Time from Interview to Offer?

[Hoping]

What is the timespan from the interview to the job offer? When should one give up hope and assume that the job has been offered to another candidate?

[gugol]

Feb 26, 2010 20:28:05 GMT -5 @Hoping said:

What is the timespan from the interview to the job offer? When should one give up hope and assume that the job has been offered to another candidate?

There is no fixed timespan. I would say most places make an offer within a month of the last interview. But unless you know when that last interview was, it is hard to tell when that is. On top of that, the fact that several places are making further budget cuts right about now may mean that it will take longer than a month to get the OK from the administration to make the offer.

And there is always the possibility that the first option declines the offer and they offer it to a second person, and that would take over a month.

Point being, unless you've heard that they made an offer and the person accepted, there is no reason to give up hope. I don't know if that is good or not, but its true.

[Dont Know]

A month from the last interview? Are you sure it is not a month from the first interview? Usually don't search committees have the job candidates come in one after another?

I read a thread on the CHE Fora, and one person indicated s/he received an offer within an hour of her interview! There seemed to be a few who received offers within a week of their interviews! Is this common?

Does the dean not have to approve which candidate is offered the job first, or is the matter strictly the decision of the soc department faculty and chair? Or does this vary from department to department?

[gugol]

Feb 26, 2010 22:44:26 GMT -5 @Dont Know said:

A month from the last interview? Are you sure it is not a month from the first interview? Usually don't search committees have the job candidates come in one after another?

I read a thread on the CHE Fora, and one person indicated s/he received an offer within an hour of her interview! There seemed to be a few who received offers within a week of their interviews! Is this common?

Does the dean not have to approve which candidate is offered the job first, or is the matter strictly the decision of the soc department faculty
and chair? Or does this vary from department to department?

I said a month after the last interview because it can really take that long to get an approval, especially this year, as university systems are just finding out about new rounds of budget cuts.

Keep in mind that I said "can," not "will."

Which is why I said there is no fixed time span. Some places are bound by fewer rules and can move quickly, others take a long time.


Generally departments will know who they want to hire within a week of the last interview, but how long the official offer will come in depends. I know someone who had an offer when he landed after returning from the interview. I also know of a search last year that took 4 months to fly someone over for an interview, and another month and a half to make an offer. And I also know someone who interviewed in mid january who received a call last week saying that they finally made a recommendation to the dean and are waiting to hear back.

[waiting]

Generally things happen pretty quick after the last interview though it is hard to know when that last interview was unless they told you--which doesn't always happen. My quick and dirty answer to this question is that you will usually know something within a week or so after the last interview. However, I have had situations that took much longer and ones that took much shorter times. For example, I had an offer last year about 6 weeks after my interview and I know for a fact that I was their first (and only) offer. It turns out that it was held up in the Dean's office for no other reason than they were slow. On the other hand, I had an offer this year practically the moment my return flight landed. In this case, I had a voice mail left during my flight that wanted to discuss what an offer "might look like" if one were made. In both cases I think there were some reasonable explanations for why they were outliers--bureaucracy in the first case and a small department in the latter--however there is no way to really predict what will happen.

Let me just say a couple other things. First, if you had an interview it means you have a chance. They aren't wasting money flying people out that they do not want to hire. Secondly, you probably have a good sense of how you did during the interview so go with your instincts as to whether or not they liked you. If you think it went well, my guess is that it did go well. And although you probably did better than you think in your interview, you probably also know if you blew the interview so be realistic (your instincts are of course influenced by the number of interviews you have done). Finally, departmental politics can slow (or kill) offers and there is no way to predict when this will happen. In many cases it also has nothing to do with the candidate.

In the end, DON'T READ ANYTHING IN TO WAIT TIMES! It is what it is. Some places take longer than others and there isn't much you can do about it. Usually the chair will provide you with a general time frame and maybe specifics if you email them, and you should do this if you think it has been a while, but be prepared for a cryptic email that may only give you more anxiety if you are trying to read something in to every action (or non-action). Your best option would be to find an "insider" to get to the bottom of it, but short of that you may just have to rely on plain old patience.

[anonym]

In general, it is true that it depends. However, a search committee usually won't leave you hanging for very long if you are their first choice. So it is possible that they have made an offer to someone else, that person is negotiating, and that they will not let you know anything unless this person has a confirmed offer (either at this place or elsewhere). If it has been longer than a month, I would email the head of the search committee and ask them. If they have made somebody else an offer, there is a good chance they will tell you that.

[another anon]

I agree wholeheartedly with the comments from "waiting." As soon as your interview has concluded and you step off campus you can be absolutely certain of two and only two things:

• You have not yet received an offer
  
• You have not yet received a rejection letter

Take whatever pleasure you can in the experiences you had and the people you met, but then get on with your life. Don't expend too much effort trying to read the tea leaves (or any posts on the sociology rumor mill) -- you can never trust them and their cryptic messages will drive you nuts. Resolution will come soon enough. I find the Serenity Prayer useful in these situations.