Long delay between job applications and hearing back

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This isn’t really rant-worthy so I’m putting this here instead; I’m just babbling. It was inspired by Gundy’s urgent push to find herself a new job, as well as events recently.

I was laid off in June due to budget cuts, and had a ton of vacation time left since I rarely took time off. I was compensated for that as my severance package, so I figured I would take some serious time off and then start looking for a job.

Heh. If I’d taken only a few weeks off, I might have found a job right around when I wanted to have one. I started applying for jobs seriously in September; I might have started the month before but I was out of town a lot helping my oldest friend get her wedding set up, and I thought that if I got a reply back and I wasn’t able to meet their interview dates, that would look bad. I guess I shouldn’t have worried about that.

One place that I applied to in September was strict about only wanting to hear from you once, and that they would put your resume on file for a year after you apply. I was surprised I heard nothing at all back, since I indicated a number of positions that I thought I was an excellent match for. Recently, a sister-in-law who works there told me that I should have at least received a form letter “we got your resume” notification back, and so someone probably lost my resume - either the postal service or someone at the institution itself.

About six weeks after I submit some resumes to one place, I get a call for an interview. I interview (noticing the interviewer has a pile of resumes) and get a job offer within days. I accept the position, and am currently working there. The following day, I get a call asking me to come interview for 2 positions at another location that I’d applied to even longer ago.

I accepted my job offer weeks ago, at this point. Yesterday, I get a call to interview somewhere that I applied to at least 6 weeks ago, if not longer.

Is six weeks a normal amount of time to wait before you hear about a job? I can understand wanting to collect the best possible pool of candidates, and the various bureaucratic delays and so on, but from the perspective of the job hunter, once a month has gone by you start figuring that they aren’t interested. Plus for each day that goes by, you get slightly less optimistic and more desperate for a job. I ignored the advice of job hunting books and didn’t ask for a day to think the offer over, I accepted it on the spot. It didn’t hurt that it was the kind of job that I really wanted, but at that point I would have accepted something a lot more menial as well.

I should add that I was applying mostly to universities and large hospitals; the size and structure of the institutions involved may have something to do with the delay.

2

I sent a resume for a specific advertised postion in the IS department of a hospital back in May. I got a call for an interview in July, and started in August. So I don’t think your case in unusual. After I started, I got a call from a place I’d applied to in June.

3

From my (not inconsiderable) experience of job hunting, six weeks is on the long side of normal, but still normal. Particularly if you’re dealing with large institutions.

I’m still waiting for an answer from a place I applied to in 1996. And the way things are right now, if they ever do offer me the job, I’ll probably take it.

4

I don’t think your wait was unusual at all, considering who you applied to. When I applied for a federal job, my application went out in October of 1987 and I was not offered the job until February of 1988. I currently work at a university and applied in May of 2000, if I remember correctly. I had a couple of interviews in July and an offer in August. The job I ended up getting was a newly-created position - it had taken a year for the department to formulate the guidelines for it and get approval to hire.

5

Don’t ever apply to the Feds then. When I applied to them for the job I currently have it took them 8 months to get back to me. Hell I’d forgotten that I had even applied there.

6

See, this is good for me to hear, because I applied for four different jobs three days ago, and am already feeling dejected because I haven’t heard from any of them! :wink:

So I, too, am unfamiliar with the “extended waiting period” before finding out about a job. This is partially because my current job is the first “adult” job I’ve ever had (before this I was in school doing work study and/or waiting tables, and those are the kind of jobs that pretty much hire you on the spot), and there wasn’t a huge pool of applicants, so I got the “You’re hired!” call about a week sooner than I expected to hear anything (but, then, the position had been vacant for two months, and he was eager to get someone in there).

So just out of curiosity, Denise… if one of those other job offers had come (or even just an interview offer) sooner, do you think you would have chosen it over the job you have now?

7

Yeah, I started work the beginning of the month and just got a call from an old resume yesterday.

Every firm has its schedule. And possibly their first round of interviews didn’t produce a happy outcome.

8

When I was looking for a job to relocate to VA the one I took was actually a job I’d applied for in January. I interviewed in June.

Large institutions can take some time. After I moved I was offered antoher interview for a position I applied to in December of last year. It was a federal job.

9

I’m posting pre-caffeination here, so bear with me. If you mean would I have gone with it because I’d been offered a job and wanted just to be working again, yes. Even during my “vacation” period, I was feeling pretty bad simply because I didn’t have a job, even though my severance package had enough money to get by for quite some time. By the time I finally got this job offer, I was getting fairly stressed because I wasn’t getting any responses aside from those annoying people from Primerica/Citigroup.

If you mean would I have preferred any of those job offers over my current one, no. This one has more opportunities for advancement and is a far better match for what I like to do. I would have kicked myself for taking a different job had I heard this job description. So getting those calls now is part ego-booster, part ‘damn, these guys take forever to respond’.

10

Are any of these hospitals or schools run by the state? Right now I’m hearing back about two weeks later, but that’s just from privately ran places, and that’s a fairly long time. I’m depressed that I just had an interview for a place I can’t handle working for, and that it took two weeks to hear back from them after sending in my resume. Oh well, I’ve sent out four others in the past two weeks, so…

But back to state run things: I applied for a state position in August of 1999, and got a letter three weeks later saying that they would be calling people they were interested in for interviews “in the near future.” I eventually joined AmeriCorps*VISTA and started my training for that position the week before Thanksgiving. While I was in NY, my dad got a call- from the postion I’d applied for in August. He told me the man was put out that I was no longer interested in an interview!

11

Mrs. Bernse was getting bummed at her past position so she sent out a resume for an advertised proffesional position at another company.

That was the beginning of Sept. Got a call back for an interview 2 weeks ago (!!) and was offered the position yesterday.

12

My husband has been sending out resumes and applications for a couple of months. He’s had one phone interview which led to nothing. We know he’s made the “qualified” list for a gov’t job, but it could be months before anything happens with that. Needless to say, he’s not very happy. We’re on pins and needles hoping his current employer doesn’t lay him off before something else is lined up.

I talked to my boss 6 months ago, letting him know that in May of '04, I’ll want to be transferred. I asked him when we need to start working on that. He said I should allow 18 months. This for a current employee to transfer into an area where, from what I hear, they’re hurting for engineers. Seems to me it shouldn’t take half that long, but what do I know??

13

Nowadays, yes, it’s common to wait that long. Some places I heard back from 2+ months later (after I’d figured I wasn’t going to hear from them and had tossed the job description, of course.)

A LOT of places are dragging their feet because as much as they might need someone, no one wants to spend money to have them. Some places are so slow that they ask for 3 or more interviews just to get to the final phase of making an actual decision. I even had one place call me for an interview, then call me two days before the interview to cancel because of budget problems, then call me again a week later asking me to come in again. Some have gone through the interview process only to reject EVERYONE they called in and started looking for someone else yet. (It’s not like they can’t afford to be picky now, after all.)

14

This thread is making me feel much better. Thanks doubly, DeniseV.

15

I’ve heard more stories like this lately.

I work in higher ed, and our hiring pace is positively glacial. I feel so bad for our applicants.

16

I have been looking for an assistant for about a month now. When the position first opened up, the first thing I did was have HR call the strong applicants from the last time the position was open to see if any of them were interested. None were, but I figured it was worth a try.

17

I have a similar question. I applied for a fellowship that had a strict deadline. They say they’ll drop you a note letting you know that they received the application. It’s been more than three weeks and I haven’t even gotten confirmation that the application was received. I know that they won’t be calling for interviews until January or so, but I’d like to know that it didn’t get lost in the mail. Do I call?

18

I’ve been working for my current employer for 11 months now … and a job I applied for 13 months ago finally got back to me last week!

Funny thing is, the letter says I was highly qualified for the position but after reviewing the job requirements it’s pretty obvious I have nothing in common with it.

19

This thread is making me feel better as well :slight_smile:

Some of the jobs I’m applying for have “opening” and “closing” dates that are 3-6 months apart. I’m assuming it might be better to get your application in sooner, rather than waiting until the end of the time frame. Another job, however, says your application should be received by Dec. 16. I took that to mean they are going to wait until all the apps are in, and then start looking through them. Anyone have any insight?

20

Generally, that means that they’ll wait until December 16 to start looking at them. But a career counselor told me not to wait until the last minute because sometimes they look at them on a rolling basis and the position can fill before the deadline.