text: I can answer this from the point of view of a hiring (recruitment) manager.\n\nIf I don't get back to a candidate ASAP, it either means:\n\n1. I'm extremely busy and there are too many work-related emergencies to deal with at the moment. A manager who uses this as an excuse generally is a new or poorly trained manager. Such a manager can easily become overwhelmed with a large number of tasks and can accidentally let important but not critically urgent tasks slip.\n\n2. There is another candidate that I'm interested in, and you're my back-up choice. I'm stalling for time so I can interview & get my first choice to accept the position. A manager who does this generally lacks integrity and probably won't treat his/her employees with much respect.\n\n3. There's a personal emergency that I suddenly had to deal with and had to leave the office. In this case, hopefully the manager has alerted his/her supervisor about his/her remaining open items and has made plans to get them covered. That doesn't always happen though, depending on the severity of the emergency.\n\n4. There's some kind of red tape that's delaying this process. Perhaps another department that is taking care of the logistics of your employment. In some large companies, HR takes care of start dates and other related issues (though that's rare). Or perhaps HR still needs to complete some tasks (like a background check, compensation issues, etc). Or perhaps the hiring manager needs his/her direct supervisor's approval before moving forward, and the bottleneck is with the supervisor. Delays due to red tape in large companies are unfortunately common.\n\nHere's what you can do in each of these situations:\n\n1. Call the hiring manager and if he/she's not there, leave a voice mail saying that you'll call back again. Make the effort yourself to keep calling until you reach him/her on the phone. You don't have to leave a message each time, but some managers dont/aren't able to respond to voice mails immediately, so getting the person on the phone directly is the best way. Also send the hiring manager a follow-up email.\n\n2. Do the same as #1. Chances are, the hiring manager will avoid returning your calls because he/she wants to keep you around as a back-up choice, and if he/she tells you about another candidate, you'll go away. But you should still get in touch with the hiring manager on the phone anyways.\n\n3. If you've been in contact with an HR representative or the hiring manager's direct supervisor, call that contact as well. Sometimes a third party can help get things going again.\n\n4. Do the same as #1. Ask the hiring manager if there's anything you can do to help the process. Perhaps he/she will tell you about the red tape and apologize for it; that would be good because you'd know the reason for the delay.\n\n\nI assume you've already received a written offer letter - if not, and the good news came verbally, than you really need to get this offer in writing. Without that, then there's a good chance the delay could be due to #4 and the hiring manager simply is trying to get that offer letter out to you.\n\nThere was once an actual case where it took me, my HR department, and my finance department nearly 2 weeks to get an offer letter out, due to various logistical issues & general red tape. However, in that situation, I was in constant contact with the candidate to let him know the reason for the delay.\n\nI hope that helps. Good luck!