How to ask recruiter to speed the process?

Question

As a soon to be a university graduate, I applied to a position in a large software company. I had interviews in March. Since then, I have been asking the recruiter (this recruiter is an employee of the same company, not an external 3rd party) about the results per fortnight and the recruiter has been telling me that he hasn't heard back from the manager.

I contacted one of my interviewers about the result and he forwarded my e-mail to my recruiter as well. A friend of mine has applied to the same company at the same time, but different team and he has got an offer. After the offer they do background and reference checks. So it's not like manager is doing these checks before the offer.

I have an option to ask directly to the manager, but I am not too sure if this would affect my status bad or not. I could ask it to my recruiter but he would tell me that he hasn't heard anything from the manager. All I am interested is whether I got or will get an offer or not, if not there is not much point wasting my time for 2 months.

So my question is, is it okay to ask recruiter to ask manager to speed the process? If so how can I ask it? Also is it a good idea to ask manager directly (through e-mail)?

Answer 1

You've already asked the recruiter, and as you've noted that recruiter actually has little to no influence over the speed of the process. Everything moves at the speed that the company doing the hiring prefers.

As an aside, the recruiter most likely only gets paid if/when the company actually hires someone, so they have their own incentives to speed the process and have likely already done everything they reasonably can do to so. The recruiter doesn't want to sit around and wait two months to get paid.

There's no harm in asking the manager directly if you've got his contact details and have been invited to use them, so long as you are tactful about it. Note that that would generally exclude saying things like "go faster", or contacting the manager (or other employees of the company) repeatedly. You might want to take an approach more along the lines of "thank you for giving me the opportunity to interview with your company, I was just wondering if there were any updates available yet or any feedback that you could share with me".

Also you should be prepared to not get any offer from this company. If a company is interested in you, you'll hear about it. Doubly so if there's a recruiter who stands to get paid if you accept an offer. Silence, however, is the way many companies say "not interested".

And in the future, don't apply to jobs one at a time. If you've wasted two months waiting to hear back from one employer, that's really your fault, not theirs. You could have (and arguably, should have) been interviewing with other companies during that time. That's generally a much better approach than putting all your eggs in one basket, or than treating your job interviews like a serial queue.

Answer 2

So my question is, is it okay to ask recruiter to ask manager to fasten the process? If so how can I ask it? Also is it a good idea to ask manager directly (through e-mail)?

You can ask them whatever you want, but if you actually believe that the recruiter has any power to truly speed up the process to meet your schedule, you need to get some perspective.

The current job I have took about 2-3 months to fully complete the cycle of interviewing to coming onboard. That is pretty normal. A company is taking a risk & making an investment in whoever they hire. So to expect them to simply push the process through—and no disrespect, especially for a new college grad—is just not realistic to say the least.

Cool heads prevail. And if you are antsy about the process, do yourself a favor: Don’t stop applying for new jobs. And don’t feel like because you are interning somewhere that place somehow has first dibs on you.

Your career is yours. Their choice to hire you is theirs. Control what you can control, be cool, careful & patient.

Answer 3

The following is based on my experience in the USA. I'm not entirely sure what country you are talking about.

The easiest way to speed up a hiring process is to get an offer from another company.

Basically, start interviewing elsewhere.

If your friend has interviewed, received and accepted the offer all within the timeframe that you've been waiting then it's pretty likely that the hiring manager has decided not to go forward with you.

Considering that you asked one of the interviewers a question about this which was then forwarded to the recruiter I'm guessing that group deciding against you and the recruiter is simply trying to see if there is somewhere else in the company you might fit.

The fact that you've never spoken with the hiring manager directly also lends credence to the idea that you aren't on their radar. Most companies, especially in software, don't sit on their hands for long periods of time when hiring new talent that they want. If they believe you are good and will fit in the environment then they'll move to get you. If they think they might find better candidates but aren't entirely sure then they'll string you along.

Either way, if you receive a job offer elsewhere and contact your recruiter to let them know that then you'll find out very fast whether they are interested in you or not.

Answer 4

If after an interview you are interested in a position, it is a good idea to send an email saying that you are interested, maybe asking a question to prompt them to give a reply. I usually do this within a few days of an interview. If you don't hear anything within a couple of weeks, it's okay to write or call asking for the "status" of your application or some such words.

Some companies take a long time to make a decision. You may be their second choice and they're waiting to see if their first choice will accept an offer. Especially if it's a big organization, they may have a lot of paperwork or bureaucracy before they can make a decision. Etc.

I would not contact anyone who I had not spoken to during the interview, and I would not make repeated contacts. That just makes you annoying. If they're still waiting for HR to process a form or some such, you calling twice a day isn't going to help them get that done, you're just wasting their time.

But realistically, if you haven't heard anything after a few weeks, the odds are the company is not interested in you. I've rarely gotten a clear "no" from any place I've applied. It's either "yes" or no answer. Don't sit by your phone waiting for them to call. Move on. Apply somewhere else. If they're just slow and they do call you back months later and you haven't found anything else, well great. But people don't like to give bad news, so many companies just don't say anything. There's nothing to be gained by sitting around waiting when they've already decided no.

As someone else on here said, don't said out application one at a time. Send them out in a blast, and you're much less likely to sit around waiting.