<p>I got an offer last Friday from a pretty competitive tech company on the West Coast, and the recruiter promised details over the phone and asked me to schedule a few time slots to talk to her about the offer. Since I am on Spring Break this term, I told her that I was pretty much available all week and that I wasn't on much of a schedule. (didn't specify any times)</p>
<p>I haven't heard back from her yet. It's like 3:30 pm Pacific Time. Should I be anxious? Should I e-mail her again? </p>
<p>This is a company that's probably on my Top 2 list. Scratch that. It's #1 on my list. I'm really excited about this opportunity. Actually, to be more precise, </p>
<p>I REALLY NEED TO SPEAK TO THIS RECRUITER. LIKE NOW. </p>
<p>Relax! Congratulations on getting an offer! Since you aren’t starting til’ the summer, it isn’t necessary to get through all of the details right at this very second. Recruiters giving out offers are all very busy right now, so if they said they were extending you an offer, that means they will want to get in touch with you so you know what the offer is prior to accepting it.</p>
<p>She is probably working with people whose schedules are less free in addition to coordinating her own schedule, which is inevitably pretty full. You’ll probably hear back from her this week. :)</p>
<p>You told her you were available all week. The recruiter will take her time and call you when when available. Calling them now would seem a little odd given the circumstances you mentioned. Just wait out the week. If you don’t hear back from them, then call.</p>
<p>lol, if that was the case, you should’ve asked for a specific time. This is typically what I do to know for sure when the person is going to call and be available when they do. The more you know!</p>
<p>For now, just relax, have some fun and enjoy your break. Its really rare for companies to go back on their verbal offers.</p>
<p>Thanks j89 for the words of encouragement. I was expecting some sort of e-mail confirmation from her somehow … it’s hard to enjoy my break right now because the some parents on the Parents forum are giving me a hard time because they’re making me think that I’m losing my job offer, which is really putting me on edge…</p>
<p>Yeah… when it comes to dealing with the job search and recruitment process, I think this forum might be safer. My parents expected that my first job out of undergrad would pay six figures and be the job I stay at until retirement; they expected that I would have a pension plan with it; they couldn’t fathom why I was applying to cities other than the city I grew up in; they wondered why I applied to more than three companies before getting an interview. The point is that the generations before us had a different experience. </p>
<p>My generation is comfortable with the idea not only of leaving a job, but leaving after only a year or two; we have lower expectations from our job search (i.e. it’s tough to get a job), but we have higher expectations of the people involved in our job search (i.e. we trust that recruiters will never mislead us about getting a job).</p>
<p>The reality right now is that one recruiter often does the job of three people; in addition to coordinating recruiting strategies with managers and executives, they also need to manage the organization of interviews, and once they have decided to extend their offers to candidates, they need to go through a long process of getting approvals on salary bands, timing, etc. The notice that details about an offer were coming was a way for that recruiter to say, “I’m very busy and can’t take 20-30 minutes to discuss details today, but we are interested in you and don’t want you to accept another offer before hearing what we have to say.”</p>
<p>Personal anecdote: when I got my first FT job offer last year, it was nice and easy since the recruiter gave a written offer the same day she called to offer it verbally; when I got my second FT offer, a day later, the recruiter made the verbal offer as a “contingent offer,” since she was confident I would get the written offer but had not conducted some of the formalities of the process. It took another week to learn that the offer was no longer contingent, and it took another week and a half to finally get a written offer in hand. During the time between the initial contingent offer and learning the offer was now just waiting on being delivered in writing, I didn’t hear anything at all except from the other company, asking how much time I needed to make a decision.</p>
<p>I know is hard to relax as you are waiting for communication but Spring break is almost over and you need to enjoy it. If you have already send an email you are basically stuck waiting but if you haven’t heard by Friday morning I would give a quick call to follow up</p>
<p>They’re not going to mail me a offer letter. What’s in the e-mail and over the phone is all that they’ll do. All they needed from me was an e-mail reply and scanned copies of filled out forms that they sent via e-mail.</p>
<p>I’d rather do it on paper and mail it over. Feels more official that way.</p>
<p>And … the Postal Service probably needs it …</p>
<p>It’s a lot simpler and cleaner for companies to do emailed offers; it means they have a traceable record available anywhere in the world rather than relying on a filing cabinet in their HR department. I’ve gotten three offers in my adult life, and all three have been paper copies emailed to me, which I could then print, sign, scan and send. Pretty standard practice these days. </p>
<p>Don’t worry! No company with any kind of reputation would ever renege on an offer (applicants should follow the same standards, but, well, not all applicants are so upstanding… save that for another conversation!)</p>
<p>The offers I got last year were paper-based. This year, I got a couple other offers (by e-mail). I ended up declining them by (1) phone and (2) certified mail. One of the recruiters e-mailed me back and thanked me for sending her actual mail. </p>
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<p>I did this last May. I’m not proud of it, especially because I ended up not liking the internship as much as I thought I would, and I think this is the reason why the career center at school hates me.</p>
<p>That said, I am extremely happy with the offer I have for this summer. The company was at the top of my wishlist, and they give out full-time offers to 80%+ of its interns. I don’t have any other ongoing interviews, so this won’t happen again. (Though I must admit that I did take a risk by declining my two other offers this year and not reaching out to the team/company I worked with/at last year)</p>
D: :D</p>