I am one of the Recruiters for Oracle and work in our India Recruitment Team. When we are hiring for multiple positions we often hold Recruitment Events to interview a large number of people as effectively as possible. These Events are often held on the weekend as many people are not free to attend an all day event during the working week.

Just recently during a recruitment campaign we were running I was tasked to set up a Recruitment Event for some roles we were hiring for. I have set up and run weekend recruitment events in the past which have all run smoothly. However, this time arranging this recruitment event was quite a challenge for me.

The planned event was taking place on a Saturday. I had almost sent out the confirmed scheduled list of candidates to the respective hiring team on Friday and was on track for the event to take place, but unfortunately there was breaking news in the media that there was a strike called in the city because of some political agitations and protests taking place on the event day. The hiring manager had rushed to me asking for my thoughts and ideas. I was in two minds on what to do. One on hand I was not ready to cancel the event because of all the work that so many people had put into getting this prepared and also I did not want to reschedule the event at the last minute if I did not need to. On the other hand I understood it may be best to reschedule the event as people may not be able to attend based on the political protests taking place on the day.

In the end I decided to gather and check for other options because this might cause confusion and a problem for the scheduled candidates to drive in to the venue. So we had concluded to reschedule our event plans and moved the event to the next week. The good news is that we successfully executed this recruitment drive the following Saturday. We were glad that 100% of the candidates we able to make it to the new interview date and despite all the agitations in the city we were successful in hiring people for all the roles we had open.

Things do not always go as planned. The best laid plans can sometimes be for nought based on external factors outside of our control. What this experience has taught me is that rather than focus on the negatives when you are thrown a curveball the best approach is to stay flexible and focus on finding ways to reach your outcome. Your plans may need to change but you can still achieve the results you are after if you have the right mind set.