<p>I interviewed for an internship at a pretty large company on Thursday, January 8. They paid for my travel expenses and everything. They have about 20 interns work there every summer. The interview was pretty standard. The first person I met with was the hiring representative, who had a sheet he had to fill out of my answers to some standard questions. One of the questions was, "Do you have another offer?" I said yes. The follow-up question was, "When is your other offer deadline?" I told him that it was Friday, January 23rd. I really prefer to work for this company that I interviewed with most recently, but I have yet to hear back from them. At the close of the interview (after meeting with several more people), I asked the hiring representative, "When can I expect to hear back from you?" She said something along the lines of... We are told not to rush decisions any more. But you will definitely hear back from us one way or another.</p>
<p>So, my question is... Do you think I will hear back from them by Friday (when my other deadline is)? Should I contact them if I don't hear back from them soon? If so, when? Also, I don't know who to call. I only have the hiring representative's email and the main number for the corporate headquarters of the company. (And for the record, extending my other deadline is not an option, because I already extended it from 3 weeks to 5 weeks.)</p>
<p>My recommendation is to e-mail the hiring rep this monday and thank her for the interview, etc etc. And state that you have an offer deadline this friday but you really enjoyed the interview process and what her firm has to offer and --would gladly accept an offer-- from her firm, provided they could extend one. </p>
<p>You should get a reply from this letter, if you're getting an offer. If not, then you have a new contact. No harm, no foul, you've got an offer already and it might be a good one. =)</p>
<p>Firms are always afraid of being bummed out by people not accepting offers. So you might have lost a few points. Maybe the recruiter felt that you were aiming low or showed significant interest in another field that you could get into.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, JPNguyen. I just have a couple of additional questions: First, should I still thank him again for the interview if I already sent an email thanking him the day after the interview? And another problem... even though I liked the firm much better, I'm not 100% I would accept the offer because it has housing complications that the other firm doesn't, which could potentially eat up 50% of my salary. (I know I should do it just for the experience, but working for 1/2 of what I would be making elsewhere is sort of difficult to justify.) But your advice is good. I think I will send an email, and if I get no reply, then I will no my fate.</p>
<p>Any other advice/opinions would be greatly appreciated as well.</p>
<p>I agree, if you have a question you should ask. Make sure to ask when you will hear back from some one, always. That way if they don't get back to you by that time you don't seem pushy when you call, because they told you what the timeline was like. If, in the future, they say something about not rushing or are ambiguous on the timeline you can say something like "If it's all the same to you, I will call in a couple weeks to see how the decision is coming, unless I've heard anything by then." Assertive and aggressive are not the same thing, and any company that will string people along really needs some help.</p>