Honestly I think this is the best answer. A balance between empathy and concern, and setting reasonable expectations for an employee's performance, is important. There are many reasons why mental health can be crappy this year and we should make allowances for that, but a plan of action agreed by both sides, with realistic expectations, is a good way to get around this.

I don't think this is helpful advice for modern job hunting. The market's a lot more competitive for a grad today.

Why has this answer received a downvote? Seems like perfectly viable advice to me.

@SolarMike That's good for you I guess, but doesn't have a particular bearing on my question - unless your suggestion for my avoiding a similar situation in the future is to simply not apply in the first place.

Cheers for the kind comment :)

In this case, they were seeking immediate cover for an employee leaving due to personal reasons, so I don't think they would have waited for anyone. Perhaps in a future interview I'll keep this in mind though.

I understand your point - my key worry is wasting mine or the interviewer's time by getting through an interview before realising I'm inherently unsuitable based on my availability. I guess this problem becomes mitigated when I have more availability, but until then maybe I should write it on my cover letter ...

The advertisement of the job was a piece of paper on the shop window saying "X position needed, e-mail Y". Nothing really to go on - I accept I would have been at fault if there had been a job description saying "Immediate start required". Good point about the joining timeline, that makes me feel better for not having mentioned it initially. I wonder if I should have put it in my application though.

It doesn't @gnat, the focus of my question is more on how to address the experience I've had despite it being a very short time.