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Last week, a question from reader Iris prompted me to give some rules of thumb about how and how long to wait/follow up after an interview. She sent another email this morning:
Thanks for the advice last time. As you said I waited for two weeks then emailed the company regarding getting feedback from the second interview.
However the reply I got was something along the lines of:
During the recruitment process they have looked at the department and the way it is structured as a whole moving forwards. Sorry that they have not informed me yet with regards to an answer on the role, but they are still considering their options. They will let me know of any progress asap. And they thank me for my patience and enthusiasm…What exactly does this imply? I don’t know much about the recruitment process, but is it not usual to look at the structure first and then decide whether they need another person or not? How long am I supposed to wait now?
Brian answers after the break:
Brian Sayz:
I don’t know if my euphemism dictionary is up to date, but it sounds like they might not be hiring for that position anymore.
In fact, it sounds to me (see if the folks in the comments agree) like they might have gotten cold feet because of the slowing economy. They might have been thinking of hiring a few months ago, but now have thought better of it.
Why they’re still stringing you along is beyond me.
I might be wrong, but I think I’m not. And it’s been PLENTY of time now. It might be time to write this one off and move on to other opportunities.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Jodith // Mar 6, 2008 at 7:10 pm
While Brian is probably right, there may still be a small chance that they will, indeed, be hiring. It isn’t unusual for the frontline manager to want to hire, but get caught up in a reorg instituted by higher ups. The manager obviously is still hoping that she will get approval to move forward with hiring someone. I’ve seen this happen before.
My advice, though, is the same as Brian’s. Move on. If something comes through later, great. If not, don’t waste more time on them.
2 Richard Rinyai // Mar 8, 2008 at 11:14 am
I agree with Brian and Jodith. When I was looking for jobs in the past, I would just submit and forget about it.
If interviews came about, I would follow up once or twice and if no response, I would forget about it.
Thanks,
Richard Rinyai
www.theprofessionalassistant.net
3 Rachael // Mar 9, 2008 at 2:33 pm
An anecdote: My company is very small and is still in it’s infancy. We knew that we needed to hire a web/production specialist and began conducting interviews. We found a great candidate, who was eventually hired, but he was strung along for about two months. The timing wasn’t quite right and we were dragging our feet because had managed to do all of his tasks for the first 10 months of the contract. Now we know that the position is indispensable but we weren’t ready to bring him on until we knew that we couldn’t do the job ourselves anymore. It’s 6 months later, he’s still with us and incredibly busy.
If the position is a new position at the company I wouldn’t give up hope yet, especially if they seemed interested. It could be a while but it’s definitely possible that they will still come through. If you are interested I’d continue to follow up, but I wouldn’t stop pursuing other opportunities.
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