What is The Best Time of Day to Interview?

Timing is everything when it comes to applying for jobs, making network connections and even having a job interview. Getting an interview is reason enough to celebrate your hard work, but knowing one minor detail about your face-to-face time might increase your chances of landing a job. Know what time to have your interview so you optimize the event.

Days of the Week

Fridays, especially when they occur before a three-day weekend or holiday, may not be the best time for a job interview. Because some staffers may treat Friday as a goof-off day, they might not take your interview as seriously as you would like. However, the Tuesday after a long weekend might work to your advantage. A survey of 70,000 companies reveals Tuesdays are busy days for HR.

Around 20 percent of the companies surveyed reported they post jobs on Tuesday, while 18.5 percent of candidates apply for positions on Tuesday. Hiring happens on a Tuesday 21.5 percent of the time, and Thursday comes in a close second at 20 percent. In light of this, try to schedule your job interview sometime on a Tuesday or Thursday.

Even on non-holiday weeks, Mondays and Fridays are not advisable for a job interview. Mondays are catch-up days from work not done the previous week, and Fridays may have the fatigue factor of a long workweek.

Time of Day

Timing is everything within a workday as well. Early afternoon on a Tuesday is the optimal time for a job interview. Try to schedule your appointment far enough away from lunch, but not right after the interviewer's lunch break. Consider 1:30 p.m. or 2:00 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon. If you already scheduled your interview for another time, try to reschedule for this ideal spot.

Several reasons make early Tuesday afternoon the best time. A concept called narrow bracketing comes into play. An early interview, such as one on Tuesday, may set the bar higher for other candidates later in the week if the interviewee does really well. This is because, on a subconscious level, interviewers are hesitant to give subsequent candidates a high rating when they give a high mark to an earlier interviewee.

Early morning interviews aren't the best, because the hiring manager probably just arrived at work and may still go through the morning routine. If you don't have a morning person in front of you, the HR manager might not be at his best until the coffee kicks in later in the day.

Lunch time doesn't do well, either. An interview just before lunch might mean your interviewers are thinking about their stomachs rather than your face time. If you schedule for just after lunch, an inattentive waitress at a restaurant might cause the hiring manager to arrive late, or traffic during lunch rush hour might make you tardy to your appointment.

Try to narrow down a time for your job interview as soon as possible before someone else takes your spot. Aim for as close to early Tuesday afternoon as possible — so long as HR's schedule allows — for your best chances of success.

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