Don’t Wait (for the Job Offer)

When you’re on the job hunt, your instinct is to be as active as possible. Sending out those resumes, leveraging your network, interviewing, and constantly looking for new opportunities all come as par for the course in job hunts. So the stagnation of waiting for a job offer can come as both a relief and a shock. If you’ve gotten through the resume gauntlet and several rounds of interviewing, you might feel confident that a job offer is just around the corner. You can now sit back and enjoy a well-earned break.

And you can. For a week. But then, you should probably take up your job search efforts once more.

Even if you are 90% certain that the company will make you an offer of employment, there is little sense in waiting until that happens. Lots of things can interrupt, delay, or derail the hiring process. A hiring manager has lots of things to take up their attention, so hiring for your particular position might get the short shrift. Additionally, external factors can upset the process entirely. A personal example: I was once told by a hiring manager that I was definitely-their-first-choice-they-were-just-waiting-for-budget-confirmation. I waited patiently for a whole month to hear that they wanted to hire me before I got the message and started back on the job hunt. Yet another month later, I heard from the hiring manager that the budget for that position had been cut, so they hadn’t hired anyone. Many, many incidental things can overturn a hiring process, so don’t sit about twiddling your thumbs waiting for an offer. Here are some suggestions on what to do instead:

• Give it one week. I fully give you permission to celebrate and relax for one week after getting through the final round of interviews. If you performed admirably and feel good about the process, then take a break. Stop incessantly looking at new job postings and obsessively updating your resume. Give yourself a week of recovery time. However, if you haven’t heard from someone within that week, it’s time to get back to work. They may still call you (a week is a fairly short turn-around time, after all), but you don’t want to hurt your hiring chances by delaying longer than that.
• Contact them. Once. If the date when the hiring manger said you should hear from them has passed, it is permissible to email the primary contact to check in on the process. This demonstrates your interest and dedication to the position, and can swing odds in your favor. However, I wouldn’t recommend contacting them more than one time; if you don’t hear back from them, then chances are you are not their favored hire.
• Continue applying elsewhere. Once you’ve given it a week, start applying to other positions once more. Again, this doesn’t mean that, if the company does offer you the position, you aren’t allowed to take it. Rather, continuing to apply ensures that you don’t derail your entire process for nothing. Here are Career Solutions Group, we can help you identify a multitude of positions to pursue instead of fixating on just one.

With any luck, hiring managers at your company of choice will call you back in one or two weeks and offer you the job, which you can then evaluate and decide on. But don’t depend on hearing from the company, and certainly don’t stall your process for them. Waiting for longer than a week is (usually) more likely to hurt you than to help you.

Are you interested in learning how to unlock even more job opportunities? Email us at info@careersolutionsgroup.net. We offer free initial consultations, and our career formulas for success have helped hundreds of job seekers make fulfilling career transitions.

By: Julia Pillard, Career Solutions Group