Follow up advice

Question

Hello,

I applied for an aci position at bain beggining of july after completing a program with them. Then i recieved the sova assesment and one week later after completing it i recieved an email saying that im invited to the first round interviews but they are gonna be scheduled from the last week of August onwards. Now its September 10th i followed up with the recruiter a week ago no response. What stresses me is that i put end of September as a preferred start date and i have not completed any interviews. Should i follow up with the recruiter again since the email said you are officially invited to the first round? Also should I reach out to a connection in the office i made through the program and ask them about it?
Thank You

Answer 1

Hi there,

Being officially invited to first-round interviews means the screening decision has already been made, so I would not read 1 week of recruiter silence as information about your candidacy. What is stuck is a calendar, not your file, and the processes I have seen tend to bunch badly in September.

A few things I would do this week:

Follow up again, but do not send the same message twice. A second note that only asks for an update gives the recruiter nothing to act on. I would restate that you were officially invited, offer 3 or 4 concrete windows over the next 2 weeks, and ask whether the schedule has firmed up.
Raise the start date yourself instead of waiting for it to become a problem. End of September was a preference on a form, not a commitment, and it is very unlikely to survive if you have not interviewed yet. Asking whether a later start is possible removes the thing you are actually anxious about, and a start date the recruiter cannot meet is sometimes the reason a file sits still.
Use your contact from the program, but ask them to check where the process stands rather than to advocate for you. Internal recruiting timelines are visible to them in a way they are not to you. A colleague asking a recruiter about a schedule is routine. A colleague vouching for someone who has not yet interviewed is not, and it puts them in an awkward position.
Prepare as though the interview is next week, because delayed invitations tend to land with very short notice.

Candidates in your position rarely lose the process by following up too often. They lose it by spending the wait managing the recruiter and then getting 3 days of warning.