Not hearing back after an interview

[fluffythecat1]

I attended an interview for a Learning Support Assistant position at a secondary school last Thursday, was told that they should be able to get back to me within a couple of days. Since then, I have heard nothing and it’s been a week now. I followed up with the HR department and sent them a polite email a couple of days ago, just asking for further thoughts or if a decision had been made.
The HR department did tell me pre-interview that they were looking at changing the working pattern for the role, however I was hoping, that even given this, I might get a response or some sort of clarification. What do others think?

Did they say they’d get back to you either way? Or only if successful?

They said they had another candidate to interview later the same day and that they would likely get back to me the next day.

Things can change and often due re decision-making timeline.

To give you a few examples of many possible changing circumstances

• the main decision maker is on unplanned annual leave or off sick
• one of the strong candidates' interview had to be pushed back and a decision will not be made before this interview takes place
• a higher manager has asked to be involved in the process and candidates now also need to speak to that person (has happened to me in every single job process last 5 years and not announced beforehand)
• a higher manager wants to assess whether this vacancy could be filled differently/ the exact hours ad budget
• someone internal has offered to do more hours and they are assessing what the exact pattern for this vacancy would be as a result

Unfortunately delays are normal and expected, following the timeline the company initially communicates is quite rare these days.

Don't assume you've been unsuccessful. Especially if they are looking to change the pattern, they will want to come back to you with the defined and signed off info, not tell you one thing and then backtrack.

Thanks, I’m going to try to mentally park it, since I’ve followed up and the ball is in their court at this stage. I was shortlisted for two other roles recently and interviewed, however just missed out on the last position, so I was hoping that this would be third time lucky! 🍀 🙂

So they didn’t say “if you are successful”?