How to Schedule an Interview with a Candidate

Rakesh · August 5, 2026 · 3 min read

You schedule an interview directly from a candidate's row in a list or search results — set the time, let FastHire generate a meeting link (or enter your own), and optionally have the link sent to the candidate automatically by email and WhatsApp.

Step 1: Open Schedule interview

From a candidate's row in a list or search results, select Schedule interview.

Step 2: Set the time

Choose the date & time and duration (15–240 minutes, defaulting to 30).

Step 3: Choose a meeting link

Auto-generate a meeting link — uses Google Calendar (creating a real event with a Google Meet link) if connected, or falls back to your saved Calendly scheduling link if Calendar isn't connected. This option is disabled with a link to Settings → Connections if you have neither connected.
Enter meeting link — paste any link yourself (Zoom, a different Meet link, anything).

Step 4: Confirm contact details and notes

Candidate email and WhatsApp number are prefilled if FastHire already has them — you can edit either here, and doing so also updates the candidate's stored contact info going forward, not just this interview. Add any notes for yourself, then select Schedule.

What happens after scheduling

The confirmation message tells you exactly what happened: whether a real Google Calendar event was created, whether your Calendly link was used instead, and whether the meeting link was actually sent to the candidate by email, WhatsApp, both, or neither. Sending the link automatically (both immediately and again as a reminder 1 hour before) requires turning on Settings → Interview reminders — without it, scheduling still works, you just need to share the link yourself.

Interview scheduled confirmation showing what was created and whether reminders were sent

Managing scheduled interviews

Go to Interviews to see everything scheduled across your organization. From there you can cancel an interview (which also cancels the Google Calendar event if one was created) or mark it completed.

Interviews page showing scheduled interviews with cancel and mark-completed actions

Frequently asked questions

What if I don't have Google Calendar or Calendly connected?

You can still schedule — just enter a meeting link manually instead of using auto-generate.

Is the WhatsApp interview reminder a real message, unlike WhatsApp in sequences?

Yes — interview confirmations and reminders use a pre-approved WhatsApp message template, which is allowed for business-initiated messages, unlike the free-form AI-written text used in sequence steps (which WhatsApp doesn't allow and FastHire only simulates).

Does canceling an interview notify the candidate?

Canceling removes the Google Calendar event if one exists, but doesn't itself send the candidate a cancellation message — follow up with them directly if they were already notified.

Can I reschedule an interview instead of canceling and creating a new one?

There's no separate reschedule action — cancel the existing interview and schedule a new one for the updated time.