Interview over - how long should you wait?

You've just had the interview - when should you hear?

In most cases you'll hear whether you've been offered a place within days of the interview. Successful applicants are naturally informed first - at Deutsche Bank, it usually happens within 24 to 48 hours (although it can take as long as five days). The head of graduate recruitment at one European bank told us successful interviewees are often told they're in when they're on the train home: "A senior person will ring you and give you the happy news." Unsuccessful interviewees are informed by post a few days later.

The further you get through the interview process the quicker you'll hear whether you've been successful. JPMorgan gives first-round interviewees the good/bad news within a week - but its assessment centre candidates are told within just 48 hours. Dresdner Kleinwort gets back to final-round interview candidates within the week - although 24 hours is more common.

At Goldman Sachs, graduate recruiter Ros Hillard says the delay varies from division to division - big divisions that are recruiting a lot of graduates (eg, equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities, or investment banking) typically contact successful candidates within a matter of days as they will be holding a number of second-round interviews. Smaller divisions (eg, human capital management), which are reviewing candidates from a large pool but only holding one second-round day once all the first rounds are over, may take a week or more to make up their minds.

You've waited two weeks - does that mean you're out?

Not necessarily. Most banks have a B-list of candidates they'd like to make offers to if people on their A-list decide to go elsewhere. Given that A-listers typically have between two and three weeks to accept/decline their offers, the B-listers will only be approached after this amount of time has elapsed.

"There are always candidates who perform well at interview, but who we're unable to make an offer to initially," says the head of graduate recruitment at one bank.

With this in mind, some banks, Goldman included, won't tell candidates they've been rejected until a few weeks after the interview. And during those weeks, there's always the possibility an offer will come your way. "Until we have really established who is coming for second-round interviews or accepting a place, we're unlikely to turn anyone down," says Goldman's Hillard. "There are always people that we'd like to offer a slot if one existed, and in a buoyant market like this it's very common for a business to say it needs more hires than those we had already planned for."

The suspense is killing you - should you give them a call?

Generally, no - at least don't call or email the line professional who interviewed you. If you're going to contact anyone, it should be a member of the graduate recruitment team, says Goldman's Hillard. If you don't know their names, she says, your careers service should be able to put you in contact with them.

Esther Oxenbury, recruitment manager at JPMorgan, says it's ok to call in some circumstances - namely, if you've been waiting for longer than you believe is acceptable (ie, not 36 hours), or if you have exploding offers from other firms and need to hear from JPMorgan before accepting/rejecting them.

Not all recruiters are equally 'pro' being chased by candidates, however. Liza Infante, a member of the graduate recruitment team at Lehman Brothers, says recruiters won't be able to offer any feedback until they've collated all the information they need - so it's better to wait for them to call you, which usually happens within a few days.

"It's important to appear enthusiastic and committed to the job, but there will be a valid reason for a potential hold-up; it could be that it's not a straightforward grad hire," says Sallyann Birchall at Deutsche Bank. "Phoning up or emailing isn't going to make any difference other than to reaffirm your commitment" - no bad thing perhaps? But if you're going to call, we suggest you a) make sure it's no less than 72 hours after the interview itself; b) do so in a gentle, polite way just to re-state your interest in the role; or c) ask nicely if they could possibly tell you what your chances are as you've got an exploding offer from another (unnamed) bank.

How long is too long?Add your comment and let us know what you think.