surprise phone interviews are the worst

A reader writes:

I’ve been job searching for a few months now. I just got a call from HR at an organization I applied to a few weeks ago asking me if they had a few minutes to chat — they wanted to go through the position with me, give me some quick updates on the role, and let me know the salary so they could see if I still wanted to be considered. I told them of course, but I only had 15 minutes before a meeting. They said that was fine.

Cut to: they’re asking me about my background, my current role, my strengths and weaknesses, what I’m looking for in a new role, and why I’m excited about their mission. It became a 25-minute first round interview. Luckily, I was at a computer so I could quickly google their mission (I’d applied long ago and have applied to many places since then, I almost couldn’t remember their exact mission!).

Is this normal? I’ve never had a spur-of-the-moment interview before. And would there have been a polite way to ask if we could reschedule the call? If I had known this was an interview, I would’ve rescheduled so I could’ve been more prepared, but she really made it seem like it would be just five minutes on the phone.

I answer this question over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.

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