Has waiting to your back from a job ever been like,
"Okay, how long should I wait after the interview?"
"Why isn't this recruiter responding?"
If you feel like you've been ghosted after a job interview,
this video is for you. Stay tuned.
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And since you're already waiting to hear back after that interview,
let's just jump into how long you should be waiting,
reasons why you might be waiting after the interview,
and what you can do about it. If you're ready, click that like button.
We're jumping right into it.
One of the questions that I get asked most frequently is,
how long should I wait after an interview before I hear back
from the recruiter and on average, it's going to be about
one to two weeks before you do hear back. It might be faster,
it might be slower. Ideally before you actually leave the interview,
you're going to ask about the timeline and
ideally they're actually going to hold on to that timeline
but there are several reasons why there might actually be a delay.
Some of them are good, some of them and so why has it?
Why are you waiting for me? You're back after your job interview.
The first reason is the best possible reason for you,
and that that they are doing their pre-offer due diligence
before they actually extend you an offer after your interview.
This is going to be all the requisite stuff that a lot of employers do
before they actually extend you an offer including your reference checks,
verifying your education, and there might be some other steps that
they're taking depending on what role and industry
you are in now because each due diligence step that they take is
actually depending on other people and potentially some really slow agencies.
Sometimes this can take a little bit of time.
There's one thing that I find you can actually really help expedite
for the person who is doing their due diligence check after the interview
to help you get to the offer,
and that is making sure that you have spoken to your references
so that they are expecting the call.
If someone knows that they are going to get a call to help you get a job,
and they've agreed to it, they're going to be much more responsive
and really expecting that call or that email when it does come through.
And it is going to be something that they are able to prioritize.
The second reason why you might be waiting to hear back after your job interview
is
one that is unfortunately really common given our current circumstances
and that is they have either entered a hiring freeze,
or hiring for the position has temporarily gone on to hold
while they reevaluate and potentially reorganize their company in better
times. This can also happen when the company is going through an exit event,
such as the finalization of an acquisition or when they're going through an IPO.
While many companies and many recruiters are going to be very open
with you in the circumstances that this is actually happening. Some just aren't.
Some are going to totally ghost to you for months at a time.
I personally had this experience with a job that I actually got several years
ago, where the company was going through their initial public offering.
All hiring was put on hold for months. I didn't hear anything back,
but as soon as the hiring freeze lifted,
I got a phone call and proceeded very quickly to complete the
interview process and very rapidly got the job offer.
If the company does have a hiring freeze or hold in the position,
I definitely don't encourage anyone to sit around and wait for it,
especially if you're in between jobs and you really need to get to your next
paycheck. However, knowing what is actually happening can be very reassuring.
And if you are someone who was looking while you're employed,
and you're not in a hurry, it lets you know that if you wait a few months
that maybe that dream job is going to come open for you.
Especially in times that are a little bit rocky like where many
companies unfortunately are right now.
Sometimes they are going to have to have extra hurdles
and extra steps in order to get budgetary approval before the actually extend
you the offer.
Sometimes this means that the authorization is sitting in some
extraordinarily busy VP's inbox just waiting to be found.
If this is the case, you might not know about it,
but it is probably the best reason why you're waiting after an interview
to hear about the next step.
If it's not because they are getting your offer prepared or
because they have entered a hiring freeze.
Another reason why you may be waiting to hear back after your job interview
is that they are still considering other things candidates.
This one obviously a little less advantageous,
but it doesn't mean that you're out of the running yet. Sometimes,
and especially as you get through the different phases of interviewing,
there can sometimes be scheduling conflicts that do
arise and they may need to actually be moving the timeline
because there is someone else that they are actually interviewing
before they're able to make their final decision
about who they're going to hire and who to extend the offer to.
I've also seen where companies didn't feel total 100%
confidence in any of the candidates that they did interview.
Though they felt really good,
they still wanted to reach out to some additional people to see if
anyone would be a better fit before they actually proceed.
Now this can also be a flag because when that happens
it might be because the company doesn't actually really know
what they're looking for and they're discovering their needs
as they're actually interviewing candidates.
Whether or not that is going to be the right environment for you
is something that is totally up to you,
but something to take into consideration if it's apparent to you.
Drawing from that, the fourth reason why you might be waiting to hear
back after a job interview is that they have extended an offer to someone else.
When an offer is extended to another candidate,
there is typically not going to be a notification sent to the other
candidates that were under final consideration.
The reason for this is pretty straightforward.
Not everyone accepts the offer.
If that person doesn't end up accepting the offer,
they want to make sure that one of the other people that they
have screened and that they know they really like is still going
to be available to have the offer extended to them and I
kind of feel like I'm telling the story of my life because this is actually
something that happened to me and I kind of found out about it by accident,
but I was waiting for several weeks to hear back after a job interview.
I found out later it's because they did offer to someone else.
She didn't end up accepting in which time I suddenly
heard back with a job offer in my inbox.
The fifth reason why you might be waiting to hear back about the job is quite
honestly that
that company does not have their stuff together.
And I've heard a lot of reasons from hiring managers, from recruiters,
about why they aren't actually communicating with candidates.
Especially the candidates that have taken the time to interview with the
company. Sometimes the recruiter is overloaded,
sometimes the hiring manager isn't getting back to the recruiter. However,
the end of the day it's a lot of internal dysfunction,
and quite honestly a deep prioritization in candidate experience
that is actually impacting communications and it is the
reason why they have ghosted you after the interview. That's said,
If you end up getting the offer and you choose to take it,
this might end up being the best company that you've ever worked for.
I've mentioned two instances now of companies that I loved
and managers that I loved working for where I was actually ghosted
in the recruiting process. However,
you do need to take it as a signal about the efficiencies
of their internal communications and take that for what it's worth.
If it's something that's extraordinarily important to you,
it might be something that makes you very frustrated as an employee.
The fifth reason why they aren't getting back to after the job interview
is probably the worst one and that is just aren't that
you. And instead of being professional and respectful and letting
you know that they've decided not to proceed with you,
they have just gone ghost town. They're just hiding their heads in the sand,
and pretending the whole thing never happened at all.
And unfortunately this does happen to people and in no
uncertain terms, I want to be very, very clear. If a company does this to you,
this is not a company that you want to work for.
If they are treating you like that,
when you're considering a potential position with them,
imagine how they're going to treat you when you were dependent on them for your
paycheck.
Them ghosting you is the biggest favor that they can pay you in your
career. In the long run you are going to see how true that is.
The unfortunate thing with all of the reasons why you're waiting to
hear back after an interview and the recruiter isn't responding to
you is that you might not be able to find out what the reason is.
Just like waiting for a text from a guy,
you're waiting for that email from the company and if you don't get it
or if it takes a while, you're really not going to know the reason why. Well,
the reason why it can be very helpful to you as a job.
The more important thing is what you do about it now.
Now if you were good and you watched my what questions to ask
at the end of the job interview and you followed the last question
that you absolutely must ask, you already know what timeline you
should be expecting to hear back. If you don't hear from them,
that timeline is now going to provide you a parameter
in order to follow up with them. If they said one week,
wait one week to send that email.
If they said two weeks, wait two weeks at a couple of days to send the email.
When you do follow up with either the recruiter or the hiring manager and say,
Hey, as we discussed,
I was expecting to hear back by about this date.
Just wanted to check in to see if there was any updates on next steps.
If you already set that follow up and it's been more than a week,
you can send one more followup.
I don't generally recommend setting additional followups after that.
While I know some people do encourage to continue sending followups.
I tend to just fall off the radar off for that.
I personally find that when a candidate keeps fun sending it,
showing a level of desperation that you really don't want to be
showing in your job search even if you're desperate.
The other thing that you can do is if you have both the hiring managers
and the recruiters contact information,
is send one followup to one wait a few days and if you don't hear back,
send a follow up to the other one.
The second thing that you absolutely must do if you are not hearing back after
an interview is to keep on looking.
I've spoken to so many people that thought that an interview went really well.
There was discussion about an offer during the interview.
They felt so positive and so optimistic about the opportunity
that they basically stopped looking and stopped interviewing until
you actually not only have that offer in hand, but you will hav
literally started at that company.
You need to continue your search.
I know a lot of people say after the offer you can kind of lean back, celebrate.
Unfortunately, because of what is happening right now,
I have heard instances where offers have been canceled.
If you are interviewing and you do get that offer,
keep on interviewing up until your actual start date. This way,
if you don't hear back, if they're going to be that jerk company.
who totally ghosts you,
you're fine because you have continued your active search
and you are on your way to your dream job at a company
who deserves to have you and if they do reach back because
they want to invite you for another interview or you're finally getting
that job offer in your inbox, you haven't done any harm.
And just an FYI. If you are considering a job offer,
I do have a video on that that you should absolutely check out after this one.
I'll link it down below. Finally,
the third thing that you absolutely should do when you were waiting,
we're back after an interview.
If you are very interested in this specific opportunity and
you are actively interviewing elsewhere and potentially expecting an offer to
come in,
you can actually send this as this is great for two reasons.
First of all, it is going to trigger their scarcity mindset.
Even if you were not the lead candidate before you send that note,
you are probably going to skyrocket to at the top of their list.
The reason for that is people want what other people want so now
all of a sudden they're going to realize all of the things that they might be
missing out if they don't get you that offer or in for the last round of
interviews really, really quickly.
On the other side of it is a little bit more practical if
they have just been kind of dragging their feet, lost fizzy of internal
miscommunications or maybe just waiting to see if another dream
candidate falls from the sky.
This is going to be the fire under their peach in order to get you into
the next round of interviews or get that job offer out to you before they miss
their chance.
The other advantage this step has for you is that when you do begin negotiating
your offer,
you now have a little bit of extra leverage on your perceived value is going to
have gone up.
So if that's not a Testament for why you should continue searching when
you are waiting to hear back for an interview, I don't know what is told you.
A few of my personal stories about instances where I was waiting to hear
back after an interview and I got the job offer.
Do you have one of those stories too?
If you do drop it down below because you know how hard it is to be in
a circumstance and it's going to give a little bit of encouragement.
And let's spread a little bit of optimism around to the people that are waiting
on the companies who have ghosted them no matter why.
Waiting to hear back on one job interview,
and putting all of your eggs in that basket,
is not the best approach when you are searching for a new job.
And continuing your search is truly crucial as I just
punctuated.
If you aren't really sure about all of the different strategies that are out
there to search, check out this video right now. As always,
thank you so much for watching. If it was helpful, give it a thumbs up.
Consider subscribing and I'll see you next time. Bye for now. [Bloopers]