contacting employer after interview

lmahoney79

Had an interview on Friday and was told I would be contacted today regarding the position. I haven't heard back yet, should I contact him to see if he's picked someone yet?

chris85

lmahoney79 wrote: »

Had an interview on Friday and was told I would be contacted today regarding the position. I haven't heard back yet, should I contact him to see if he's picked someone yet?

Far too soon, they say today, could be end of week. Give them a few days.

aidan24326

Chris is right, give it another couple days. No panic yet.

Tigger

depends on the type of job:
if its technical or professional than no; if its sales or service then ring at 2 tomorrow

wallycharlo

If you were told that you would be contacted on a certain day, and this did not happen, then I would call the next morning and ask for an update.

Very unprofessional behavior from an employer in that case IMO.

chris85

wallycharlo wrote: »

If you were told that you would be contacted on a certain day, and this did not happen, then I would call the next morning and ask for an update.

Very unprofessional behavior from an employer in that case IMO.

Must disagree with this. Although they may hope to give an answer on a certain day, things change on a daily basis in a company, they may have one of the hiring managers out sick, or someone else out sick who needs to sign off on it. Maybe HR needs to approve it aswell. Also the person who told you when they would have an answer may be unaware of how long is left in the hiring process.

I would not call it unprofessional to ring the day after you were expecting to hear. A couple of days grace is a good compromise to the situation.

wallycharlo

chris85 wrote: »

Must disagree with this. Although they may hope to give an answer on a certain day, things change on a daily basis in a company, they may have one of the hiring managers out sick, or someone else out sick who needs to sign off on it. Maybe HR needs to approve it aswell. Also the person who told you when they would have an answer may be unaware of how long is left in the hiring process.

I would not call it unprofessional to ring the day after you were expecting to hear. A couple of days grace is a good compromise to the situation.

As a hiring manager myself, I would consider it very bad form to make a commitment to a potential employee which I do not follow through on.

I fully appreciate that things may change dynamically on a day to day basis, but if a delay is encountered, for whatever reason, then the candidate can be contacted with a short call / mail etc to inform them of the delay, and to update them on when they can expect to get the response. Being sick is not a valid excuse in my view, if I have some action items pending then I can easily align with a colleague to act on my behalf.

All in all it comes down to the level of professionalism which is followed within the organization that the OP has applied to.

lmahoney79

Just so you guys know, it was a small company so no HR department, was just interviewed by the guy running the business. I left him message Monday evening enquiring about status of position.....still no response. I've taken I didn't get the job. Would of liked to have been told though.

Zeek12

wallycharlo wrote: »

If you were told that you would be contacted on a certain day, and this did not happen, then I would call the next morning and ask for an update.

Very unprofessional behavior from an employer in that case IMO.

Can't say I agree with this entirely. While it's certainly quite annoying to be left hanging and waiting for a response, there are often other factors involved in the delay. It's a bit "gung-ho" to just suggest its very unprofessional without knowing all the facts.

With the last position I interviewed for, they were almost a week late in finally replying to me, but I still got the job in the end.
Apparently one of the HR people - who had to approve it -was out sick for a few days. No harm in sending a polite enquiry to them in a couple of days if you still haven't got word, but I would keep it brief and polite and avoid being critical or confrontational. Good luck with it!

wallycharlo

Zeek12 wrote: »

Can't say I agree with this entirely. While it's certainly quite annoying to be left hanging and waiting for a response, there are often other factors involved in the delay. It's a bit "gung-ho" to just suggest its very unprofessional without knowing all the facts.

With the last position I interviewed for, they were almost a week late in finally replying to me, but I still got the job in the end.
Apparently one of the HR people - who had to approve it -was out sick for a few days. No harm in sending a polite enquiry to them in a couple of days if you still haven't got word, but I would keep it brief and polite and avoid being critical or confrontational. Good luck with it!

If a commitment is given to give a feedback by a certain date, then it should not be allowed slip without giving a heads-up. I fully understand that decisions get delayed for one reason or another, but it only takes two minutes to let a candidate know that this is the case. Taking a hiring managers perspective on it, if a commitment made to a candidate slips then one is running the risk of losing him/her to another offer.

It may come back to Irish culture at the end of the day, e.g. 'I'll let you know by Monday' may be translated as 'I'll let you know soon', which is fine perhaps in a social situation, but in the working world this is unprofessional.

Zeek12

A problem with this is the person who gives you the date (by which you can expect to hear back) is very often not the person making the final decision.
This is particularly common in large multinationals where HR usually have the final say....and the HR manager may not even be based in this country.
In my experience of these situations, the format often begins with HR holding an initial interview, then its over to a Team manager/Department manager for the subsequent interview(s) which is more specific to the actual tasks and competencies for the role, and then it reverts back to HR for the final decision. The Team manager and HR person are not always exactly "on the same page" about when that final decision will be made.

wallycharlo

Zeek12 wrote: »

...The Team manager and HR person are not always exactly "on the same page" about when that final decision will be made.

If HR have the final go/no-go on the decision, the what business does the Team manager have in giving an interview candidate a solid commit date?

A statement such as 'you will hear back from us by Tuesday' etc then certainly should not be made in such a scenario. The situation can be left more open ended in this case, with a loser reponse period defined.

Zeek12

Its a fair point. And I don't disagree with you all that much.
I'm just saying in reality, this is how it works!

But realistically they have to give an indication to the interviewee of when he/she can expect a decision. If it's the 2nd/3rd interview, the interviewee is really going to want to know this and a manager can't really say "Don't know, it's not up to me" ! Plus, if they're impressed with the interviewee, they'll want to keep the person interested and won't want to see them get their head turned by other job offers.
And sometimes they don't always give an exact day either - and that's probably the best approach imo- they may say something like "expect to hear from us around the middle of next week".

Anyway, as I mentioned in an earlier post, no harm in the OP making a polite inquiry about it if it would put their mind at rest. Just avoid being confrontational or critical when doing that would be my advice.