I talked to the hiring manager today for the job I've been waiting for an offer from. The good news is that they have the offer in process. They really need me to start... well, actually they needed me last month.
The bad news is "the process".
The company had a hiring freeze just as they were starting the hiring process for me. So now, they've had to come up with an "exception process", and then put prospective hires through it.
I'm the first one in the process, and I've already cleared the justification hurdles etc... Now it needs to go up to "executive approval".
Because of the freeze, and because of the level of employee I'll be, my hiring has to actually be approved by the damn CEO (of a 350,000 person company by the way); which is why it's taking so long.
However, when I spoke to the hiring manager he said that I had the stamp of approval and strong recommendation etc... etc... of all levels. So it's unlikely the CEO will not approve extending me the offer.
I had to go through this at my last long term job as well, and it also took about the same amount of time.
I applied for this job in the first week of January, had my first interview in mid January, my second interview in early February, I got my tentative verbal offer the 29th of February, and will get my written offer, likely some time around March 30th.
So typical big company hiring speed.
