Keep interviewing. It stinks but you have to look out for yourself. Even asking for the offer can put you in a weaker position.
There is the argument to be made that an interested applicant should follow up, etc, but I look at all the interactions in the interview process as part of the negotiation. So I want to be careful of the message I send either via reaching out, or via my silence.
Was at a job where they did that to a guy. The manager thought he had approval/funding. Things got tight and they pulled the funding for the job. Eventually, it worked out but took a month or too. I would keep looking and if something comes up great.
It is simple. If nothing in writing, then you should assume that it is a no go. Yes the hiring manager may really want you and verbally confirmed but there are a lot of "behind the scenes" factors that impact hiring.
Of course, if you do finally get the offer in writing, good for you. The question is should you wait or move on. That will depend on where you stand. If you need a job asap, then keep looking. If not, you may wait for the confirmation in writing.
"Great, I'm excited to start. I've still got some other interviews lined up, I'm going to keep going with those until we sign the offer letter and get a firm start date."
i assume you've already negotiated and agreed upon a salary with the hiring manager. there's no 'following up' to do at that stage in the game. if you've been interacting with an internal recruiter (rather than the hiring manager), then it could be an additional layer of politics, bureaucracy, or something else stretching things out, but either way: if after say 2 weeks, no offer letter has been emailed to you, that reflects very poorly on the hiring manager, and all the more reason to keep on looking elsewhere.
Thanks for your post! We hadn't agreed on an exact salary, but he mentioned a range for what he was looking at...now thats in limbo. Ive never been assigned a recruiter yet, and its so far been all through this hiring manager supposedly talking to hr...ever hear of this? How would you proceed?
i just mean that in larger companies, sometimes the negotation/etc will happen through a sourcer/recruiter in their HR department rather than directly w the hiring manager. in such cases, the recruiter will act as the messenger between you and the hiring manager basically.
this is the way things usually go (curious to know how much this jives with other people's experience):
- first step is they decide they'd like to hire you. ie, the "we'd like to go ahead and bring you on board / make you an offer." this is verbal, or sometimes via email. it is typical for them give a specific number at this time (edit: actually, i'd say this is pretty much what a 'job offer' is). you might or might not have discussed salary prior to this, but when they want to hire you, they will almost always start out with an explicit figure (it will be lower than you want 99% of the time).
- then, the salary negotation begins. eventually, after some back-and-forth (which can happen either in a single phone call, or can stretch out over weeks), both parties finally agree on a specific number for the salary, along with other aspects of the comp package including signing bonus, RSU payout/schedule, and other things like time off, etc etc. this all happens verbally normally.
- only when a salary/comp is agreed upon, would they send you a written offer letter -- this is usually done as a PDF emailed to you. until this happens, keep up the job hunt.
decide where you are in the above flow (if at all). if they have not uttered a specific, singular figure (and i suggest you let them do that first, no matter the circumstance -- but that's a different discussion), then the interview process is still going imo, and it might be worth a follow-up at some point, use your best judgment.
I was at an interview for a startup, when the person interviewing me yelled out the room to someone passing by "hey $guy! I found our new sysadmin!" and we finish our chat, and I go home. Never heard from them again. Reached out to the recruiter and got the silent treatment. Fuck 'em, I thought, and moved on.
Happened to me on Friday, actually. Had the offer, in writing, was told the job wasn't mine. Ruined my whole weekend. Felt a serious lack of self-worth.
Monday I got an equitable offer from a company I'm more interested in working for and I've been riding high all week.
Yes. It was an intern to FTE conversion. They'd just installed a new director and a VP of engineering, and the VP had told me in a 1x1 that there would be an offer made. A few weeks later, no offer.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 39.4 ms ] threadThere is the argument to be made that an interested applicant should follow up, etc, but I look at all the interactions in the interview process as part of the negotiation. So I want to be careful of the message I send either via reaching out, or via my silence.
Of course, if you do finally get the offer in writing, good for you. The question is should you wait or move on. That will depend on where you stand. If you need a job asap, then keep looking. If not, you may wait for the confirmation in writing.
in the meantime, do not let up on the job search.
this is the way things usually go (curious to know how much this jives with other people's experience):
- first step is they decide they'd like to hire you. ie, the "we'd like to go ahead and bring you on board / make you an offer." this is verbal, or sometimes via email. it is typical for them give a specific number at this time (edit: actually, i'd say this is pretty much what a 'job offer' is). you might or might not have discussed salary prior to this, but when they want to hire you, they will almost always start out with an explicit figure (it will be lower than you want 99% of the time).
- then, the salary negotation begins. eventually, after some back-and-forth (which can happen either in a single phone call, or can stretch out over weeks), both parties finally agree on a specific number for the salary, along with other aspects of the comp package including signing bonus, RSU payout/schedule, and other things like time off, etc etc. this all happens verbally normally.
- only when a salary/comp is agreed upon, would they send you a written offer letter -- this is usually done as a PDF emailed to you. until this happens, keep up the job hunt.
decide where you are in the above flow (if at all). if they have not uttered a specific, singular figure (and i suggest you let them do that first, no matter the circumstance -- but that's a different discussion), then the interview process is still going imo, and it might be worth a follow-up at some point, use your best judgment.
Monday I got an equitable offer from a company I'm more interested in working for and I've been riding high all week.
YMMV.
I assumed it was a hard sell tactic (and red flag) and declined.
Def. happens... mainly with unprofessional start ups