Help! Am SO sick. How big of a faux pa to re-schedule interview???

[CatLady4Lyfe]

I've been sick for a week now - so miserable that I had to miss 3 days of work last week. I've been to the doctor and am on medications, but definitely not better. I have a Skype interview Monday morning at 8 am...If I were to do the interview in today's condition (assuming I don't get any worse) I would absolutely bomb it. Trying to prepare for just an hour today completely wiped me out.

The other alternative is to cancel at the last minute. Even if I were to send an email to the professor tomorrow morning explaining the situation it's likely she wouldn't see it until Monday morning when she is expecting to meet with me.

Please help! Ideas on how to handle this???

[Applicant 1746]

Sorry to hear you're ill!

This is what I'd do in your situation: I'd e-mail her right away to give as much notice as possible (she may not check e-mail until Monday, as you said, but many faculty do check e-mail over the weekend and if she does, the more notice she has, the better). I'd say that you've been very sick and that, while you understand rescheduling may be impossible because of the relatively short notice, you would appreciate the opportunity to reschedule (and offer a few days/times that you think you'd be feeling better by and available to talk). Unless you're completely unwilling to talk on Monday, I would say that you would still be able to talk then if it's impossible to reschedule. (Assuming she gets the e-mail in time, I would bet that she'd be willing to accommodate you, and saying that you'd still be willing to talk at the designated time if rescheduling is impossible seems to make a better impression than informing someone that you won't be attending or online for a meeting.) 

These things happen, and if she's the kind of person who would make for an understanding adviser, she would be understanding now. Hope this helps, and hope you feel better soon!

[CatLady4Lyfe]

Gosh, I am still so torn. I just left the doctor's office and I have bronchitis : /  They did prescribe steroids, which will provide some quick relief, but for the most part it is going to take a few days before I'm back to myself. I know what you're saying is logical...but part of me sees this going horribly wrong. Thank you for your input!

[MarineBluePsy]

I'm not sure how this could go horribly wrong.  People get sick and you can produce a doctors note verifying your condition if need be.  I've had bronchitis and it was miserable since it hurt to breath and move.  I couldn't just tough out anything, but laid around trying not to cough to death and the medicine they gave me did no good.  The best case scenario is the professor reschedules your interview.  If they won't then you'll just have to hope for the best, but do you really want to spend the next several years working for someone who isn't understanding when someone is legitimately ill?

[CatLady4Lyfe]

I hear you, and that's a pretty accurate description of how I've been feeling the past few days, also. It's that "hope for the best" part I don't have a ton of confidence in. The good news is that my boss has already told me to call in tomorrow, so I will prep as much as possible today and just have to pull it together for about an hour tomorrow morning (it's a Skype interview) and then can sleep the rest of the day. I will mention to the PI that I have bronchitis, though. Just in case.

[fuzzylogician]

15 hours ago, Applicant 1746 said:

Sorry to hear you're ill!

This is what I'd do in your situation: I'd e-mail her right away to give as much notice as possible (she may not check e-mail until Monday, as you said, but many faculty do check e-mail over the weekend and if she does, the more notice she has, the better). I'd say that you've been very sick and that, while you understand rescheduling may be impossible because of the relatively short notice, you would appreciate the opportunity to reschedule (and offer a few days/times that you think you'd be feeling better by and available to talk). Unless you're completely unwilling to talk on Monday, I would say that you would still be able to talk then if it's impossible to reschedule. (Assuming she gets the e-mail in time, I would bet that she'd be willing to accommodate you, and saying that you'd still be willing to talk at the designated time if rescheduling is impossible seems to make a better impression than informing someone that you won't be attending or online for a meeting.) 

These things happen, and if she's the kind of person who would make for an understanding adviser, she would be understanding now. Hope this helps, and hope you feel better soon!

This. I am not seeing why you feel the need to "tough it out." Professors are people too, you know. They get sick and they understand you might not be at your best when you have bronchitis. What would you possibly lose by emailing NOW to say you're sick and ask if the interview could be rescheduled for a later time in the week? Some professors check their email over the weekend so you might be able to resolve this this evening. If not, be ready tomorrow at 8am in case the interview can't be rescheduled, and do your best. 

As a side note, if you were a potential student who wanted to work with me, I'd be a whole lot more concerned about the fact that you think you need to lie to me and pretend everything is great when it's really not than that you got sick. Everyone faces setbacks (and in particular, everyone gets sick from time to time!), and what separates successful people from less successful ones is how they deal with them. You need to be able to admit you have a problem to get the help you need. People who pretend everything is just peachy when in fact they are drowning often have a tendency to get so bogged down it becomes so much harder (if not impossible) to help them, but if they'd just reached out when the problem first arose it would have been so much easier. So, if you pretend things are good now, why should I trust you not to do it in the future? I'd think twice about taking you on as a student, if it were me. Just my $.02.