A sixth-year PhD student asks—

I'm expecting a job offer from [company A] later this week, but I have an interview coming up at [company B] at the end of March. From looking around online, I assume that [company A] will want a response before I have a chance to interview with [company B]. How do I ask [company B] to speed up the process? Can I ask for an earlier interview?

This is a common situation and, while it can feel stressful, it’s also helpful to remember it’s actually a good thing to have progressed so far in multiple hiring processes. So, congratulate yourself on those successes!

Your best leverage will come once you have an offer, written or verbal. At that point, your strategy is twofold: try to slow down the process where you have the offer, and simultaneously try to speed up any other processes you are in. To slow down the first process, you can explicitly ask for more time before the signing deadline. This is a really common request, and if waiting doesn’t work for them, they’ll probably just say no. It would be very unusual for them to rescind the offer or otherwise hold the ask against you. To speed up the other processes you are in, you can let them know that you have received an offer. Your angle here is to notify them so that they have a real chance of hiring you if they are interested. It is perfectly normal to ask about this, and they can always just say no if they are not able to speed up their process for you—which is often the case. It’s worth noting that you don’t have much leverage in bringing this up with potential employers who haven’t interviewed you yet, and those timelines might just be too far apart.

If you end up unable to make the timing work out, we recommend thinking very carefully when weighing an offer you definitely have against an offer that hasn’t yet materialized.

-Ray Care, Program Director, Career Development Team for Researchers