I had an interview for a paid internship in New York 10 days ago. It is a company I have tried to interview at for months now and tried three different approaches to get noticed - it is safe to say I want the job.
Here is my predicament. I am from the UK so this company needs to sign for my visa whilst I foot the cost. I head back to my home country next Saturday, but this company has now gone on to a blackout week where all activity stops including HR.
I sent a first thank you email and gave some information they requested the day after my interview - no reply. I then sent another follow up on Thursday and said thank you again telling them I am heading back next week - no reply.
I also have another internship offer that are very eager to have me but I want the first company. I need to let the second company know but I don’t know what to do about the first one.
The HR interviewer added me on Linkedin shortly after my interview, do I message him politely saying I need to know if I have the job because 1) I’m leaving the country to sort my visa out 2) have someone else interested in me.
Or should I just wait it out and not be too eager?
I don’t want to seem as annoying/pushy and put them off completely? It’s hard to find the balance. Plus I have already sent two follow up emails.
During my interview I met with four different people over a 2 hour period so I feel they are somewhat invested in me but unfortunately I am in a situation where I need to know so I can start making arrangements to legally be able to work for them…
It’s more the fact that the company has now “shut down” for the next week and I would be contacting the HR guy on his off time.
If the company is closed for the Easter/passover holiday week, you don’t really have a choice but to wait. Even if they see the emails, chances are you aren’t going to get a response until they are back in the office next week.
Has the second company actually interviewed you and made you an offer? “Eagerness” isn’t a good corporate trait - until you have something formal in writing, assume that you do not have any type of position. I had a friend who moved across country for a job only to find out the job wasn’t there when he got there, because although the interviewers seemed thrilled, they aren’t actually the ones signing the paperwork and that’s the danger.
Try to follow up again next week. If you haven’t followed up with company 2, let them extend you a formal offer before you say anything. Once you have the offer you can tell company 1 “I have an offer from another company but I would prefer to work for you, please let me know”.
If they haven’t let you know by then, it could very well be because they are pursuing another candidate - so it would be good to get the offer from the second company and not wait. Otherwise you may end up with nothing.
Visa paperwork is also very tedious and usually takes a long time, I’m surprised they would even offer that for an internship.
It’s a lot easier at the student level since it’s framed as a “cultural exchange visa”. You just have to have a formal offer and a “training plan” then you pay a company about $1000 to process everything for you. There’s also a site visit if it’s the company’s first time with a foreign intern to make sure it’s legitimate.
The only problem is that I’ve found most US employers like to hire interns based on need, usually extremely close to the start date, and it takes about a month for the application to process (though it can be sped up by doubling or tripling the cost). We had to push back my start date for my US internship by a few weeks because of this.
Mirk pretty much summed up the paperwork side of the visa! It’s also interesting to hear he had to wait a few weeks for the same company…
The company isn’t closed for Easter/Passover - they shut down for a week every quarter to rest. This is their second time doing it and if I end up working there as more than an intern then that is a pretty good perk.
The second company has interviewed and offered a position and I also have another interview tomorrow. However as I originally said I’ve been trying for months to get in to company 1.
I think anyway I was just being a little inpatient given that I thought I would find out either way given they knew I was leaving the country, but unfortunately they don’t work on my time schedule!
Just to clarify, I’m applying to the same company you’re referring to for this summer (though for an engineering position, so I don’t think we’re competing ). They told me they would get back to me later that day when I called to follow up at the start of March, and I haven’t heard anything since, despite my attempts to follow up.
The internship where I had to push back the start date was over a year ago at a different company. I applied at the end of June, initially looking for a January position (I was told to start early for US jobs by my school ), but was told they were looking for September, and I jumped on the opportunity to break into design. We confirmed the job and started the visa process in mid-August. We had originally intended for me to start on Sept 5th, but ended up pushing it back to Sept 12th (though it would have been further without a ton of pressuring the visa company on my part, they were at the verge of charging me the extra thousand).
So these are Internship positions you guys are fretting over? I see. It’s tough to hear, but many companies put hiring Interns at the absolute bottom of the list, so you’ll have to either wait it out, or move on. My guess is if you haven’t heard back, they’ve probably filled the position and probably won’t tell the applicants that they hired someone else.
If this is true, it might be a good indicator that the company or HR isn’t to be trusted anyway and you might be better off at a place that actually values its employees. Every time this happens, I find it equally infuriating.
An internship might not sound like much to a firm but it is a life changing decision for the applicant. Especially if he has to move abroad, cough up a minimum of a grand in fees and deal with the stress and challenges of moving to a new place and culture. On top of having to work like crazy to break into the working world, learn the corporate structure in the jiffy and impress the superiors.
I’d like to take this chance to plead to anyone who makes hiring decisions. Let the poor guys and girls know, keep them in the loop if you have established a connection and hinted that their might be an opening. Anything else is both lazy and cruel.
Agree. A relatively well-known design agency let me hang for two and a half months once before following up - this was for a Senior ID company. I wouldn’t work there now if they begged me.
I thought New Yorkers were stereotypically pushy. Go ahead and bug the HR person via LinkedIn. Taking a week off to ‘rest’ is pretty amazing.
Bepster could not have put this better, an internship to me is the start of my career and what feels like the only route to being able to land a full-time position. I am so eager to get out there and get my teeth stuck in now!
It is likely they might have filled the position but it feels like they invested a lot in to me even for a mere internship to not even let me know either way. The interview process involved a telephone interview then an in person interview with one HR guy - showing him my work talking about the company, then two designers - showing them my work talking about my design process and finally another HR woman - telling her about my best project and why I wanted to be at their company.
Then the first HR guy adding me on Linkedin after the interview leads me to assume there might be some chance?
I keep telling myself this, but I’m having trouble believing it. This has happened on more than one occasion, where I hit it off with a senior designer, and they send me over to HR to take it the rest of the way with a recommendation. HR then proceeds to not follow up for months, put barriers in place to prevent me from following up, and generally be as infuriating as possible.
I’d love to write off the entire company, but I’m not going to be working with the HR rep, I’ll be working with that designer I hit it off with! If my potential co-workers had the same attitude I wouldn’t work there for any amount, but for the most part the designers have been excellent throughout the process, and for that reason I still want to work at these places despite the HR failings.
In this case, the hiring manager was the design manager, and completely dropped the ball on timely feedback and followup. HR was the bright light that actually worked to get things resolved. It was completely baffling, especially for a high-profile place.
I don’t know the circumstances, but also keep in mind some companies don’t have a dedicated HR team for hiring. The person doing the hiring may be slammed with work, too.
). They told me they would get back to me later that day when I called to follow up at the start of March, and I haven’t heard anything since, despite my attempts to follow up.
), but was told they were looking for September, and I jumped on the opportunity to break into design. We confirmed the job and started the visa process in mid-August. We had originally intended for me to start on Sept 5th, but ended up pushing it back to Sept 12th (though it would have been further without a ton of pressuring the visa company on my part, they were at the verge of charging me the extra thousand).