Got an offer letter, now nothing...

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Hi all,

Good news: I went in for the job I desperately wanted and after a short interview, the director of the unit offered me the last slot in the 8-person team she was assembling to bring onto the unit. Yay! I went straight to HR, got re-routed to employee health for a same-day drug test (passed) and went home to wait for my assigned nurse recruiter to contact me.

Shortly after, I got an e-mail from HR with the official offer letter/starting salary and a list of required paperwork/pre-employment screening instructions. I e-mailed back right away to ask for some clarification/express my excitement about the offer and let her know I was getting started right away on the pieces she was asking for (all of which are things I'm supposed to bring in-person after scheduling a meeting time with her).

Bad news: It's been one week since I first e-mailed (sent a second a few days later), and I haven't heard back from HR at all. I tried calling this morning (would have called sooner but we had a sudden death in the family and I had to go out of town a few days), and left a message on her answering machine.

My question: Is it normal for this sort of delay in the official hiring process? They seemed very eager to quickly fill this position, but now I'm not hearing ANYTHING from my assigned recruiter. Should I be more persistent? Should I ease off so I don't sound crazy? I have no previous experience with HR, so I don't know what's normal in terms of the timeline for the hiring process. My unit's orientation is supposed to start in about 2 weeks, and I just want to jump right in and get started!

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Specializes in retired LTC.

This is also a holiday weekend coming up. That might be contributing to the delay.

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Specializes in CNA, LVN, RN.

It can depend if you're working for a big hospital or a small one...

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Specializes in PACU.

I got my job offer March 13th, didn't have an official offer until March 29th. I didn't hear anything until I got a call May 15th to attend a post-offer health assessment and physical test at the end of June. I wouldn't sweat it too much. HR departments usually run pretty slow because they aren't just dealing with your on-boarding, but everyone else's too.

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Be patient... A week is not that long, there are many reasonable answers for a small delay. Any news? Best of luck!

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One time an employer took four months for the hiring process without any explanations. I would not have continued dealing with them if another employer had shown any interest in me. Be patient a little while longer.

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