Ask HN: Long notification period normal?

#1

Post by doyouknow » Wed, May 26, 2010, 9:14 PM UTC

Hi there,

"recently", I have applied for an internship at IBM Research and Microsoft Research. In fact, almost two months have already passed without any notification whatsoever; one of the jobs I applied for has been taken off the available jobs platform, and I am not sure what to make of it. Since there are many other PhD students on HN, I thought I'd ask people here about their experience with application procedures for those labs. Is this kind of behavior normal, or should I start looking somewhere else?

Many thanks for any information!

Re: Ask HN: Long notification period normal?

#2

Post by rewind » Wed, May 26, 2010, 9:16 PM UTC

What's stopping you from emailing them or, better yet in this case, just calling them?

Re: Ask HN: Long notification period normal?

#3

Post by doyouknow » Wed, May 26, 2010, 9:22 PM UTC

rewind wrote: post #2

What's stopping you from emailing them or, better yet in this case, just calling them?

Already did, always getting non-informational answers, or none at all.

Re: Ask HN: Long notification period normal?

#4

Post by cperciva » Wed, May 26, 2010, 9:26 PM UTC

Research positions are like VCs: It's hard to get a firm "no" out of them. If you haven't heard back after two months, assume that they're not interested and move on.

Re: Ask HN: Long notification period normal?

#5

Post by doyouknow » Wed, May 26, 2010, 9:30 PM UTC

cperciva wrote: post #4

Research positions are like VCs: It's hard to get a firm "no" out of them. If you haven't heard back after two months, assume that they're not interested and move on.

My guts tell me the same, but what the heck? A little bit of honesty would be very much appreciated...

Re: Ask HN: Long notification period normal?

#6

Post by Scott_MacGregor » Wed, May 26, 2010, 11:25 PM UTC

I have no direct experience with internships, but seems to me if the decision maker "committee or whatever" considered you as a "Hot" candidate they would be communicating with you in a straightforward manner.

If after trying to talk to them they treated me like this, I would believe that they consider some other candidate more appropriate for the position (for whatever reason) and take appropriate actions to move forward in another direction.