I spoke yesterday about some of the advantages of not letting a job search campaign slide into inactivity over the Christmas period, but of course one of the downsides around any major vacation period is the fact that, in some cases, there are inevitably going to be delays in receiving a response. Like children waiting for that special day to arrive, the anticipation can build to fever pitch and jobseekers can be left feeling unable to think about anything else.
There are few things more frustrating than waiting to hear back from a recruiter, especially after an interview which seemed to go well and especially if you are in a position where you desperately need to find work, but unfortunately there is also little or nothing that you can do to speed the process along.
While it can be all too easy to put these delays down to laziness or indecision on the part of the recruiter, or to berate the company for putting one person in charge of the hiring only to let him go off on vacation just at the crucial moment, in most cases the final decision will actually be down to a number of key people and of course trying to co-ordinate their activities over the holidays can be a nightmare. The hiring manager himself will, as you might expect, be involved in every step of the process, but almost certainly he will be working alongside, at the very least, the HR department, and probably the Finance department and perhaps senior management too. In some cases, even managers from departments which are closely aligned to the one that you are hoping to join may also be involved, and even your prospective colleagues might have a say in the final decision. Ensuring the availability of all these people over the Christmas vacation can prove to be a bit of a challenge for the recruiter and so delays can often result.
The frustration that we feel at times like this usually comes about because of expectations. In our own minds we feel fairly certain about what is a reasonable amount of time to wait for an answer and when these timescales have long since come and gone, we begin to feel anxious and irritated. The best thing that you can do, therefore, is to assume nothing and check out the situation at the time of your interview. Although you will want to avoid coming across as over-anxious or even desperate and should never ask directly how long the process will take, you can get some excellent clues simply by asking what the company’s hiring process involves. If you are told it involves three, four or even five separate steps, then you can bet that a number of decision-makers are going to be involved and can adjust your expectations of the waiting time accordingly and hopefully suffer less in the process.
Employers don’t gain anything by spinning out their hiring processes and in most cases are as anxious as you are to get everything signed and sealed. As soon as they are in a position to let you know their decision, you will be advised, so try not to spoil your own festive season with pointless worries, check out your expectations and don’t put your job search on hold in the meantime.
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