Advice and guides / For candidates
Notice period: how to answer when a recruiter asks
It is one of the first three questions every recruiter asks, and candidates routinely get it wrong in the direction they think helps them.
Notice period is not small talk and it is not a formality. For most Indian mandates it is a hard filter, because the employer has a joining date they are working back from. A role that needs someone in four weeks cannot take a ninety day notice, no matter how good the candidate is.
Why they ask before anything else
A recruiter running a live mandate is sorting candidates into three piles: available now, available within the window, and available too late. That sort happens before skills, because a brilliant candidate who joins two months after the start date is not a candidate for that role at all.
Your CV almost certainly does not say your notice period. That is why it gets asked on the first call, every time.
The honest number helps you
Shortening your notice on a call feels like it keeps you in the running. It does, right up to the offer stage, and then it collapses. The employer plans around the date you gave, the date slips, and the thing that gets remembered is not your notice period, it is that you were unreliable about it.
Give the real number and you stay in the pile for roles that fit it. There are always roles that fit it. A ninety day notice is normal in Indian IT services and employers hiring at that level expect it.
What to say in each situation
- You know the number. Say it plainly, and add whether it is negotiable. "Sixty days as per contract, my manager has released people in forty five before."
- You have not checked. Say that, and check the same day. "My appointment letter says sixty, let me confirm and message you by evening" is a perfectly good answer.
- You can buy it out. Say so and say who pays. Many employers will reimburse a buyout for a role they want filled fast. That is a real lever and it only works if you raise it.
- You are already serving notice. Lead with the last working day, not the length. It is the only number the employer cares about.
- You are not employed right now. "Immediate" is an advantage. Say it early.
The part people forget
Notice period is not only about leaving. If you are asked to join sooner than your notice allows, the cost of an early release is usually a negotiation between three parties, not two. Getting your current employer's likely position clear in your own head before the offer conversation saves a week.
Keep it consistent
Say the same number to every recruiter and write the same number on every form. Consultancies share candidates with the same employers, and two different notice periods on two submissions for the same company is the kind of small inconsistency that gets both withdrawn.
We ask for it on the application form for exactly this reason, so that a role with a tight joining date does not waste your time or ours. It sits on the shortlist alongside your experience and your expected salary.