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I interviewed for a job about 4 weeks ago, and had a second round interview 3 weeks ago. Then I got the job offer from the interviewer 2 weeks ago. Since then, we talked about my employment package, and the contract was supposed to be written up last week. But it wasn't written up last week.

On Monday of this week, I asked if the contract was getting written.

On Tuesday same thing.

Same thing today on Wednesday.

The interviewer tells me that the contract will be exactly what we discussed, but he does not appreciate that I have to relocate, get relocation budgeted and scheduled, and need to actually see the contract I am agreeing to. Also I do not want to notify my current employers until I sign the contract with the new employer, so I am not giving my current employers as much notification time as I might have done. The interviewer who hired me for new position does not seem to appreciate this problem either. Sadly, my current job has even more problems than this new job seems to have.

Is there anything I can do in this situation? I don't want to press the issue when I have little-to-no bargaining power with new employer.

Thanks for your advice and responses below. This is in the United States, by the way. I am on one coast and the new job is on the other coast.

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    You are doing the right thing. Absolutely do not notify or mention any of this in any way to current employer. All you can really do is continue your job search elsewhere.
    – Fattie
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 12:50
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    @Fattie That is the only answer.
    – Neo
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 12:54
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    What country is this?
    – Old_Lamplighter
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 13:06
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    Following up every day is a bit extreme. You should probably scale that down to 1-2 times a week.
    – Bernhard Barker
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 13:13
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    I would tell them the start date need to slide with the contract date.
    – paparazzo
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 13:53

2 Answers 2

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Verbal offers do not mean much. Do not resign from your current job until you have signed a written offer. Carry out your current job duties as if there has been no job offers. Keep up the job search. Do not arrange relocation. There is not much you can do about the HR of the new company.

I had a job offer that fell through because the head office decided to close the particular site days after the HR gave me a verbal offer. HR gave me a vague answer about the delay for a month. Because no written offer has been signed, I had no legal recourse. Fortunately, I did not give my employer any notice.

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    Verbal offers do not mean much Much? That's being generous. They don't mean squat. The best way I've heard it phrased is that verbal offers are worth the paper they're written on.
    – Chris E
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 18:08
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    Haha. I am being generous. My boss once presented a written offer. The person sign the offer. He arranged relocation before my boss discovered the budget fell through. I do not know the details, but I sense that the case ended up ugly.
    – Anonymous CS
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 18:47
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Sometimes these things happen. When I got my current job, it was a couple months between the interview, which went great and the manager told me right there that he was going to have HR make me an offer, and actually getting the offer letter.

Why? Coincidentally horrible timing. Right after my interview, the company got involved with a merger that ate up all of HR's time and attention for the next several weeks. There were a handful of new hires who ended up in the same boat as me, apparently, but it did work out in the end.

You basically just need to keep doing what you're doing. Tell them that you can't give notice until you have a signed contract, and you can't start until after you leave the current job (and move to the new place, if applicable.)

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  • Though there are legitimate reasons why this would happen, this is more the exception rather than the rule. And considering what's at stake it's more sensible not to make any assumptions about the other party's good or bad will.
    – rath
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 13:08
  • Again - quite simply - OP needs to aggressively continue his job search. The whole "relocation" thing is another issue, too.
    – Fattie
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 13:18
  • As Fattie says, in addition to saying you can't give notice, which pushes back the start - "I don't consider an offer to be made unless it's an actual, formal, written offer, and my status in regards to any other interviews or offers from other prospective employers will reflect this view."
    – PoloHoleSet
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 18:29

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