Hiring manager here. Do not attempt interviews when sick, just reschedule. Nobody's ever going to say no, since if they're interested enough to interview you on a Friday, they'll still be interested on Monday.
About 5-6 years ago I was interviewing with Apple.
It was a two day interview process. I went in the first day for about a half day, and then maybe after a few days (it's been a while) they said they wanted me to come back for another full day. The day came and I woke up feeling terrible. I called my contact and told them this, and asked about rescheduling, and pretty much what I was told was, "It would be a lot better if you didn't reschedule."
I went in and went through the motions, and managed to enjoy drinking a gatorade at their full cafeteria. After it was over, I went out to my car that had been baking in the sun in Cupertino, and put the AC on full blast in my face as I endured the drive home up 280 trying not to puke in my car. I got home and instantly began 2 days of hell.
I didn't get that offer, but had been contacted multiple times since by Apple. No interest ever again.
companies like google and apple can largely behave as they please during hiring, because the resulting candidate loss is offset by the relatively massive size of the candidate pool. there's always plenty willing to put up with whatever they do.
heh - I was just told by a friend that an OPs guy at apple was "really unhappy there" -- and I said "I am hiring - give me his info", his response was "OH, no - he's not leaving! Just really unhappy"
I imagine that might happen at shitty companies hiring junior people.
But for all ranges you're going to want to have people meet with multiple teams and build a profile. That takes weeks and often means that statistically at least one interview Will have to be rescheduled.
People also reschedule all the time. I cancelled my latest interview via voicemail on Saturday, while the interview was for Monday morning. It was one of those 5 person interviews. I was ready to lose the opportunity, but it was rescheduled.
Yeah thats why I refer to it as my failure - not because I failed to get the job - but i failed to NOT go to the interview given how sick I was... I was younger and more stupid :-/
