm sitting here at the airport waiting for my flight to DC. Flight was initially for 7:50 pm, but then got delayed until 9:40 pm. The new estimated departure time is 10:30 pm.

Anyway, what exactly do you do if your flight gets cancelled? My callback is at 10 am and so, I guess if the airline can rebook me for a flight at the crack of dawn, I might make it just in time. However, if they can't, is there some protocol I need to follow to avoid appearing completely incompetent? Are firms usually pretty cool about rescheduling?

Email your recruiting contact at the firm right now and tell them the situation.

TCR. I was in a similar but worse situation recently (the flight was the morning of an afternoon CB) and I must have emailed the recruiter about 4 different ETAs. She seemed to appreciate me keeping her updated. But don't send them 50 emails. Send a short one right now saying that you might not make it due to weather related delays and that you will update them if anything changes. Send a second one when you are certain that you will make it, or that you wont (in this case call ASAP to reschedule).

I suspect you are flying out of the same airport I did because it suddenly started pouring here about an hour ago.

[Anonymous User]

I'm sitting here at the airport waiting for my flight to DC. Flight was initially for 7:50 pm, but then got delayed until 9:40 pm. The new estimated departure time is 10:30 pm.

Anyway, what exactly do you do if your flight gets cancelled? My callback is at 10 am and so, I guess if the airline can rebook me for a flight at the crack of dawn, I might make it just in time. However, if they can't, is there some protocol I need to follow to avoid appearing completely incompetent? Are firms usually pretty cool about rescheduling?

Email your recruiting contact at the firm right now and tell them the situation.

I would not email anyone unless you are unable to make it tonight. If your flight is cancelled, you are almost certain to be rebooked for tomorrow early and still make the interview. If you are cancelled tonight, email the contact with whatever the rebook plan from the airline is. The firm will understand this is not your fault and it won't be a big deal. I don't think emailing your recruiting contact before you actually know the situation is helpful and could possibly reflect poorly on you if you end up flying out tonight but are just delayed.

email your recruiter - communication is the key always. there's no way an email or phone call would reflect poorly on you.

[skw]

I'm sitting here at the airport waiting for my flight to DC. Flight was initially for 7:50 pm, but then got delayed until 9:40 pm. The new estimated departure time is 10:30 pm.

Anyway, what exactly do you do if your flight gets cancelled? My callback is at 10 am and so, I guess if the airline can rebook me for a flight at the crack of dawn, I might make it just in time. However, if they can't, is there some protocol I need to follow to avoid appearing completely incompetent? Are firms usually pretty cool about rescheduling?

Email your recruiting contact at the firm right now and tell them the situation.

I would not email anyone unless you are unable to make it tonight. If your flight is cancelled, you are almost certain to be rebooked for tomorrow early and still make the interview. If you are cancelled tonight, email the contact with whatever the rebook plan from the airline is. The firm will understand this is not your fault and it won't be a big deal. I don't think emailing your recruiting contact before you actually know the situation is helpful and could possibly reflect poorly on you if you end up flying out tonight but are just delayed.

email your recruiter - communication is the key always. there's no way an email or phone call would reflect poorly on you.

I disagree with this. I traveled extensively for 12 years for business. Attorneys and recruiters travel all the time. Anyone who travels is going to think it is a little odd for someone to notify them of a flight delay if it does not impact any meetings. An email late at night to inform someone your flight is delayed a couple of hours shows a lack of maturity. Flight delays happen and are not urgent (or even important if you make it to where you're going on time for whatever is scheduled). In this situation, if the flight actually left last night, there was no reason whatsoever to email the recruiter. If the flight did not leave, of course contacting the recruiter at that point makes sense. The more maturity you show in these types of situations, the better.

[NYstate]

I disagree with this. I traveled extensively for 12 years for business. Attorneys and recruiters travel all the time. Anyone who travels is going to think it is a little odd for someone to notify them of a flight delay if it does not impact any meetings. An email late at night to inform someone your flight is delayed a couple of hours shows a lack of maturity. Flight delays happen and are not urgent (or even important if you make it to where you're going on time for whatever is scheduled). In this situation, if the flight actually left last night, there was no reason whatsoever to email the recruiter. If the flight did not leave, of course contacting the recruiter at that point makes sense. The more maturity you show in these types of situations, the better.[/quote]

This might make sense if you are in a business with lots of travel. When trying to get a job, staying in communication is important. A short email gives them a heads up that you might not be in until later the next day. Because of the way interviews are scheduled it is better to let them know there might be an issue - so they can deal with it first thing in the morning if they need to do so.

[skw]

I think you are missing the point. It would still have been possible to let the recruiter know last night if there was an actual issue (which would only have occurred if the flight was cancelled). No cancellation = no reason to update the recruiter. The only thing contacting the recruiter to inform him or her of a delay which did not actually impact the candidate's arrival the night before would accomplish is to illustrate that the candidate is very anxious (probably assumed) and the candidate has little to no travel/business experience (possibly assumed, but not good to confirm). I don't think it is a huge deal either way since the recruiter is ultimately not making the decision, but the recruiter's overall impression of maturity could possibly weigh in if he or she is consulted.

[bk1]

This is all moot for OP now, but this is my thought process:

You're not informing the recruiter to tell them that there is a delay, you're informing them that there's now a chance you may not make it on time tomorrow. "Dear recruiter, I am emailing to let you know that my flight has been delayed multiple times tonight and there is a chance that it might be cancelled. If it is cancelled I will let you know and try to get rebooked on a flight tomorrow morning to make it in time for the 10am interview. I will let you know if there is any change in my situation." I don't think that conveys anxiety or lack of travel experience. That said, I can see how OP informing them if/when the flight is cancelled (presumably that would happen sometime around 12am-2am) wouldn't really make that much of a difference since it's already way after work hours and the recruiter likely won't get it till they wake up the next day and even if they got it earlier they wouldn't be able to inform the interviewing attorneys till the next day anyways.

[Anonymous User]

I wonder if the OP made it by 10AM. Any word?

[skw]

I wonder if the OP made it by 10AM. Any word?

No word so far, but I hope so. Delays suck, but if he/she got there time for the interview, that would be excellent. If not, I hope the firm was able to work it out to accommodate. Hopefully we'll hear something and the interview was excellent despite the travel anxiety.

[Anonymous User]

Which DC firm OP?