Ncep: the hiring process in corporate America

[cous0226]

Anyone in HR?

I had an interview in person last Wed and I thought it went great until today when I haven’t heard back anything. I had been told I would hear back early in the week and they want to move fast. I did send a email today at 12:30pm asking about how the process is going. Kept it short.

What I am curious about is how it works? Do companies have a top 3 or 5 and then start to pluck them down if someone doesn’t take an offer. Am I like Plan D? . Just curious of how it works if they like several candidates. I really want this job so now I sit wondering.

[TR]

I don’t work in HR, but I have learned to add at least a week to whenever hiring managers tell me they’ll get back to me. It just never moves as fast as they say it will, even when they want it to.

[just]

I work in academia, but I'd be shocked if they've gone through 3 candidates in a week.

Even in the most organized version of the world, if you were the last interviewee, and they extended an offer to another candidate on Thursday, and a person came back with a counter or a refusal on Friday, AND they offered it to candidate B on Monday, they still wouldn't be through 3 people. Plus the world doesn't work nearly that fast.

But I work in Academica and I once waited 4 months between an interview and an offer, and I was their first choice.

[cous0226]

Last week was definitely the last week of interviews and no more rounds after that. Maybe no news is good news? I also was told that I’d get feedback regardless.

[hocus2]

I work in corporate. There is sometimes a ranking (e.g. we'd want to go with 1 but if not 2). More often than not the issue is more about process -- getting people on a call, approval for the offer, etc.

[terpsfan]

Feb 5, 2020 16:30:04 GMT -5 hocus2 said:

I work in corporate. There is sometimes a ranking (e.g. we'd want to go with 1 but if not 2). More often than not the issue is more about process -- getting people on a call, approval for the offer, etc.

This. Offer approvals through our ATS can take forever..

[Tacocat]

Feb 5, 2020 16:30:04 GMT -5 hocus2 said:

I work in corporate. There is sometimes a ranking (e.g. we'd want to go with 1 but if not 2). More often than not the issue is more about process -- getting people on a call, approval for the offer, etc.

Yep this. I’ve worked in HR for years in several different positions. There are often things that slow down the process even if they want to hire someone quickly. It could be a manager not approving the next step, taking awhile to decide who they want to move forward, or someone involved is on vacation or stuck in meetings. It doesn’t mean you’re a lower choice or out of the process until they specifically tell you that. Good luck!

[cous0226]

Thank you. Guess when I didn’t get a reply back today on status, it made me paranoid. I will try and calm down.

[gault]

I work in corporate HR.
They might be a bit lacking in communication and followup but it may have absolutely nothing to do with where you are in the running. Approvals can be held up, as pp's have said. Contact them again on Friday. Fingers crossed.

[SusanBAnthony]

I agree to add 1-2 weeks.

No matter how fast I try to go (and I sometimes hire completely by myself, no committee) it still takes longer than I think it will.

[StrawberryBlondie]

So I work in corporate America, but not in HR. My anecdotal experience is that the time they tell they'll get back to you is an optimistic guess.

[isabel]

DH was unemployed for a year. In that, he went on dozens of interviews. I would say the average time between first interview and decision was at least a month. For his current job, the one that pulled him out of that period, it was a solid 6 weeks. He had, I think, one phone interview and one in person interview. This shit just takes for-ev-er.

Basically, whatever time frame they give you, double it.

[underwaterrhymes]

I applied for my current role (in the nonprofit sector) in December 2018.

I was offered the job in March 2019. (I was the first choice, but had two phone interviews and three in person interviews.)

For higher level positions, it sometimes takes longer than they intend, particularly if multiple people are invested or involved in the hiring decision.

[LoveTrains]

I work in higher ed and it often takes us six months...

[wawa]

Even for jobs where they approached me and asked me to interview, it still took longer than estimated to get the offer letter together.

It's a process with a lot of lag points.

[msmerymac]

It really depends on the company. At my current company, I started about a month after my first interview (I had a phone screen, 2 in-person interviews, then an offer). My current company is like 20 people and the position had been open for a while - they were interviewing people on a rolling basis and just thought I was the right fit, so I wasn't really up against anyone else.

[cous0226]

I heard back and they extended the offer to another candidate. Thank you all for the info and well wishes.

[just]

Feb 6, 2020 9:50:31 GMT -5 cous0226 said:

I heard back and they extended the offer to another candidate. Thank you all for the info and well wishes.

Ah that's too bad. Sorry.

[BlondeSpiders]

Feb 6, 2020 9:50:31 GMT -5 cous0226 said:

I heard back and they extended the offer to another candidate. Thank you all for the info and well wishes.

It's good that they let you know. You never know, that person may decline and they'll come back to you!

I'm a Recruiting Coordinator, I schedule all the interviews and handle offers within my team. I prefer to wait on the declines to other candidates until the background check has cleared, but our policy is to decline other candidates as soon as the offer is accepted. (I work with contingent workers and go directly through agencies, so there's no back and forth on offers.)

[Michelle]

Feb 5, 2020 16:19:16 GMT -5 TR said:

I don’t work in HR, but I have learned to add at least a week to whenever hiring managers tell me they’ll get back to me. It just never moves as fast as they say it will, even when they want it to.

This.

I work in HR AND am a hiring manager with an opening right now and thought i gave plenty of cushion time, but because of some internal issues, I was wrong.

[Michelle]

Feb 6, 2020 9:50:31 GMT -5 cous0226 said:

I heard back and they extended the offer to another candidate. Thank you all for the info and well wishes.

Oh I'm sorry to see this. Good luck on the next one!