<p>I had a job interview last Tuesday. The environment was business casual so I dress professional yet simple like I'm supposed to. I arrived to my job interview 5 minutes early, asked for the manager, and waited patiently outside for her to come out and interview me. I had my resume with me as well even though the job application never said that we needed to bring a resume. I have 2 years of experience in dealing with all sorts of people so I thought this would benefit a lot when communicating with customers. The questions the manager asked were simple and I thought I did pretty well. Although I was nervous, I never showed it in my demeanor. I used eye contact and smiled throughout the interview. At the end of the interview, the interviewer said that I was the first one that they are interviewing and that they are looking for 3 people to fill the job spots. Then after the interview, I gave her a firm handshake. </p>
<p>I know I'm the first applicant to be interviewed but it has been about a week now and surely they would be done interviewing other applicants right? What is the average wait for a job interview because I'm starting to think I did not get this job.</p>
<p>Not necessarily. At the place I worked in as an undergrad (an on campus place that was very used to hiring new students every year or sometimes twice a year), the whole interview process could take a month or longer (and that’s with them cutting off the interviews at a certain number–students who applied towards the end of the pack were out of luck). If you were one of the first they interviewed, then I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t hear back from them for a couple of weeks, at least.</p>
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<p>There’s no average. There’s no right or wrong time. Don’t take it so personally. I know you feel like you did everything right so you should get a job offer immediately, but that’s not how the real world works. Things take time. That doesn’t mean you won’t get a job offer. It’s possible that they want to finish all of their interviews before selecting their three hires. They may be waiting to fill that last slot before they send out responses to everyone.</p>
<p>Did you ask during the interview when you should expect them to contact you? If you feel like enough time has passed, you could contact them reaffirming your interest and inquiring about the status of your application.</p>
<p>Typically, I’ll check in with whoever quarterbacks the hiring process a couple of weeks after the interview. If they are trying to hire three people, they may be interviewing 20, and I can attest that scheduling time with 20 people is not easy! It could easily take three weeks just to interview people, and if there are multiple parties involved in the hiring decision, then it could easily take another few weeks after that, just so that they are all aligned on who the must-haves are, who the backups are, what pay ranges are acceptable, etc.</p>
<p>Like others have said, don’t take it personally. Hiring managers are people with regular problems like everyone else - I once had a hiring manager go out on surprise maternity leave, and it took her temporary replacement two weeks just to get up to speed, let alone to catch up on missed work!</p>
<p>I usually email the employer a week or two after my interview to thank them again for considering me, re-expressing my interest, and to follow up on where they stand in the hiring process. More times than not, they’re still in the hiring process. However, in some cases you never hear back, which is frustrating. You may receive 25 no’s for one yes. Keep your head high and don’t get discouraged! I know that if I had a dollar for every job I applied to right after graduation, I could probably pay off the interest on my student loan bills. </p>