How often should I contact a company when they keep telling me my application is "under consideration"?

Question

I've been through three interviews with one company: an initial phone interview, a 1hr phone interview with director, and was flown in and stayed overnight for the 3rd interview. I feel the interviews all went well, and was told I would hear something early the following week.

When I did not hear from them a week and a half later, I sent them a benign email expressing my interests and asking if they have reached a decision yet.

I received a very nice email from them a day later saying they are still interviewing candidates, and they are interested in me and consider myself in the running, but had not made a decision yet. They would try to let me know if they want to pursue further by the middle to end of next week.

Its now two weeks later, and I am wondering if I should send another follow up email, and if so what should I say?

I sent the typical follow up email right after each of the interviews, and a 4th follow up email when I didn't hear from them the first time, so would a 5th email be unwelcome? How often should I try and follow up with this company after getting no response?

Answer 1

I once interviewed with a company that I didn't hear from for about 4 months. When I did finally hear from them, they offered me a job.

I would pursue other leads, assuming this one to be on hiatus or perhaps dead in the water. But, I wouldn't be shocked if you wind up hearing back finally, later. The people doing hiring are often quite busy with work other than hiring. In some cases, this is a purely unusual and extra curricular activity.

So, you interview and then the CFO goes on a two week vacation so no money decisions like a hire can be made. Then the HR liason goes on vacation for a week. Then there's some emergency at some offsite location where the people who interviewed you have to go for two weeks. Suddenly, more than a month is gone. It's not that they forgot about you or intend any offense -- just that businesses have certain amounts of bureaucracy and things have a way of getting put off.

Answer 2

While persistence often pays off, sending emails repeatedly is not likely to help your situation. There's a good chance they've already filled the position and simply not told you.

Very few recruiters ever call to "sign off" potential recruits who are not chosen for a variety of reasons: it's unpleasant (no one wants to deliver bad news), the one they've chosen might not actually start or might not work out (so they want to still be able to call you without admitting that), they will have another opening eventually or they're busy filling other positions and doing other aspects of their job.

The other day, someone wrote in to a morning show asking if they were crazy for sending Donald Trump a letter with their business ideas once a week for 4 years. They thought they were just being persistent, but 200 letters was just crazy. The advice provided was to start implementing the ideas instead of waiting for Donald Trump to become their sugar-daddy.

So, my suggestion is to simply move on - you have done your due diligence and excessive follow up might raise a red flag for them. If they want you, they know how to reach you.

Answer 3

It can be difficult to feel you have been "left hanging" by a firm when you felt that the interview process you went through was very positive. I've been on both sides of the fence and understand the frustration you feel.

One tip to help to mitigate this is to always ask at interview how many other people are being considered for the role, and, at second or third interviews to follow this up by asking if you are the preferred candidate. You may not get a straight or honest answer, but no matter what the response you can then easily ask about time lines.

In this situation, I would suggest they are still interested, but they are not in a position where they can let you know one way or the other. There are a number of possible reasons for this I can think of or have experienced, starting with the hardest one first:

• you are not the preferred candidate; you are their number 2 pick, and they are negotiating with their #1 who has not committed to the role, or perhaps is going through reference checks and so on

• they haven't interviewed everyone; a stand-out candidiate on paper couldn't make an interview for a valid reason, and they want to give them a chance

• the decision makers can't get together; stuff happens - people get sick, have to travel and so on. Getting everyone into the same room to make the call can be tricky

• they can't get sign off on the role; some companies have a sign-off and approval process that takes time, or some other internal company political barrier that they can work around, but takes time

I would send another e-mail after two weeks, or perhaps talk to the HR department, and ask them for a time line on when you should hear by. In the meantime, it is well worth starting the process with other companies.

Answer 4

Its good to follow up with the company especially once the company has given you a get back date and they have gone past that. As a hiring manager I was never put off by job seekers mailing or calling me for a status update - if they didn't make it they were told. If the application was still processing they were told - more so I told them to call me back in a couple of weeks if they hadn't heard anything.

Most people who say emails don't get them jobs don't really understand the anxiety that job seekers go through. Sending them a mail every 2 weeks doesn't do any harm - if they don't respond to you then yeah - give it up. If they do respond to you every time you send them a mail - keep sending. Some recruitment processes can take up to 3 months.