How long to wait to hear back from interview?

[crambosk]

Hi all, I was just wondering whether people knew how long roughly to wait to hear back from an interview? I had an interview for a job I really liked over three weeks ago, thought it went well, but haven't heard anything since. They said they were going to let applicants know early the week after, but I didn't hear anything. So I chased a few days after, where I got a reply from two different people saying that they're recruiting for a number of positions right now and they'll let me know either way as soon as these have been finalised. That was over two weeks ago now and haven't heard anything since... I don't want to chase again without coming off pushy, but equally would like to know an outcome as I hate the waiting game and would like feedback if I got rejected (I'm assuming this is the case given lack of response). Does anyone have any ideas of why it's taking so long? Shall I assume rejection and not bother chasing? It's a government organisation but not the civil service FWIW.

I would probably assume at this point that you weren't successful for the job you've applied for but have made it onto some kind of reserve list to be potentially offered or asked to apply for a different job in the future - that is usually the reason for a long wait and no answer either way when you ask what's happening. Poor form to not let you know though - I'd politely ask again at this stage...

Assume rejection I'm afraid

@maxelly you say maybe she is on a reserve list or something, so does this mean that recruiters let the successful candidates know first and unsuccessful people or people on reserve list are informed later?

I'm also waiting to hear back its been two weeks now. I didn't chase it up as don't want to sound desperate or should I chase it up? I'm just not sure if I should chase up or not.

since it's been two weeks and not heard back should I assume that I'm unsuccessful or is there a chance I'm sucessful ? because my understanding is that government jobs take a while to respond with the outcome anyway?

thanks

Hi Carol, obviously there is no way to be certain and processes will vary from place to place, but what happens at my work (which I'd say is fairly representative of the public sector) is that we will give all candidates a deadline of when they should expect to hear the results of their interview, normally a week or 10 days after the last candidates interview (n.b. not necessarily that time after their own interview, as if we are seeing a lot of people interviews may be spaced over the course of a week). The successful candidate(s) are usually contacted first, often well before the deadline e.g. 24-48 hours after the last interview. Sometimes people request a bit of time to think about the offer esp. if they have other interviews/irons in the fire, and so we usually give them up to a week to accept/decline. HR will contact all the definitely unsuccessful candidates within the deadline, usually a day or two later, and we may keep a 2nd or even 3rd choice candidate 'on hold' while we are waiting to hear back from the 1st choice person. If this for some reason takes longer than the deadline I gave them, I personally would contact all the reserve list candidates to say we need a bit longer to get back to them (or I would ask HR to do so), but this is the kind of thing which can slip a person's mind so it's possible that's what's happened to OP/you. If the 2nd/3rd choice candidates are really good we may keep them on a longer term 'reserve list'/'talent pool' list even if our first choice accepts (in case of future vacancies), but we would always contact the person if this was the case and let them know/offer feedback/ask if they agreed to their contact details being held in this way.

So unfortunately, I would have thought if it's been 2 weeks or more, it's probably more likely that you/OP has simply not been successful and someone has forgotten to send out the notification emails, or possibly the organisation you applied for is one of the kind that simply says 'don't call us we'll call you' and doesn't bother letting unsuccessful candidates know - yes they do still exist in this day and age and yes it is very rude/annoying!

I'd say there is no harm in calling up or emailling a polite request for an update as really otherwise all you can do is speculate and its not unreasonable to expect to have heard something 2 weeks later?

Totally depends on the employer, I haven't been for loads of interviews but for those I have there hasn't been any kind of set procedure or timetable how it works

I know in the public sector it might be more regimented but ime in the private sector you have to wait and see, not ideal but that's life and I expect at the moment things might be more unpredictable

Without a firm rejection I would assume reserve list. Don't chase again - they know you're keen as you've already followed up once

@maxelly thank you for reply. I will chase up like you suggested.

I didn't know that some organisations may not inform someone if they have been unsuccessful :-O but I guess you're right that they still exist!