I had a second round with a boutique consulting firm last week (Wednesday). They said they would get back to me on Monday and I have yet to receive an answer. When I passed the first round I found out the very next day (within 24 hours).
Is this a bad sign? Am I overthinking it?
I’m thinking of reaching out tomorrow on Thursday
Hello,
You're overthinking it! Until you hear from them one way or the other, there's no reason to assume anything at all.
There's little point in trying to infer anything from the duration of their response: they could be still interviewing a couple of other candidates, have some administrative delays, still need more time to deliberate on your application, or anything else.
If they told you they'd get back to you on Monday and you still haven't heard back, I think it's ok for you to reach out to them on Thursday, as you suggest.
Best of luck!
Hi there,
after each interview round, HR typically has a meeting with all involved interviewers to discuss candidates‘ performance and to align on who to advance to the next round.
They usually don’t release an official communication before the alignment is done.
Depending on who was involved as interviewers in your case, internal scheduling conflicts might cause a delay - which is not atypical for partners.
I would wait till end of week and then send a friendly follow-up if you still haven’t heard back.
Fingers crossed!
Hi,
It's better not to overthink it as you can never know for sure what's the outcome of the interview and what's taking so long to reply.
On the one hand, yes, the more a firm wants to hire you, the faster they will reach out to make sure you stick with their offer;
On the other hand, I've had students receive top-tier consulting offers after a pretty long expectation period (more than 1 week). The partners could never find time to meet and discuss the candidate and the HR took so much time to respond that we honestly thought that all was lost, but not that time, luckily :)
Also, I agree with Ian that you should never put all your eggs in one basket and that a candidate should keep interviewing with multiple companies till the moment of getting one or more offers.
Nick
Hi there,
Whether you are overthinking it or not, never hinge on 1 company (if you can help it).
The earlier they get back to you the better. 1 week isn't so long as to necessarily be worried though.
Always, always, always, keep recruiting until you have an offer in hand.
It's fair to reach out tomorrow. Fingers crossed for you!
Hi there!
Yes, you're slightly overthinking :)
I know the feeling. I waited for about a week and a half following my McK final interview and it was absolutely awful.
The fact that they're taking longer doens't necessarily mean something wrong. It just means they are busy with other things.
Give them a full week and if they don't get back to you by then, then send a polite request for an update.
In the meantime, I'd suggest you keep sending job applications to hedge against a worst case scenario answer from them.
Best,
Cristian
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Hi there,
Q: I had a second round with a boutique consulting firm last week (Wednesday). They said they would get back to me on Monday and I have yet to receive an answer. Is this a bad sign? Am I overthinking it?
The delay doesn't necessarily mean you will be rejected. There could be several reasons for the delay, for example:
If you don’t hear from them after one week from the final, it is fine to follow up with HR.
Good luck!
Francesco
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