Can anyone please suggest a one line email asking an HR dept for news about whether Ive been offered a job or not?

[Nighbynight]

It is 3 months since my 2nd interview. in that time, Ive had some correspondence with them that included a verbal job offer, around 3 weeks ago, start date to be 1st november.
since then I have heard nothing.

in case you are thinking "why on earth do you want the job if they treat people like this?" the answer is that it is a totally fab job, and they know that I wont refuse it in a million years (cant say more without identifying the employer).

Id like to write a one line email to let them know Im still interested, but cant think of anything more inspirational than "is there any news yet?"

current situation is, that I havent actually signed a new contract with my current employer, because I had some extra hours to do from my old contract (informally agreed to do these first).
But, would be letting current employer down if I just skipped out without warning at the end of my extra hours. they are honest and trust me[judas emoticon]

Is there really no one else you can contact? I'd phone the hiring manager and explain that whilst you are still very interested you need clarification from them. They will be more interested in keeping you sweet than HR who may not care.

www, I suspect that it may be something like what you outlined in your last post.

I made a major bloomer, and forgot the name of the hiring manager

Dear x

Further to your job offer and proposed starting date of 1st November I am writing to inform you that I am still very much looking forward to working with .

However I am becoming increasingly concerned that I know no further details. I would very much appreciate it if you would let me know by the details of the contract including salary, benefits and start date.

As you are aware I am on 4 weeks notice at my present company.

I look forward to hearing from you by

Kind regards

cc new boss

ooh twig, very good letter, thank you! think I will have to send something like this.
Would be much more effective if I could cc hiring manager though.

If it was through an agent can you involve them? They will be keen to get their fee and will find out what is going on for you.

no agent, unfortunately.

find out MD or CE and copy them in then

I'm fairly certain that at no point did I suggest you should 'piss off your current employer, find a flat, pack up and move yourself, 4 children, an au pair and 2 goldfish within 3 weeks, whilst also working full time' before you have received an offer letter.

I just think deciding purely on the basis of it being a 3 week delay from offer to written confirmation, that it would be a bit drastic to dump the job completely. That could easily be one crap HR person, not necessarily representative of either the HR dept as a whole, the employer as a whole and your line manager, who is the most important person.

You have been given some decent wording, but I would also keep trying to speak to someone as well, much quicker response and more difficult to ignore.

I know the name of the MD, but that would be a bit drastic?

I don't think you can relocate without a written offer. I moved my family for my job BUT I had a written offer, they'd taken references and credit checks, blah blah, I doubted very much that it would fall through.

no, I certainly cant! that's why the move would have to be done so quickly, if I do get a written offer from them in the next couple of weeks.

So I think you stay where you are, wait and see. If they come up with a written offer you THEN move and tell them your start date will be x, x being 4/5 weeks from written offer. That's entirely reasonable. And they won't lose the right person for the job for the sake of a couple of weeks. Well, they're mad if they do, most employers wouldn't.

mmm, that is a good idea about negotiating the starting date if I get a firm offer. Could backfire if the next starting date is april! I will try to get some info over the grapevine about that.

You could do with finding out the name of the hiring manager to send an effective letter/email (Twig?s one sounded really good btw)
How big is the company? Do they have a front desk manning a main phoneline that you could phone, maybe (cringe) anonymously asking that you are writing a letter which needed to be directed to the company?s manager in charge of hiring staff and would they be so helpful as to give you a name?
Just a though

I really feel for you. I hope that www is wrong in her suggestions, but I have a feeling she could be spot on.
Weird that they have such definite start dates like that -in fact, the whole set up is weird. Are you really really really sure this is a company worth risking a move for?

they get 100s of applications per vacancy, btw. much as I hate being in this situation, I am very lucky to have got this far.

Would it be so bad to play cautious and see if you could wait until April? Personally, I would be tempted to go down that route (if I thought the job offer would still be open). You could get Christmas out of the way, have plenty of time to get organised instead of mad crazy two week rush, and give current boss decent notice.

I would join any time if they would give me the job! But the message at the interview was that they have a backlog of work and they need a specialist quickly.

But in which case THEY should have been more organised and got the offer out, in writing, in time for someone to take it! It's not your fault! If they need someone who's immediately available they should be looking at contractors/interims - as they're looking at people in perm jobs they have to accept that a notice period applies.

I'd hold my nerve and do nothing in your situation I think.

And you're not 'lucky' - you've clearly got the skill set they're looking for!

Totally agree. Ok so it is a fabby job you would love to do. Just remember you were chosen out of loads and loads of people and are just what they want. So, rather than it being a fabby job you want, start thinking you are a fabby person they desperately need over loads of other choices
www is right. If they want you and are genuine in their job offer, they will come back to you and will be forced into being a little more flexible re starting dates if that is what it takes. You have made them aware of your 4 week notice period, up to them to work around you now.

thank you. It is very helpful to get other perspectives on this, because I am too emotionally involved in the possibility of change of school etc.

just thought I'd update the lovely people who helped me:

I sent Twig's email, and got no response. But today I got not one, but 2 rejection emails.

One was a completely standard "we are unable to offer you a job", giving away nothing.

The other said "I amm sor ry to inform you that xxx xxx is not in the position to offer you a jo b at the momment.
Obviouslly you have the qqualifications requessted for a posst as yyyyyyy an d I can onlly encourrrrrage you to reapply.

signed personally by my contact there.

(I have added the extra letters to confound any (unlikely) internet search).

the rules are, that you are allowed to reapply a year after your original application - if that means the date you put the form in, then I only have 6 months to wait.

I am guessing that the budget might have been frozen. they get so many 000s of applications, I cant believe they would encourage me to reapply if there wasnt some real hope.