Q: I’ve a job interview next week. It’s online. My internet isn’t great. The house is bedlam. I’m afraid a child might come roaring into the room during the interview – not to mention the dog who barks like he has been burgled. I’m thinking about pulling out because I’m frazzled (DF, email).

A: Our dogs must be related. Your state of frazzlement (a new Covid-19 word I’ve just coined) is not uncommon and I think you can expect interviewers to give you a break – they’re at home too, in all likelihood, and they have dogs who behave like victims and children who observe no boundaries, writes Liam Horan, Career Coach, Sli Nua Careers.

I think it’s no time to cancel a job interview because of the problems you’ve outlined. Take steps – I was on an interview panel recently where a candidate sat in a car, and it worked. Everybody understood. Needs must.

But you must also give yourself the time to prepare. I have no idea what support structures you have to make that happen – but it simply has to happen. If you turn up with one hand as long as the other, you’re probably as well off not to turn up at all.

My worry, ultimately, is not about screaming Joey (aged 5 or 55, human or budgie) arriving into the interview. He might be light relief. It’s really about you claiming the time to prepare yourself properly by doing your research and articulating your answers, if only to the mirror, in the days beforehand.

Liam Horan is a Career Coach with Sli Nua Careers in Ballinrobe.

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