This is likely the most negative interview experience I've ever had, and that's saying a lot since we never really had an interview. Here's the story: I was looking for jobs in NYC (my background is in data and analytics), and I was found by a professional placement firm. One of their clients is Novus, and from what I understand they've had a fairly strong placement relationship with Novus. Novus had expressed interest in me after reviewing my resume. So we mutually set up a meeting to chat with one of their talent/HR specialists over the phone. About a half-hour before that meeting they canceled. I would say I was somewhat annoyed, but these things happen--and at least they gave me some warning. So we rescheduled for another day. That time came and still, no call. So I reached out to the placement firm and they reached out to Novus. Novus again expressed their apologies but said the person with whom I would interview was "pulled into a meeting." You know, there are many candidates out there so desperate for work that they'll take really any kind of mistreatment. But I've been consulting for myself for many years, and I don't take mistreatment from clients or perspective employers. In my mind, it's not possible for someone who has a meeting scheduled with me to be "pulled into another meeting." Give this excuse to the person trying to take you away from your obligation. Keep your meetings. Novus might disagree with me on this. Worse, some of you reading this might also disagree, thinking I sound entitled. Fair enough: more of you should be upset by companies that drag you along or blow off meetings. More to the point, you should be upset when companies waste your time by putting you in front of an HR person instead of the person whom you'll be working. Only the person with the fiduciary responsibility for your success--the person who is ultimately responsible for ensuring you're a return on investment--can truly qualify your ability to do the job. Why waste time negotiating a meeting with an HR person who has no authority and clearly no time? It's this type of bureaucratic nonsense I helped companies fix as a management consultant - usually with data - but the data are manifest of such underlying problems. Novus, will your talent rep actually get in trouble because their inability to stick to a schedule lost a qualified candidate? Probably not. Because you're incentivizing the process of these interview meetings over the true underlying business case -- which is to acquire high quality talent. If your process has the unintended consequence of turning folks away before they're even interviewed, then that's something you need to fix. And the easiest fix: have them interview with person who has the vested interest in the success of the job.