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Speaker 1: Welcome back to our A MA segment with Tiffany and Gerald. Now,

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Speaker 1: sometimes when we end this podcast, we will ask you

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Speaker 1: to write back and tell us how things are going.

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Speaker 1: One of you did. So, Gary wrote back after we

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Speaker 1: did our, why is hr ghosting me after an interview episode?

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Speaker 1: And this time, he is another question. Gary says that

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Speaker 1: he got past the interview submitted documents

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Speaker 1: that were required for background screening checks. Then he was

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Speaker 1: given an indicative job offer. Ok. So according to him,

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Speaker 1: senior management approval was sought and then the indicative job

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Speaker 1: offer was suddenly withdrawn. By now, he had spent five

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Speaker 1: months on this job application and was feeling quite confident

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Speaker 1: that he would get the job. So understandably, Gary is

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Speaker 1: disappointed and felt like he wasted five months on this.

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Speaker 1: He wants to know what could possibly be the reason

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Speaker 1: for this indicative job offered to be retracted and was

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Speaker 1: there anything he could have done?

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Speaker 2: Oh, wow. Ok. Firstly, for Gary's situation, going through five

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Speaker 2: months almost at the finish line but not get it.

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Speaker 2: It really doesn't feel good. No, it doesn't. So if Gary,

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Speaker 2: as you're listening in, I hope you didn't quit your job. Oh, yeah,

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Speaker 2: you're right. Yeah, I hope you didn't quit your job

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Speaker 2: because these things will happen. And as like what you said, right. Tiffany,

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Speaker 2: the offer was indicative is still subject to withdrawals and

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Speaker 2: there are sometimes many reasons why

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Speaker 2: an indicative offer doesn't go through. Right. One of which

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Speaker 2: is maybe Gary didn't pass the reference check because that's

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Speaker 2: usually one of the last things to do. So maybe

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Speaker 2: the reference check didn't work to his favor and then

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Speaker 2: they decided to not proceed with him. Many other reasons

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Speaker 2: could also include things like having the budget for the

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Speaker 2: position close taken away.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it sounds like a long time, five months

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Speaker 2: to get this position, maybe the company might have felt

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Speaker 2: that they don't need this person because things could have

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Speaker 2: changed within the five months. That's right. And of course,

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Speaker 2: sometimes restructuring within the organization, there could be a hiring

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Speaker 2: freeze and so all of these could affect the indicative

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Speaker 2: offer being taken away.

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Speaker 1: But why would companies even give an indicative job offer

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Speaker 1: without actually being sure in the first

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Speaker 1: place,

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Speaker 2: the time between an indicative offer and the employment

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Speaker 2: for itself? It's supposed to be short, it shouldn't be

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Speaker 2: that long and they want to give you the indicative

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Speaker 2: offer so that you are kind of prepared to accept

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Speaker 2: it later on. So you kind of get your heart ready,

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Speaker 2: you start to think about your plans of how to

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Speaker 2: exit from your current role. How do you design from

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Speaker 2: current role? I think they want to do all of

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Speaker 2: these things to get you prepared. Of course, maybe because

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Speaker 2: the last step could take a little bit longer. So

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Speaker 2: actually it's not supposed to take longer, supposed to be fast.

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Speaker 2: So they still want to tell you that. Ok, you're

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Speaker 2: almost there already. Ok.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because these things don't get

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Speaker 1: talked about early on in the interview

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Speaker 1: process,

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Speaker 2: right? But I say it's very unfortunate. Again, most of

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Speaker 2: the time, I would say indicative offers, they do come true,

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Speaker 2: they do follow up happen and materialize into concrete job offers, ok?

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Speaker 2: But it's the exception that happens and that's why I said,

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Speaker 2: I hope that Gary didn't quit his job.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Could he have done something different? I guess like,

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Speaker 1: could he have gotten something maybe a bit more on

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Speaker 1: paper

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Speaker 2: even if you get something on paper? Firstly, a lot

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Speaker 2: of hr people, they would not put an indicative offer

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Speaker 2: on paper.

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Speaker 1: It will probably be like verbal,

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Speaker 2: verbal, right? And I think there's very little that Gary

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Speaker 2: could have done for himself to be honest. The only

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Speaker 2: thing I would say, maybe if the reference check was

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Speaker 2: the issue and this is really for everyone who's even

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Speaker 2: in the midst of a job search now and you

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Speaker 2: have given a referee's contact details to the interviewing company,

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Speaker 2: you should prepare your referees you should contact them and

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Speaker 2: tell them that someone is going to call you. Maybe

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Speaker 2: you could say something for me. Sometimes we don't prepare

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Speaker 2: our referees and they may not answer the phone, they

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Speaker 2: may not reply to the email. So this is

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Speaker 2: where preparing your referees is pretty important.

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Speaker 1: Ok, Gary, once again, we are sorry that you are

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Speaker 1: in this position. We hope that things will look up

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Speaker 1: for you. If you have any other questions that you

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Speaker 1: would like. Gerald to answer, send them to us big

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Speaker 1: or small. We are here to help you just to

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Speaker 1: work through some of these questions that you might have.

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Speaker 1: We're at CN A podcasts at mediacorp.com dot SG and

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Speaker 1: you can also find us on Spotify Apple Podcasts or

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Speaker 1: youtube where a video version of this A MA is

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Speaker 1: at

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Speaker 1: the team behind the work it podcast is Christina Robert,

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Speaker 1: Joan Chan, Jaini, Johari sa W and to Yan Yan

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Speaker 1: Sound mixing is by Carrie Lim. Video by Haida Amin.

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Speaker 1: I'm OL and I'm Tiffany. Have a good work week ahead.