to think this is shoddy after a job interview?

[LindorDoubleChoc]

Had job interview early last week, after a preliminary phone interview. I was there being interviewed by two people for nearly 2 hours and had to complete some written tasks (like a simple test).

When I left the woman who interviewed me said they would let people know by the end of the week or possibly Monday. I asked how many they were seeing and she replied "4".

So I haven't heard anything and just feel in my bones that I'm not going to by the end of today. If I don't, AIBU to think this is an absolutely unacceptable way to treat the unsuccessful candidates, given that there were such a small number?

I WAS sad at the thought of not getting the job, now I feel I'd sooner not work for a business that is so ... rude? is that the word?

I’m quite lucky and the past few jobs I’ve had interviews for they’ve let me know in good time. I can’t recall if one I chased or not, it was down to me and another internal candidate and I did wait at least 2 weeks, I didn’t get it. Not sure I’d send an email like you’ve suggested though OP.

Yeah, if they're so inundated they can't find the time to send three "thanks but no thanks emails" then it sounds like I'm the one who dodged the bullet! It must be unimaginably fraught there if they don't have the time for that.

100% give it a bit longer. We interviewed someone had to jump through some HR hoops and negotiate salary as HR wanted lower before we could even offer. Then the candidate declined and we offered to the next person. There can be perfectly good reasons why it takes a while

Sometimes with the best will in the world these things take a bit longer than anticipated.

It's not a simple thing to interview candidates, decide who best suits the organisation and then sort out all the contractual stuff, and people will have their day jobs to get on with as well.

If you throw the toys out of the pram over a day or two of delay you are going to spend your life getting very annoyed over things you don't need to.

One job where I was offered the job they had a huge HR dept (big company) and talent manager. The other job was a huge company (high street bank) but they were doing this in house but seemingly without or hands off from HR. So the EA/PAs dealing with it had other work to do.

I'll give you a worse one - I was interviewed on a Tuesday a few weeks ago. They said they'd let me know by the end of the week. On Friday afternoon they were still deciding. On Monday morning at 9am, I attended a meeting (with multiple organizations present) and the successful candidate was there, having already started the job. That was how I found out. They must have lied on that Friday afternoon.

They have probably offered to someone and they haven’t accepted yet. They won’t tell the unsuccessful parties until they have had an offer accepted.

I feel your pain OP, why treat another person this way?

A text takes minutes.

They could be in negotiations with one candidate, they may not want to tell people no until they have paperwork signed.

If you are a definite no I would expect they would've told you by now.

Given how histrionic you are being though I am wondering how you came across in interview

I admit its not good to set expectations and then not meet them.

However as someone who has interviewed in former roles, sometimes events happen that means they cannot meet that expectation. There error is not communicating that but:

1. If there is a panel of interviewers, they interview in-between their own job and so they may not have had time to get together to discuss their findings, one of the panel may have been sick, someone may have had a higher priority work related issue to address etc
2. The candidate they maybe interested in, may have issues that they want to sort out with HR first
3. And lets be honest, you maybe the 2nd choice and they are edging their bets to offer it to the first choice and are waiting for their acceptance before they send you a declination.
4. There maybe a change in recruitment requirements and they are assessing the situation.
5. As an ex Civil Servant, we would interview, select our candidate and then wait for HR to do their bit and that could cause delays.

If you want the job, you need to be patient but I would say that by the close of business today if you haven't heard, you can send a gentle chaser email. Just ask if a decision has been made as you were advised the successful candidate would be advised by Monday just gone and if you were unsuccessful, is there any constructive feedback? Don't blow up though, you never know where you will go in life or where their team will move to and the last thing you want is a reputation for being bolshy!

I suspect they’ve offered it but the candidate has asked for time to consider the offer.

Have you sent them a chaser email politely asking if there has been any update? It maybe that something has happened unexpectedly to one of the people that did the interview or something else might have happened unexpectedly which maybe holding it up?

It happened to me once where I was told that they would be contacting candidates by end of play on the Monday as the interview was on the Thursday morning. Sent a couple of emails , never had a reply as one of them was also on leave and never heard back. Few months down the line, saw it re advertised, emailed them about and never heard back so did not re apply

In this situation I would have got someone on the phone after the first email went u answered and asked for feedback, at that point you can establish if they’d be interested in you applying for other positions down the line.

Have you heard anything yet OP?

This
@LindorDoubleChoc
You may be the second candidate and they dont want to let you know until they are certain Candidate 1 is/ isnt accepting or they cant get hold of 1 st candidate

Ive also been in situations where they want to employ more than one and a bit of hoop jumping has to be done .

After 5 interviews they know

4 people! They had to contact 4 people, after you’d been sat there 2 hours at their pleasure!
yes, I’d be pissed and want a reply.
i would also contact them and enquire as to why you hadn’t heard anything but I’d do it in a very professional manner.
wait a couple of weeks and send this to their original email offer of the interview.

The "Professional Reality Check" Letter
Subject: Following up: [Job Title] Role / [Your Name]
Dear [Interviewer Name],
I am writing to check in on the status of the [Job Title] role.
After our two-hour conversation on [Date], I was very enthusiastic about the possibility of joining the team. However, as it has been [Number] weeks without an update—and knowing the candidate pool was quite small—the lack of communication has been unexpected.
While I still value the time we spent discussing the role, prompt communication is an important factor for me when considering a new professional environment. Based on the silence, I am assuming the timeline has shifted or you have moved in another direction.
I wish you the best of luck with the final selection.
Best regards,
[Your Name]
Why this works:

• The "Aggrieved" Part: Mentioning the two-hour time investment and the small candidate pool subtly points out that their silence is rude without using the word "rude."
• The "Dodged a Bullet" Part: By stating that "communication is an important factor" for you, you are essentially telling them they have failed your personal standards for a good employer.

Goodness, I wonder what LucysAwake wrote!?

A human assessing that email:

"Hahaha what a twat, glad we didn't give them a job!"

Why is ok for potential employers to take the piss, put people out, expect them to spend hours travelling and interviewing etc just to be ghosted but " wrong" and something to take the piss out of if an " interviewed" calls them out on it?