How long is acceptable for an offer to be made ?

[MrCippo]

Went for 2 job interviews and both went really well. At the end of the second I've been told I am the preffered candidate and they will make me an offer. Impression was of urgency and was expecting the offer in the following day. Its been 7 working days now and no offer in my inbox. I sent the interviewer a thank you email the 3rd working day of waiting.

How long is too long? Obviously I dont know if their offer is what I want but the waiting is killing me.

[spikeyhead]

It could be weeks. It could never come.

I've interviewed people, agreed with my boss that they are the right person, got most of the paperwork signed off only for a recruitment freeze to be imposed by head office so HR won't action the paperwork. After much discussion and arguing I can't recruit the bloke so he never got an offer.

If you are looking for work, don't stop looking until you have the signed offer from your new employer.

[Gargamel]

I would call them, there could be a really straightforward reason.

Wrong postal address on the contract, lost in the mail, the person who needs to sign the offer is off sick etc etc

Communicate with them.

[MrCippo]

Bit of a strange on tbh, dont want to look desperate, i am in a good job just now and getting offered this particular would mean a big step forward. Its just my impression that they are very keen and offer will be in pronto. Something must of triggered a delay, either their paperwork or something else.

I dont want to lose out on it and curious to know why the delay.

[The Beaver King]

MrCippo said:

Bit of a strange on tbh, dont want to look desperate, i am in a good job just now and getting offered this particular would mean a big step forward. Its just my impression that they are very keen and offer will be in pronto. Something must of triggered a delay, either their paperwork or something else.

I dont want to lose out on it and curious to know why the delay.

When my OH moved to the Midlands to be with me, she applied for numerous jobs.

She ended up having 2nd interviews with 3 of them within a couple of days of each other. Two came back to her with offers within 4-5 days (she accepted one of these). The 3rd came back to her another 5 days after that.

The 3rd job was for more money, but she decided to stick to her original decision as she didn't want to work for a company that left people hanging around without any kind of update/feedback (the reason for the delay was that one of the heads of dept was off sick so nobody would make the decision until he got back).

Anyway, you're already in a job so you shouldn't worry too much. Some companies can take a few weeks to finalise these things. It might be worth checking to see if they are doing a second round of interviews, which is not uncommon.

[MrCippo]

in the end i asked the question and apparently they were just getting together to decide, will make me an offer shortly.