How long until initial offer is made?

[After campus interview]

I know there must be a lot of variation between institutions for this question, but after all campus interviews are complete, how long does it usually take for an initial offer to be extended to their first choice?

[it depends]

It can vary widely, and in my experience it usually depends more on the administration getting their act together than it does the department. My SLAC department meets almost immediately after a visit to decide on which candidate to put forward, but then we have to write up a reasoning for our choice, and it has to go through the Dean, and then to the Provost, and for some strange reason going through these two levels can take a really long time for the offer to get "approved" to finally be made to the candidate. I think once an offer of ours took almost two weeks just to get out to our first choice candidate, because the Provost was out of the country. So if the department has even more administrative levels (such as divisions, etc), it could take even longer.

[Appreciative]

Thank you for describing all this. I didn't realize that there was a write-up involved for the dean in some cases too. But that makes a lot of sense. Thanks.

Oct 20, 2016 17:33:46 GMT -5 it depends said:

It can vary widely, and in my experience it usually depends more on the administration getting their act together than it does the department. My SLAC department meets almost immediately after a visit to decide on which candidate to put forward, but then we have to write up a reasoning for our choice, and it has to go through the Dean, and then to the Provost, and for some strange reason going through these two levels can take a really long time for the offer to get "approved" to finally be made to the candidate. I think once an offer of ours took almost two weeks just to get out to our first choice candidate, because the Provost was out of the country. So if the department has even more administrative levels (such as divisions, etc), it could take even longer.

[Weberian Nightmare]

Yes to the above. In my department, the SC makes a recommendation (in writing) to another departmental committee which makes a recommendation (in writing) to the Chair who then goes through the files - including those on our short list who we are not requesting campus visits for - and then decides who to recommend to the Dean (again, in writing). The Dean has to then bring HR into the loop and get the Provost to sign off, and then and ONLY THEN can we actually extend invitations for campus visits. The process for making offers is similarly ridiculous.

[Prof]

I've been on the hiring side at four universities -- three highly research oriented, all state flagships. The process in those places has changed over the years. In all four it is common practice to have a meeting as soon as humanly possible after the final candidate left (that day, if practical). As recently as a decade ago, it was common practice for the chair/head to call the selected candidate (maybe all of the interviewees, that varied by head) immediately after the meeting with news about the vote and informally extend an offer. Over the years, hiring decisions and procedures have become more centralized, with more layers & players involved. At my current research-oriented institution, the head immediately informs the dean's office with the vote, the dean's office contacts EO (and, for certain hires, still a separate committee at the Provost's level). The dean's office needs to get clearance from these other offices before giving the green light to our head to inform candidates about the vote. It is usually routine. If our head does his/her advance work with the relevant offices and times the meeting right, we might get the go ahead in an hour. Everyone recognizes the need for speed. But, if the wrong people are traveling, sick, etc., it might take days/weeks. The loss of momentum can be devastating to our ability to hire in-demand candidates. As always, the bureaucracy likely arose for some of the right reasons but has wreaked havoc on the process.

I am truly sorry for the extra uncertainty the wait causes for candidates. But, if it helps at all, know that the units would be contacting you IMMEDIATELY if they were allowed to do so. Don't interpret silence as anything more than that.  And, feel free to check in with a department to see if they can give you an estimation about when you'll likely hear news.