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Following the advice from my previous question, I asked Jane my deal-breaker questions first. On the same day she replied positively, so it made sense to follow-up with the good-to-have questions (2 role-specific ones). Note that I asked them in a way they could be answered with yes/no, and they are not long nor complex (example: does the job require traveling?).

I am aware that these two questions could be asked during an interview, but knowing their answer early would move this job to the top of my application list.

Now it's been almost three working days (5 counting the weekend) since I've been waiting for Jane to reply.

I don't want to insult HR nor appear pushy but I think my questions may be well buried in Jane's InMail inbox, so I am not sure what's the proper course of action in this situation.

Should I send Jane a reminder, or contact Joe, the HR responsible for the role, with my good-to-have questions (acknowledging Jane's help)?

Some background: The reason I want to save time asking the questions early is because my current circumstances prevent me from having a consistent schedule (thus the main reason for a job change), and finding the time for an interview is near impossible. That's why I am trying to prioritize the candidacies/interviews for the companies that check all the boxes.

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    Asking too many questions, up front, could be an indication that you'd be difficult to work with should an offer be extended - that you'd question every little thing even at times when such questions are inappropriate.
    – neubert
    Commented Feb 8, 2021 at 20:32
  • Ok, let's assume that you get the answer you want. Will that move the interview forward for you? Probably not, my guess is. They're probably the ones holding up the process by having to wade through multiple candidates, and that you're not the one holding up the process. Am I right? Commented Feb 9, 2021 at 7:55
  • Are you already in the process of applying to the job?
    – Jeroen
    Commented Feb 10, 2021 at 15:04

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No offense but you sound like a difficult, wishy-washy candidate and I somewhat suspect the recruiter moved on to someone else.

I do hope you haven't made many mentions of this application list.... Them knowing you're applying elsewhere on its own isn't much of an issue, but that and many filtering questions may indicate that it will be easy for you to get discouraged and give up halfway through.

Recruiters work on commisions (so they only make money when they place one specific candidate), so if you seem like you're just going to drop out later, you are essentially just costing them money.

many, many times they don't have a direct line with the hiring manager themselves until candidates have been chosen and screened by the recruiter themselves. I know of organizations that forward out their job postings to 200 separate firms, and wait to see what resumes come back. you can imagine the level of communication back and forth is minimal until a good candidate is singled out.

For clarification, think - Have you had an interview with anyone outside of the recruiter so far?

Commonly you'll have one screening interview with the recruiter, who will seem to be reading off a list of requirements that they're qualifying you through.

If you make it through there, at the end of the week they'll probably send a list of candidates they found that week to the hiring manager for them to skim through and select from.

If you have questions, the recruiter will attempt to answer them based on the email they got with the job description.

If you have many questions that aren't easily answered by the job description itself, the recruiter may forward them on to the hiring manager via email. Remember, the recruiter makes money from placing you. They likely forwarded your question as soon as they got it rather than it being buried, unless they have moved on. However the recruiter usually has very little intricate knowledge of the position itself, and will have to forward this question out to the hiring manager and wait for their response.

The hiring manager will take a while to respond.... I don't know about you but every manager I've ever had has been absolutely 150% over committed on work to catch up on, so likely it's buried in the hiring manager's inbox themselves.

If a question sounds like it's a deal breaker to you and the recruiter knows the answer is negative, you might not get a response (but you might).

However they may not forward the question on to the hiring manager until later - if it's unsure whether you're one of the final candidates, and there are others at about your qualification level, they may not be in contact w/ the hiring manager yet and might wait until they're done screening applicants to forwrd that question to them. Otherwise they'll just be bothering the hiring manager.

To answer your question, I do not think you should be pushy / continue pressing about these questions. It will bother your recruiter / potentially others at the company.

You ABSOLUTELY should NOT jump over the chain of command and try to ask the hiring manager themselves rather than the recruiter. This demonstrates a serious lack of understanding of the process, and may give them the impression that you'll do this later by jumping over your own manager's head, which is an extreme issue that will ruin your career at the company (even if not getting you fired, typically it makes you that irritating pain in the butt to your manager from that point on). DO NOT DO THIS, avoid anything that may make you look that way, especially in the hiring process.

Unfortunately, I think the best course of action is to just wait. and if they seem unresponsive, it may be that they found someone else.

Any time a recruiter isn't responsive, you should be hedging your bets with applications elsewhere regardless.

In positions where a candidate is hard to find, you will find yourself overwhelmed with contact from your recruiter to ensure you stay on the line. If they don't seem invested, it's a sign that there's ample competition

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