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I received a congratulatory email (not a contract) for an internship, specifying the date, salary, etc, and asked if they want me to "get the paperwork raised".

I sent back saying, "sounds great!", followed with a couple of questions.

They replied back, and I replied back again with a positive note and a question about relocation compensation.

It's been about 5 working days and no response.

I admittedly tried to "stall" as I had other interviews coming up, and I wanted to do those to make the most informed decision, and I think they caught scent of that...

What should my next move be? How do I phrase my follow up question?

(Either way, lesson learned: always accept an offer and THEN ask questions...)

EDIT: the company has done some acquisitions and as such, my internship hangs in the balance (aka "we will get back to you"). Oh well.

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    Why don't you call them to discuss it? If the person in charge of this hears your voice you will make a more powerful impression than just piling on one more e-mail in the recruiter's inbox. You can just state facts to "stall", such as "I am available for an interview from abc date. I am available to starty from xyz date."
    – Brandin
    Commented Nov 23, 2018 at 6:20
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    @Brandin The OP already has an offer and has accepted it, they're now in the paperwork & formal signing phase.
    – lambshaanxy
    Commented Nov 23, 2018 at 7:58
  • "Either way, lesson learned: always accept an offer and THEN ask questions" - this seems like a dubious lesson to learn. You don't want to be blindly accepting offers...
    – ESR
    Commented Nov 28, 2018 at 3:46

2 Answers 2

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You're overthinking this: internship offers don't get pulled because you ask sensible questions about the offer.

Send them an email to followup and ask what the next steps are. If you don't get a response to that within a day or two, pick up the phone and call.

Also:

lesson learned: always accept an offer and THEN ask questions

This is completely the wrong lesson to learn here. You should always get the offer in writing, then ask questions, before you accept/sign.

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    Second on the wrong lesson part. Once you accept the offer you can not negotiate.
    – Layman
    Commented Nov 23, 2018 at 3:48
  • @jpatokal thanks for the feedback. When you say get the offer in writing, does that mean the contract? Or do emails (that specify your start date, salary etc) count as well?
    – nz_21
    Commented Nov 23, 2018 at 15:57
  • @nz_21 For most formal jobs in most countries you sign a written contract, but this may or may not apply to your internship.
    – lambshaanxy
    Commented Nov 23, 2018 at 22:54
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    @jpatoka yup, will have to sign a contract for this one too. anyway, thanks for the pointers. Will keep a positive outlook and call them, but I have to assume the worst (ha! big-O!) that they've ghosted on me (which would be a really weird thing to do after sending out a congratulatory email with all those job details, but who knows), and pursue other interviews.
    – nz_21
    Commented Nov 24, 2018 at 13:58
  • Yeah, if you accept, and then the answers are not what you thought or understood, you've already accepted, so that's not the lesson.
    – PoloHoleSet
    Commented Nov 27, 2018 at 18:01
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Paperwork can take time to get through depending on how many people need to rubber stamp approvals. Also they might be checking on the relocation reimbursements which would have even more required rubber stamps.

It is very unlikely they will withdraw an internship offer out of all things for no reason, it is bad rep for them to do so. 5 days is not too long, I would just follow-up and give it another week.

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