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[ranlhel]

I had an interview with a school two weeks ago and today I received an email from the chair, saying" I want to update with you about our decision process. I will meet with the dean in the morning of Feb 10. That is the time when I will be able to tell candidates some definite information.  If you have another deadline before the date, please let me know."

It is somehow surprising as I never asked him about the status since the interview (Originally he told me they will probably have decision at Feb 6). And I could not help thinking this is a good sign. I replied that Feb 9 is good for me, but the fact is I will have a fly-out around Feb 20 (and it is international). If they really give me an offer, I would cancel the coming on-site (they are stilling working on the schedule and so if I let them know early, they wont lose anything). I am wondering what is going to happen if I tell them I will need to know their decision before Feb 10?

Thanks for your opinions in advance.

[systeme_d_]

I understand you to be saying that School #1 has interviewed you, and will let you know of their decision on Feb 10.  School #2 is interviewing you on Feb 20.

The SC Chair from School #1 asked if you have any deadlines before Feb 10.  You said no, since you do not.

I do not understand what your question is.   You do not have any information for School #1, since School #2 has not made you an offer.   

If School #1 makes you an offer that you want to take, you may cancel your interview with School #2, if you wish. 

[sagit]

I had an interview with a school two weeks ago and today I received an email from the chair, saying" I want to update with you about our decision process. I will meet with the dean in the morning of Feb 10. That is the time when I will be able to tell candidates some definite information.  If you have another deadline before the date, please let me know."

It is somehow surprising as I never asked him about the status since the interview (Originally he told me they will probably have decision at Feb 6). And I could not help thinking this is a good sign. I replied that Feb 9 is good for me, but the fact is I will have a fly-out around Feb 20 (and it is international). If they really give me an offer, I would cancel the coming on-site (they are stilling working on the schedule and so if I let them know early, they wont lose anything). I am wondering what is going to happen if I tell them I will need to know their decision before Feb 10?

Thanks for your opinions in advance.

Sorry - your message doesn't make sense.  Why would you tell them that February 9 is good for you if the SC won't meet with the Dean until the 10th?  I don't understand.  I also don't think you have any reason to tell them you need a decision before February 10th as you don't have another offer do you?  You just have an interview. 

[dalekk]

I think OP's question is quite reasonable.  School 2 is about to poney up money for his travel plans.  Since it is an international trip, the money is likely to be more than a standard visit.  That money is going to be spent in the next few days before he will know about School 1.  If he should get an offer from School 1, he would not go for the visit with School 2.  School 2 will be out of its money.  OP wants to know if he should try to get a more immediate answer from School 1, so as to save School 2 money and so as to not look unprofessional on OP's part.  It sure does seem like School 1 is going to make an offer.

I don't know the answer, but it does seem reasonable.  If you were going to discuss this with the chair at School 1, I would do it via phone, not email.  Again, I'm not sure of the answer, but it seems like an interesting problem to me. 

[polly_mer]

Thank you, Dalekk, that scenario makes sense.

OP, is 9 Feb or 10 Feb going to make a difference in the international trip ticket buying?  Saying that you need to know next week for the twenty-one-day-advanced purchase makes sense to me, but as the committee already told you a 6 Feb deadline, I don't think you can reasonably expect them to move up a deadline they are moving back.

I wouldn't ask for a 9 Feb deadline in this case, but I might write the situation, "If you folks make me an offer, then I would take it.  However, I do have another deadline that will be about the 10th so earlier would be better for me if I'm your first choice."

This committee does seem to want to know if they have to move to get you, but I wouldn't give a bunch of details nor would I give a random date that is connected to nothing.

[ranlhel]

thank you all for your replies.

Dalekk is absolutely right. If I need to cancel the visit to school 2, I have to do it before they spend the money, which I believe will happen around Feb 5. I understand I should only contact school 1 if I have another offer, but I do feel bad to cancel the visit after school 2 book me the tickets...

Besides, I am not even sure if it was really a good sign or they merely told me their timeline.

[glowdart]

I understood the SC chair email to be saying, "We won't know anything until Feb 10th.  If you have another job offer and need to give that school a decision on that job offer before Feb 10th, then please let me know"  .... so that we can put some pressure on the Dean and move up the decision date.

I wouldn't read anything else into it.  It might be the kind of school where the Dean's opinion matters mightily in hiring decisions.  

[mleok]

The only thing I would read into this is that you're still in the running for the position.

[dalekk]

Regardless of how you read the dean's email, I don't think it changes the fundamentals of the question.  Do you try to find out earlier about School 1 to avoid the hassle and cost to School 2?  Or do you simply schedule the interview for School 2 and they back out after they've already invested money into the trip if you get an offer from School 1?

[glowdart]

Regardless of how you read the dean's email, I don't think it changes the fundamentals of the question.  Do you try to find out earlier about School 1 to avoid the hassle and cost to School 2?  Or do you simply schedule the interview for School 2 and they back out after they've already invested money into the trip if you get an offer from School 1?

That's a no-brainer for me.  You (universal throughout) cannot turn down an interview based on the hope of a future offer so as to save some other school the five-minute hassle of changing in a refundable airline ticket.  

You also have no leverage with which to try and get an earlier decision out of school 1.  Search committees assume you all have interviews.  The only thing that gives you negotiating power is an offer in hand.  

[ranlhel]

thank you all, and I agree that I should just wait till school 1 has the decision. I hope it will be good news...

[dalekk]

Regardless of how you read the dean's email, I don't think it changes the fundamentals of the question.  Do you try to find out earlier about School 1 to avoid the hassle and cost to School 2?  Or do you simply schedule the interview for School 2 and they back out after they've already invested money into the trip if you get an offer from School 1?

That's a no-brainer for me.  You (universal throughout) cannot turn down an interview based on the hope of a future offer so as to save some other school the five-minute hassle of changing in a refundable airline ticket.  

You also have no leverage with which to try and get an earlier decision out of school 1.  Search committees assume you all have interviews.  The only thing that gives you negotiating power is an offer in hand.  

This seems reasonable.  I think Polly's idea is reasonable as well.

[imawakenow]

 You (universal throughout) cannot turn down an interview based on the hope of a future offer so as to save some other school the five-minute hassle of changing in a refundable airline ticket.

This.

Keep interviewing until you [also the universal you] have an official offer in hand. At that point, you can decide what to do about upcoming interviews based on the likelihood of accepting the offer, being able to negotiate acceptable/needed additional things, such as course releases, start-up funds, etc.

[msparticularity]

 You (universal throughout) cannot turn down an interview based on the hope of a future offer so as to save some other school the five-minute hassle of changing in a refundable airline ticket.

This.

Keep interviewing until you [also the universal you] have an official offer in hand. At that point, you can decide what to do about upcoming interviews based on the likelihood of accepting the offer, being able to negotiate acceptable/needed additional things, such as course releases, start-up funds, etc.

Yes--and remember, too, that even if you do get the verbal offer on Feb. 10--or very shortly thereafter--there may be significant negotiation involved in getting to a final agreement. For my current position, for example, even once I got the initial verbal offer, I still had to turn in a detailed startup proposal, which in turn had to approved all the way up to the level of the Provost before the final offer letter was written. (This is not the norm in my field, so while I had a general sense of what I would need and what it would cost, I didn't have the kind of detail--justification for which model I had chosen, a list of vendors and prices including tax and shipping--that they were looking for.) I think it took something like three weeks from the verbal offer to the final letter, and realistically, things could still have fallen apart at any stage in that process.

[polly_mer]

Now you're scaring me, MsP, since I hadn't heard of anything like that kind of negotiation and I suspect that what you need as start-up is more comparable to what I need than my lab-type colleagues.  The process will be what it is, but I hadn't heard of that kind of negotiation except for big STEM labs at R1's.