Interview panel scheduling

The instinct is to ask the candidate when they are free, because they are the guest. It backfires: you get three slots, none of which all four panellists can make, and you go back to them. Two rounds of that and a week has gone.

Poll the panel across a week of slots, find the two or three that clear, and offer the candidate a real choice. It is faster and it reads as far more organised.

• Offer specific slots, not days - an interview is an hour, and the hour is the whole question.
• Turn maybe off. A panellist who might be there is a panellist you cannot schedule around.
• Keep the poll title anonymous, since the link may be forwarded and hiring is confidential.
• Include the fallback panellist, so you know early whether you have cover.
• Give the panel one working day to answer. Hiring moves faster than that.

Do not put the candidate's name in the poll. Poll pages are never indexed and send no referer, but the link is shareable by anyone who has it, so treat the title as something that could be seen. "Interview panel, senior engineer" is enough.

Can I use one poll for several candidates?

Better to run one per interview. The panel's answers are cheap to collect again and the confusion is not.

Can I propose specific times rather than dates?

Yes. Each option can carry a time, so a week of hourly slots works.

Does the candidate see the poll?

Only if you send it to them. The usual pattern is to poll the panel and then offer the candidate the slots that cleared.

Poll the panel → Free, and nobody needs an account.

• Team offsite scheduling
• Client meeting scheduling
• Workshop date poll
• Scheduling a team dinner
• Board meeting scheduling
• Committee meeting scheduling

• Client meeting scheduling Free/busy stops at your company boundary. Propose dates the client can answer in three taps, without an account or a calendar connection.
• How to schedule a meeting with multiple people Past about four attendees, finding a time by hand stops working. Propose the dates, send one link, and let the counting happen for you.
• A Calendly alternative for group dates Calendly books a slot in one person's calendar. This gets a whole group onto one date. Free, no account, and no calendar to connect.

• How to schedule a meeting with a group A short, practical method for getting a group of people onto one date: how many options to offer, how far ahead to ask, and how to close it out.