What Do You Do When Somebody Walks Out on Your Interview?

Natalie Lynch is your credentialed investigator and licensed attorney, not a vlogger.

What do you do when somebody walks out on your interview?

It's hard as a human investigator to hear that you are the cause of somebody walking out on your interview. But almost certainly that's what people are going to tell you on their way out the door. 

At the end of the day, the one thing you do need to try to collect from somebody as they exit an interview is why they're ending it. So, maybe they're hanging up. Maybe they're standing up and walking out a door. 

But why are you ending this interview? It could be that it's gotten too difficult for them. It could be that they perceive you as being hostile or biased towards them. You just need to record that information so you can present it back to your client.

But at the end of the day, when somebody walks out in an interview, you need to allow it to happen, because we aren't going to imprison anybody that we're interviewing or investigating. And, if it's appropriate, we can do things like, "Can we reschedule this? Or can we schedule this over a Zoom so that it's a little bit less personal? Can I call you about rescheduling this later?" 

They may say no. If they do, it's not something that you have a whole lot of control over, but at least try to find out why the person ended the interview.

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