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I'm currently being contacting by recruiters on an almost daily basis. As a result, there are times when I can get upwards of two to three in-person interview requests in a week. And on many occasions, I only get about three to five days notice.

This makes me nervous because having to spontaneously request hours and days off might make me appear less committed at my current job. But, I can't say no to these job interviews because they're for jobs that I would likely enjoy more and they pay 20% to 65% more than what I make now.

What is the best way to handle this situation?

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    This isn't an answer per-se, but I'd query the amount of interviews you're doing if you often have multiple interviews per week on the go for any significant length of time. At that rate, you should find a new role pretty quickly - and if not you probably need to change the type of roles you're applying for.
    – berry120
    Commented Feb 10, 2019 at 21:39
  • Berry120, about 95% of the interviews get are as a result of recruiters contacting me. The roles they contact me for usually align with my background and skill set.
    – PhilosopherKing
    Commented Feb 10, 2019 at 22:40
  • Joe Strazzere, I don't think that would be possible in most cases because I work during typical 8am to 5pm working hours. Most hiring managers likely wouldn't agree to keep their offices open before and after those start and end times.
    – PhilosopherKing
    Commented Feb 10, 2019 at 22:42
  • It's worth asking though. Many employers keep flexible hours and that may give enough time for an interview at the beginning or the end of the day.
    – Matthew Barber
    Commented Feb 11, 2019 at 2:05
  • Many recruiters and employers are willing to make adjustments to accommodate your working schedule. The simplest way to find out is to ask.
    – joeqwerty
    Commented Feb 11, 2019 at 2:16

2 Answers 2

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Try to pack them in the same day and then take a day of your holidays. Simple an easy. Normally the company which is interviewing you will be ok with you setting some date and time, just organize yourself and make sure you concentrate them in the same day.

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    If you can pull this off, make sure you leave plenty of time between interviews. Turning up late rarely goes down well, and telling them that you were delayed because another interview overran is a sure fire recipe for not getting the job.
    – Matthew Barber
    Commented Feb 11, 2019 at 2:02
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    Before starting the first interview, inform them that you have a hard stop at x hours. They will respect that. No need to go into details.
    – laconicdev
    Commented Feb 14, 2019 at 2:05
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Going by your user name and profile I'm going to take a guess that you work in the IT industry in some capacity.

When I've been interviewed in the past for programming roles, the initial interview was very often over the telephone which worked out quite well because I would try my best to arrange them to take place during my lunch break and then go somewhere quiet (like my car) to take the call.

This way you can screen out some opportunities which may not be a good fit and only take time off for the ones which look interesting where you've already had a conversation over the phone with them.

You can also probably eliminate quite a lot before they get to the interview stage by asking the recruiter for information about the position before you let them arrange an interview.

It sounds like you are lucky enough to have plenty of interest so you can pick the opportunities which look the best.

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    Agreed. In this same situation, if a company requested an initial in-person interview, I would politely request a phone interview instead, so as not to take up my time and theirs if it wasn't a good fit. A good company will understand this kind of request.
    – user1602
    Commented Feb 11, 2019 at 20:58
  • Kyralessa, I guess it depends on the situation. It seems that requesting a phone interview instead of an in-person interview may actually slow the overall interview process down at some companies--this pertains to jobs that are appealing at first glance.
    – PhilosopherKing
    Commented Feb 12, 2019 at 0:38
  • @TechnicalTim Are you in a rush to leave your job? In my experience arranging interviews over the phone saves a lot of time in the long run. You've had 2 good suggestions so far, maybe you'll have more but I'm not sure what else you can do to be honest.
    – Old Nick
    Commented Feb 12, 2019 at 8:40
  • Old Nick, I'm beginning to see your point. One can never know what an interviewer is exactly looking for sometimes and a candidate can get rejected for unexpected reasons. There could be a large gap between what the job requirements say and what the hiring manager actually wants, for example. Making sure that there is first a phone interview would prevent scenarios where a time-consuming and resource-intensive in-person interview shouldn't have taken place at all.
    – PhilosopherKing
    Commented Feb 13, 2019 at 20:41

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