Heat map - hottest and coldest interview slots

Sometimes, no matter how good someone is, how well prepared they are, it just comes down to the luck of the draw. 

We looked back at nearly 3,000 legal sector job interviews that took place over the last 12 months and found out which days and times were generating the most positive outcomes.         

The results were staggering. Some interview slots are so cold candidates and hirers would be better off swerving them altogether. 

Monday is the worst possible day to interview, generating just 15% of all job offers compared to Friday which produces 23% of all positive outcomes.

The odds are really stacked against you if you try to squeeze an interview in before work. You can plough through as many espressos as you like but only 2% of job offers come from interviewing in the before 9.00am slot.

Mid-afternoon are warm enough accounting for 34% of all job offers but opt for the red hot mid-morning slot if you can which is responsible for 47% of all successful outcomes.

Worst day and time for hirers and candidates to interview? Well that’s shared by the Thursday and Friday before work slots which are quite frankly Arctic when it comes to generating results.

And the best? Friday mid-morning and Thursday mid-morning which produced 11 and 10% of all job offers respectively.

What can we conclude from this? Well, if you are a Solicitor, lawyer or other legal professional who has made it on to the shortlist and you are serious about a career move then you really should be taking time off from your current role to interview. If you have instructed a legal recruitment consultant to act for you then ask them to manage your diary and to bag the best slots on your behalf. Hirers, create the environments that will bring the best out of your candidates and your interview team. Interviewing before or after work may leave more time for the day job but it’s a false economy if the interviewee and/or interviewer are not on their A game.

Douglas Scott are multi-award winning legal recruitment experts, working with hirers and legal professionals who value excellence in service delivery and efficiency in recruitment process.               

Get a flavour of what we do by browsing a selection of our latest legal jobs. Contact us for a thorough overview of the legal recruitment market and advice on the best next step in your legal career.