Finally, the big day has arrived. You wake up with all the right intentions, get yourself prepared and ready for acing the job interview which you had been longing for. You leave the home just at the right time. But something unfortunate happens and you get stuck in a situation beyond your control and you can see your time is just slipping away. You are most probably getting late for that interview which could’ve landed you a job which you wanted so bad.

What do you now? Get back home because you are already late? Or, take some actions to save your day?

Obviously, the latter option sounds good, right?

Here are few things to do when you are running late for an interview:

1. Give a Call
2. Give an Estimated Time of Arrival
3. Apologize Sincerely
4. Keep your Calm
5. Stay Focused

 

Give a Call

Do not think twice to give a call to your potential employer if your instinct tells you that you are going to be late. Briefly explain the situation where you got stuck and let them know in advance that you might not be able to make it on time.

Give an Estimated Time of Arrival

While you make a call, make sure to give the estimated time of arrival to the employer representative and ask if it still works. In case, the interviewer might not be available as per your ETA, try to reschedule it.

Let them know that you are respectful of their time schedule and are still interested to show up next time to get that job.

Apologize Sincerely

For whatever reasons, arriving late is still a misconduct. It can be given a chance but not totally ignored. Hence, let the interviewer know that you are apologetic for being late by expressing your sincere apology.

However, make sure to keep your apology short. Exaggerating your apology only make you sound like flooding with excuses, untruthful and insincere.

Keep your calm

Certainly, as per the situation demands, you will be all panicked and hustled when you finally make to the interview. However, you need to make sure you do not show yourself to the interviewer in the same state.

Take few moments to take a deep breath and compose yourself. Enter calm and confident when you show up to the interviewer.

Stay Focused

Now you’ve got your calm back, you need to stay focused and give interview as graciously and confidently as possible. Stay focused about why you came here and what you need to take home with you.

All in all, it’s okay to appear late in the interview as long as you have right intention and a genuine reason to be late. However, you have to make sure you handle your late arrival in the interview as graciously as possible by following the above given tips.