You’ve interviewed with a company and things went well. The next step is the job offer. In most cases, it’s a simple process — they offer you the job; you accept. But sometimes there are circumstances surrounding the job offer that complicate the process. This is the third in a series of Q&A to explore strategies for how to handle the situation when a challenge arises.
Question:
I’ve been led to believe that I’m getting a job offer — the hiring manager talked about salary and benefits, and even showed me which office would be mine … but I haven’t heard anything from him in two weeks. Now what?
Answer:
There are many reasons why a job offer might be late-arriving. Most of them are out of your control. For example, the hiring manager might have had an unexpected project or emergency come up that delayed the job offer. Or the human resources department may have had difficulty connecting with the individuals you listed as references. And sometimes, the hiring process is simply put on hold.
This is why it’s important to ask in the job interview about the timeline. If the hiring manager says you can expect to hear back in one week, you can follow up after a week and ask if there is anything he or she needs from you to move the process along. If the answer is no, ask if it’s okay to follow up again if you haven’t heard anything in another week. By getting permission to follow-up, you don’t have to worry that you’re being a pest.
But what if you didn’t ask about a timeline, or get permission to follow-up? Unfortunately, sometimes you may think you’ve received positive feedback that signals that a job offer is forthcoming, and the offer never comes. In this case, the follow-up call might yield the information that the position has been offered to someone else.
