Not Too Desperate

Question

I recently went on an interview with a local company that fits my experience and qualifications perfectly. I "nailed" the interview, and the president/interviewer said something to the effect of "You're hired. I've never said that before during a first interview before, but—" (again) "—you're hired. I see that you have another job currently, but have tomorrow off. Can you come in tomorrow? I'll email you with details." I said yes, I could come in, but I never got the call.
That was one week ago.

Two business days later I sent an obligatory "thank you" email to the person I've been in correspondence with "Agent 99"(not the President):

Good Morning, {Agent 99},

I'd like to thank you so much for setting up the meeting between {Chief} and myself last Thursday. Please extend my thanks to him for me (I have his business card, but it does not show an email address).

After learning more about the position, I’m very excited for the opportunity to join the team and help in any capacity that I can. I know my years of experience of working on {Assassinations, Intelligence Gathering}, etc. would greatly benefit your company. Please keep me posted on the status of the hiring process.

I look forward to speaking with you soon,
{Jaime}

and he responded

"I will pass this along to {Chief} as he does not personally use his own email at work."

I don't know what that means.

I'd like to nudge them along a little, but am not sure how to do so without sounding desperate. I'm considering sending the following:

My interview with {Chief} last Thursday ended on a very positive note, yet I have not heard back regarding the status of the open position of {International Spy}. He indicated strong interest in having me come in to do work on a trial basis, but, as my availability is limited currently, we were unable to nail down a specific date and time.

If the position has been filled, or if I am no longer in consideration for it, please let me know.

Thank you for your time,
Jaime the Robot

I'd like to come off as interested, but not too desperate. I'd actually like to ask them to kindly crap or get off of the toilet.

My questions are these:
Does this convey the correct tone?
Is there a better tactic, like maybe to simply do nothing and invoke the "cone of silence"?

Answer 1

They said you were literally hired then never got back to you for the details. If anything pestering them 24/7 about this is warranted. You do not just tell candidates they are hired and then make them wait or ghost them.

I think you are handling it as best as you can. I would try contacting them again if they still do not get back to you, maybe they had something extremely serious to deal with and could not get back to the candidate they said they were hiring. If they still ghost you I would just move on, no one deserves that and you will not be losing anything.

Answer 2

To me this seems like a red flag - The person interviewing you, who if they are saying "you're hired" seems to me would be some form of management, said they'd hire you tomorrow and then never followed up.

If someone fails to live up to their promises - not to mention outright ghosting you, not providing an explanation and not being available for communication after something like that - it's a troubling sign of the poor level of communication / performance you'll see from that manager in the future.

To answer your question, I think the tone of your response would be fine, but I personally think you should ignore responding (The same way they've ignored you thus far) and find a more professional place to apply to.

It's a suspicious sign on its own that they'd decide on a candidate during an interview rather than keep looking at other options and making a final decision - Are other people not applying? Are they that desparate / short on people? How bad is working for this company that they have a 'Hire on the spot' policy like this?

Answer 3

Well, Agent 00 you missed your mark.

The next day you should have called the interviewer reminding him about the meeting he wanted to set up with you that day.

He actually made an oral contract with you and you would have been well within your rights, arguably obliged to follow up and turn it into writing.

Now the moskwa river is frozen and spies are back in the cold...

To answer your question:
Don't beat around the bush.
Remind them that you were very happy when your interviewer hired you on the spot and would like to follow up with HR now to sign a written contract.

They'll either fess up and retract or send you the contract.

Bandaid, ripped off.