The Interview Request Reference, One Row per Invite Type and Its Clock

This reference is for job seekers running many interview threads at once who need to decode each new request fast: what it commits you to, when it expires, and how to move it without losing the slot. Each request type gets one row. You get the mechanism, whether submitting it books a time, its clock, the self-reschedule cutoff, how it misleads, and the fields to log. Find your row, act, log it, and move on.

The five interview request mechanisms and how to tell them apart

Almost every interview request in an active search is one of five mechanisms: a self-schedule link, an availability grid, a chatbot text, a one-way video invitation, or an open recruiter email. You can usually name it in about fifteen seconds from three clues: the link shape, the sender, and the channel.

Two terms first. An applicant tracking system (ATS) is the software an employer uses to manage applicants and send scheduling requests; Greenhouse is one. A recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) firm is an outside company that runs hiring for an employer, often under its own brand.

• Self-schedule link. You pick a slot from times the employer has opened. The interview is scheduled and confirmed to both sides automatically when you finish. Greenhouse and Calendly both work this way.
• Availability grid. You click and drag across a calendar to mark when you are free, then press "Submit Availability". A person still has to book the slot.
• Chatbot text. A conversation by SMS or a messaging app asks you screening questions, offers times, and books one. Paradox's assistant, Olivia, is the documented example. It runs on SMS, WhatsApp, WeChat, or Facebook Messenger.
• One-way video. You get a recorded interview to submit by a deadline, with no live interviewer. HireVue on-demand is the documented example.
• Open recruiter email. A person writes, often asking for a "quick chat", with no tool behind the message. Nothing is booked until a calendar invite arrives.

If a request seems to fit two shapes, classify it by what happens when you complete it. That is the question the next sections answer.

The request-type reference: one row per mechanism

The table below covers the four tool-driven mechanisms I could document from vendor help centers, plus the chatbot flow from a third-party review. I have not researched Lever, Ashby, or GoodTime, so their candidate-side cutoffs are unverified here. Check the candidate help pages for those tools if your invite comes from one.

Self-schedule link

• Commits you to: a confirmed interview the moment you pick a slot. One third-party guide says Greenhouse self-schedule only works for a single interview with one interviewer, so a panel invite usually comes another way.
• Clock: Greenhouse lets recruiters set either a rolling window, for example 14 days from when you open the link, or a fixed date range with a hard end date. A third-party source says Greenhouse interviews can be scheduled up to 30 days out. Calendly's default minimum scheduling notice is 4 hours.
• Self-reschedule: on Greenhouse, the same link lets you change the time up to 24 hours before the interview, but only if the employer has switched on "Allow candidates to reschedule self-scheduled interviews". Calendly puts reschedule links in its emails by default.
• How it lies: a canceled Greenhouse request stays in your inbox with a deactivated link. Calendly shows a cancellation policy but does not enforce it, so the screen does not tell you the real rules.

Availability grid

• Commits you to: nothing. Submitting the grid emails the person who sent the request, telling them it is time to schedule.
• Clock: not established publicly. I could not find a documented default for how long a grid stays open, or how long it usually takes to get a confirmed invite after you submit one.
• Self-reschedule: not applicable, because nothing is booked yet.
• How it lies: it feels finished. A coordinator who did not send the request is not notified automatically unless that permission is turned on, so if the sender is out, your grid can sit unseen.

Chatbot text

• Commits you to: a booking, once you accept a time. Paradox's documented sequence is: you apply or start a conversation from a career site, QR code, or text campaign; Olivia asks screening questions, offers times, and books straight into calendars; reminders, confirmations, and rescheduling run automatically; status goes back to the ATS.
• Clock: not established in the sources I gathered.
• Self-reschedule: in the same thread.
• How it lies: replying STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, END, or QUIT is reported to be a hard unsubscribe. That cuts off the confirmation and reminder thread for that employer.

One-way video

• Commits you to: a submission, not a time slot.
• Clock: HireVue either lists the exact date, time, and time zone your interview must be submitted by, or gives a window such as "within 48 hours". The countdown usually starts either when the invitation is sent or when you first click the link, depending on how the employer set it up.
• At expiry: the link stops working. HireVue support cannot extend a deadline or reset an interview. Only the employer can.
• How it lies: an extension for a whole stage affects every candidate in that stage who has not submitted yet, so recruiters may prefer a per-candidate reset. That reset arrives as a new email invitation. A reset does not add retakes: if you have used all your attempts, a new deadline does not give you more.

Open recruiter email, including the "quick chat"

• Commits you to: nothing until a calendar invite arrives.
• Clock: none from a tool. The deadline is whatever you and the sender agree in the thread.
• Self-reschedule: reply in the same thread.
• How it lies: the warm tone makes it feel booked. I have no reliable evidence on what a "quick chat" predicts about the stage or the role, so I treat it by mechanism only: offer specific times with your time zone, then log it as awaiting confirmation.

Books or offers: what submitting actually locks you into

The one question that matters most for each request is whether completing it books a time or only offers one. Self-schedule links and chatbot flows book on submit. Grids and open emails only offer. One-way video submits work but books no slot.

The second question is who can move it once it exists. Those two answers together tell you how much freedom you have left.

Reading the clock: expiry, time zone, and countdown start

To read the clock, write down one absolute deadline: a date, a time, and your own time zone. You get it from three inputs: the stated expiry or window, the time zone it is written in, and whether the countdown started when the invite was sent or when you first clicked.

The reason this takes care is that authority over the clock sits in layers, and the layer you can see is the weakest one.

Converting a deadline you can trust

1. Find the stated deadline. HireVue writes the date, time, and time zone into the invite. Greenhouse windows may be rolling from when you open the link or may end on a fixed date.
2. Note the time zone it is written in. A deadline in the employer's time zone can fall hours before or after the same clock time where you are.
3. Work out when the countdown starts. If a window such as 48 hours might start at first click and you cannot tell, assume it does. Do not open the link to "take a look" until you can finish the task inside the window.
4. Write the absolute deadline in your own time zone and log it. That one value replaces rereading the email later.

If the deadline has already passed, the next move depends on the mechanism. For a dead Greenhouse link, check the newest email in the thread before anything else. For one-way video, email the employer, because the platform's support cannot help.

Is this interview invite legitimate? Checking texts, links, and unfamiliar senders

The format of an invite no longer tells you whether it is real. Check where it came from: did you apply, which sender is it, and has anyone asked you to change channels or hand over money or ID.

Format stopped working as a test because the real and fake versions now look the same. Employers using Paradox legitimately text candidates and take keyword replies. An FTC consumer alert describes fake recruiters asking people to reply "YES" or "INTERESTED" instead of clicking a link. A reply-keyword text is therefore normal for a real high-volume employer and also typical of a scam. I could not find a carrier-level marker that reliably identifies a registered employer's number, so do not rely on the format of the number either.

Provenance checks that still work

• Did you apply? The request should match a specific application you actually made. If you tailored each application in Refolk, the posting and the resume version you sent are already paired, so this check takes one lookup instead of a search through your inbox.
• Is it the employer's domain or ATS? Links should resolve to the company's own domain or its scheduling tool.
• Has the conversation changed channels? Paradox legitimately runs on WhatsApp. So the warning sign is not WhatsApp itself. It is a conversation that started in one place being moved by a stranger to a personal WhatsApp or Telegram contact.
• Is anyone asking for money or ID? At the scheduling stage, that fails the check outright.

If it fails, report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and do not reply with any keyword.

Unfamiliar senders are normal

Who sends interview invites is spread across many kinds of employer. In Refolk's index of professional profiles, both the US and UK recruiting coordinator samples include coordinators working for RPO firms or agencies, with titles such as "Senior Recruiting Coordinator (Via Talentful)". An invite branded with a company you have never heard of may be an agency coordinator acting for the employer you applied to.

Two cautions on these numbers. The US-to-UK gap of 6,620 against 46 almost certainly reflects how much of each market the index covers, not the real size of either market, so do not read it as a market ratio. And the healthcare skew means a title search for "scheduling coordinator" to check a sender will mostly turn up hospital staff. Search "recruiting coordinator" plus the company name instead. The US top-25 sample includes recruiting coordinators at Salesforce and Toyota North America. The UK sample includes AWS, Apple, Palantir, and Hudson River Trading.

The two-minute triage procedure

Run these eight steps on every new request. The first six take about two minutes together; that timing is my desk estimate, not a measured figure. Steps 7 and 8 happen later, only when needed.

Sources disagree on the order of steps 2 and 3. Scam guidance puts verification first. Platform help docs assume the link is trusted and start with the deadline. I put verification second because classifying first tells you what "legitimate" should look like for that mechanism. If a request is close to expiring, still verify before you click, because one wrong click costs more than a few lost minutes.

How to reschedule an interview booked through a scheduling link

Reschedule through the self-serve link in your confirmation or reminder email, before its cutoff, at most once, and with at least as much notice as the original booking required. Past the cutoff, or when there is no self-serve option, email the recruiter in the same thread with specific replacement times.

Greenhouse lets candidates reschedule from the meeting invitation or the reminder, up to 24 hours before the interview, if the employer has enabled it. That system cutoff happens to equal the practitioner etiquette norm, so the two rules agree. Moving a slot through the link after that window is not possible on Greenhouse and is risky everywhere else.

Calendly needs more self-discipline. It does not enforce the cancellation policy it displays, and a community answer says it has no separate notice period just for rescheduling. Its reschedule links have been reported to offer the next open slot even when that is five minutes away. A self-move that lands that soon can look flaky to the interviewer.

How many reschedules are tolerated is not established by any survey with a stated method. What exists is consistent practitioner guidance:

When you must email, make it short, specific, and easy to say yes to.

Subject: Re: [original subject line, unchanged]

Hi [name],

I need to move my [interview type] for the [role title] role, currently booked for [date, time, time zone]. I'm sorry for the change.

I can do any of these instead:
- [date], [time] [their time zone] ([your time zone])
- [date], [time] [their time zone] ([your time zone])
- [date], [time] [their time zone] ([your time zone])

If none of those work, a fresh scheduling link is perfect and I'll book it right away.

Thanks,
[your name]
[phone]

For a one-way video, use the same template but ask for a deadline reset instead of new times, and send it before the deadline passes. Expect the reset, if granted, to arrive as a new invitation email.

How this goes wrong: failure modes and false positives

Most scheduling mistakes come from trusting what the screen or inbox appears to show over what the mechanism actually did. Each failure below gives what happens, the false conclusion it leads to, and the check that catches it.

1. A dead link that looks live. A canceled Greenhouse request stays in your inbox; only the link is deactivated. False positive: you click an old email, it fails, and you assume the slots are gone or the role is closed. Check: open the newest email in the thread first, and if that link also fails, ask for a fresh one.
2. A grid read as a booking. Submitting availability books nothing, and only the requester is notified by default. False positive: you clear the week in your head and stop following up. Check: no calendar invite means not booked. If nothing arrives, follow up with the person who sent the grid.
3. A reschedule link that ignores notice rules. Calendly reschedule links have been reported to grab the next open slot, even five minutes away. False positive: the tool accepted the move, so you assume it was fine. Check: pick a slot at least as far out as the original notice period.
4. A deadline in the wrong time zone. HireVue states the time zone in the email, and the clock may have started at your first click. False positive: you count from the send date in your local time and miss by hours. Check: convert to one absolute deadline in your own time zone at step 3, and assume first click starts the clock if you cannot tell.
5. STOP kills the reminders. On Paradox, a carrier keyword is reported to be a hard unsubscribe for that employer. False positive: you text STOP to cut out marketing and lose your interview confirmation thread as well. Check: send unsubscribe keywords only for roles you have abandoned.
6. The scam test misfires. Real employers text through Paradox, and RPO coordinators send under agency brands. False positive: you ignore a real invite because it came by text from an unfamiliar name. Check: ask whether you applied, whether anyone wants money or ID, and whether a stranger has moved the chat to WhatsApp or Telegram.
7. Title-based sender lookup. "Scheduling Coordinator" in the US mostly returns hospital staff in Refolk's index. False positive: you find no coordinator at the company and decide the sender is fake. Check: search "recruiting coordinator" plus the company name.
8. Asking for an extension in the wrong place. HireVue support cannot extend deadlines or reset interviews. False positive: you open a support ticket, wait, and treat silence as a refusal. Check: email the employer before the deadline.

Everything before the calendar invite is an offer. Log it that way and you stop losing slots.

The tracker fields and keeping this reference current

Log seven fields for every request: mechanism, sender, link, expiry with time zone, booked yes or no, reschedule cutoff, and reschedule count. With those filled in, any thread can be picked up next week without rereading the original message.

Employer | Role | Mechanism | Sender (name, brand, domain) | Link | Absolute deadline (your TZ) | Countdown starts (send / first click / n/a) | Booked (Y / awaiting) | Reschedule cutoff | Reschedule count | Next action | Outcome

After the slot, close the row. On Calendly, the host's No Show button only appears after the meeting's scheduled start time. Marking a no-show fires an event that integrations can use to write the flag back to the ATS. So if you joined and nobody else did, write down the time you joined and email the recruiter that day. An automatic "late cancel" flag is not established publicly for any vendor, so do not assume one exists or does not.

The log also shows where your preparation time should go. Once a slot is confirmed, the row tells you which posting it belongs to. Refolk's fit score for that posting shows which booked interviews are worth the most preparation, so you are not rereading every job description the night before.

Keeping the rows current

Vendor behavior changes, and this reference describes how each mechanism works rather than freezing its settings. Re-check in three places:

• Vendor candidate help pages. Greenhouse's release notes are where changes like configurable scheduling windows first appear. Calendly's availability settings page is where its default notice is documented.
• The unresearched tools. For Lever, Ashby, or GoodTime invites, look up the vendor's candidate-facing help for its reschedule cutoff and add a row.
• The FTC. Scam formats move. Check the FTC's consumer alerts on job scams when a text pattern looks new.