Hiring process duration?
 

Hello there!

General question because of a personal situation:

How long did your hiring process take?

I know that it makes a huge difference if it is government job or not, industries vary as well, but just in general.

Why I am asking? I had a phone interview and in person interview and was wondering how long I should wait before moving on and forgetting about the position in question.

Thanks a bunch in advance.

(If of any interest, industry is insurance, but IT job.)

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

As quick as a couple of weeks, but I know of cases where there was a lag of a couple of months from application to offer, and one month from interview to offer, shorter time lapses are more common though.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

I would try a Glassdoor search on the company to gauge what is normal for them.

I have had anything from less than a week to up to a few months.

Regardless of being offered or not or timescales - I would keep looking anyway!

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

I would also suggest, if it has been two weeks or so, a polite follow-up email to the hiring manager or to HR along the lines of "is there anything else you would like to know" or "checking in on next steps" might not be a bad idea. Shows you are still interested.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

Thanks for the info so far!

The in person interview was only last week Wednesday, so fairly "fresh".

I looked the company up on glassdoor as well, unfortunately, since it is a fairly big company, they have a couple of campuses and time to hire seems to vary drastically between those. There are not many reports from the campus I applied for, and most of them without timeline info.

H-Bomb: I do currently have a job, but am not really satisfied with it, thus why I'm looking, so there is no pressure in my job search and I'm really cherry picking, not wanting to end up somewhere I don't like it again ;)

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

3 days for one job, 3 months for another job which involved several skype interviews with people in the UK and US and onsite interview.

Just depends on the company.

Sounds like I am in the same boat as you. The company I work for now has 4 1/2 stars on glass door when I joined. Unfortunately most of those were from people who had grandfathered benefits. They has recently changed their benefits, where even HR got things wrong. Since I joined there have been a fair number of new reviews on glassdoor complaining about the benefits.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

Every company is different, I've been hired on the spot and as late as 3 weeks later. But generally always within 2-3 days of the interview on average.

Generally if I don't hear anything back within 2 weeks of the interview. I assume I didn't get it, rare to have a company in my experience contact you that you didn't get a job.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

They may also check your refs right before making you an offer, so you could check with them as to whether they have heard anything.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

The most annoying one was when I got the offer and then few days later they told me that I had to wait for my background checks to complete which took almost 2 weeks. I almost told them to stick the job. I found that quite poor as I had already given notice.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

all depends who has to sign off the budget. ive had internal moved held up 2-3 months while budgets are argued over by high ups many levels above the hiring manager.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

Depending on the job, from interview to offer has ranged from immediate, a week, a month, to never ever hearing back from HR despite third round of interviews.

There really doesn't seem to be a standard.

A follow up prod to hiring manager with the guise of offering to answer any follow up questions they might have, or a follow up question about a project you might have certainly won't hurt though.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

Thanks all for sharing your experiences!

I decided to wait until tomorrow (so interview + 7 days) to write a follow up with offering to answer additional questions etc. to the hiring manager with HR copied.

My problem is probably that I thought the interview went really well, I was even feeling secure enough to ask the question if they can see me working in this position with my experience/education and all three of them (hiring manager and two direct colleagues) didn't hesitate when saying yes.
With my last job I got the call to let me know they'll extend an offer 4 days after the interview (and I didn't feel half as well as I had with this one), I'm getting more insecure by the minute.

Lion in Winter: They don't have any references from me yet. But I also don't know how many other candidates they interview and if I was one of the first to go in for an interview, etc. pp. The position got posted 4 days before Christmas, I applied and then there was silence for two weeks before scheduling the phone interview and really fast after the in person.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

Unfortunately, in my experience, how well I felt an interview went does not correlate well with whether I progress to the next round or get an offer. I'd go so far as to say for me, a "killer interview" has never led to a job offer. :(

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

When I was hiring in England I'd generally get back to them within a few days.

It would give me chance to meet up with other co-workers to get a second opinion.

Depending on the seniority, a second interview may be required. But mostly that wasn't needed as another person was interviewing with me.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

It's weird, isn't it?
That's why I normally say (if someone asks me how an interview went) that I cannot really judge, since more often than not I got the offer after thinking an interview went bad (or at least not great).

Oh well, we will see, maybe they're just still interviewing, talking budget, or just not thinking about hiring right now because something more important came up. I'll reach out tomorrow and see if I can find out. If not, another day, another job.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

Most annoying thing that happened since moving here was I applied for a job I was perfect for. Had a phone interview and all went well.

Called for in person interview - which consisted of 4 back to back 45 min interviews - so I was in there for 3 hours.

Told at the end I would here back in a week. I am thinking I nailed the interviews but then nothing at all. I chased by emailing and calling HR after a few weeks and no response or answer. Found hiring managers details and the same with them. Would never answer calls or emails.

Then after about 4 months I got an email saying my application had been unsuccessful.

Can only assume they had a few specific issues and they saw me as a free consultant for a few hours.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

H Bomb, yes, I know that problem as well.

So, the company's recruiter got back to me:
She talked to the hiring manager and he is very interested in me, but has a couple of scheduled interviews left and thus wants to wait how they pan out. She made a point in emphasizing that he is very interested in having me on his team, but obviously that doesn't mean much right now, depending on how the other interviews go.
She said to give them 1 1/2 weeks and she will get in contact and let me know what's happening.

So the waiting game continues, but at least with a little more info!

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

We typically aim for a 4 week turnaround. I.e. initial contact to person in seat within 4 weeks. I think that it also depends on location and industry. The software/tech market is hot in NYC and SF, candidates tend to have multiple offers and it helps if you can move quickly as an employer.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

Hope you've dropped the hiring manager a nice handwritten note thanking him for considering you for the position and saying what a pleasure it would be to work for the company! Even in the electronic age, little things like that help you to stand out.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

Actually, I didn't. I only got the above message yesterday, so it's not too late for anything. ;)

I understand that it helps me to stick out, but in a good way? In my opinion, if I was a hiring manager, I would feel partial to a candidate doing that. It's nice, but a little over the top and (in my mind) desperate. No?

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

I see it as detail oriented and courteous. Others may differ!

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

We had a couple of people do that for one position that was open and the team thought the letters weird and the people seemed too desperate.
We would probably spend good 4 to 5 hours interviewing someone and they would be interviewed by several members of the team then we would each write up a summary and meet to decide who to hire. I found this method worked better than just having a manager hire the person.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

To be honest, for me, receiving physical mail at work is just a nuisance and it happens so rarely that I might not notice it for weeks unless it was something that the mailroom had decided was sufficiently important that they had sent me a notification (by email of course) that there was something waiting for me.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

I think that's true in many offices these days. Also most people have a lot of correspondence to go through in daily life, especially emails.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

Anytime I have tried to followup after an interview, the manager/HR person sounded more annoyed then anything, and it's never landed a job doing it.

Every job I have gotten, I never followed up, every job I followed up on I didn't get, so I stopped following up as it appears to annoy more then assist.

But I am not applying for or working in high paying professional jobs like most on here seem to do.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

Wife recently got offered an RN job just a couple of days after the interview, and could have started at the next orientation which was twice a month. At the time she applied to a few other hospitals. Some had closing dates where all successful applicants would have to wait until that date to know; one offered a month after an interview but had no closing date.

Length of a piece of string.

References can delay things but this time and last, they said they would get them even after offering the job, and presumably cancel the offer if they were really bad or just fake. But I suspect they have a good idea based on current/previous employment.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

Went for in person interview yesterday, heard back today. So one day.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

Depends on the company/industry as others have said....

The interviews I've had so far tend to happen about a month after initial application, then things move fast or go radio silent.

One company, that i'll leave nameless I applied to in March of last year.... and forgot about. I got a request for a phone interview a few days ago. WTF?!

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

I will email a company even if you don't get the role (especially management roles), thank them for their time, enjoyed meeting them, if any other roles come available please consider me etc.
I am currently in talks with a company who I interviewed with, met the CEO at lunch etc etc over a year ago about a new role they are creating. Do I think my email helped? I like to think so.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

I agree. Anyone sending physical mail would stand out .... as slightly weird.
I agree/ am not surprised to hear that is your experience .....

I sometimes get email from people following up on positions they have interviewed for, but (i ) I usually ignore them, and (ii) it is invariably the weaker candidates who contact me. I once received a phone call from a(n internal) candidate following up. That was awkard! :o

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

I am generally most likely the weakest candidate so I feel it's best not to look too desperate and bother the interview person who may or may not be the hiring person.

Likely one of the weakest resumes as well, which likely explains the 20 months of looking but not finding anything, hell it's been almost a year since my last real interview.

And I apply to jobs in 2 different countries since the closest city in WA state is closer then commuting to say Vancouver.

Re: Hiring process duration?
 

3 to 4 days