Should I Ask For an Interview?

Dear Evil HR Lady, I'm doing an out of town job search and the recruiter from one of my target companies finally called me to schedule an interview. I am paying for my own plane ticket to get to the interview. This is a large hospital so they have applicant tracking software that allows you to see what you status is.. (not qualified, under review, referred to hiring manager, etc). I have several positions that have been "referred to hiring manager" but no interviews have been scheduled. Would it be bad form to ask the recruiter to inquire with said managers as to whether or not they might be interested in interviewing me while I am in town? I don't want to screw this up, but it would be nice if I could meet with more than one department while I am there. If I have one message to people out there, it's that no one cares about your career like you do. Usually, I don't recommend asking recruiters to set up interviews for you. After all, they know you want an interview--that's why you applied. (Well, in reality you don't want an interview, you just want them to give you a job, but an interview is usually a necessary evil.) But, in a situation like this, you need to speak up.

If you've applied for multiple positions within a large company it's quite possible that you are dealing with multiple recruiters. Fancy software doesn't necessarily mean that there is true communication going on. Even if the message is in the computer, it doesn't mean that recruiter A is looking to see if any other recruiters are bringing in their candidates for interviews.

The fact that you are paying to get yourself to the interview also plays into it. It would be nice if you had unlimited funds, but if you had that you probably wouldn't be applying for multiple positions. Plus, the reality is that the fact that you have one job interview makes you more desirable to other people.

So, go ahead and e-mail or call the recruiters your working with and say, "I'm going to be in your town on Friday, July 30, and I'll be available in the afternoon. I was wondering if I could set up an interview on that date?" This is absolutely acceptable behavior.

Photo by Alex France, Flickr cc 2.0