How do alternates work?

The ability for employers to choose and rank alternates when making OCI employer interview decisions is controlled by a site setting you can activate by navigating to the OCI and Job Listings site settings page and enabling the “Allow OCI applicants to be set as alternates” setting. 

When enabled, alternates will be promoted to “Extended Interview” in the order of their ranking as students withdraw from or decline an interview and an interview slot becomes available.

Withdraw from Interview Confirmation: When withdrawing a student, the confirmation window will ask admins if they would like to auto-promote the alternate as well. The admin may choose to withdraw a student without promoting another to an “extended interview” status.  

First Come, First Serve: The ‘open signup’ OCI period (in which the OCI period rule “Allow alternates or employer selected students to self-select slots” is enabled) acts as a first come/first serve period. During this period, alternates will no longer be promoted when students withdraw their application or decline an interview. During this period, if and when a time slot becomes available, all alternates will receive the “Interview Slot Available” notification, prompting them to log in and select the open time slot (first come, first serve) if they would like to interview for the OCI.