At 01:15 PM 04-08-00 -0400, Robin wrote:
>Sometimes the long delay is because the institution is negotiating with
>their first choice.  Until a contract is signed, there is always the
>possibility that negotiations will "break down" and the company will then go
>back to their short list and start talking to another candidate.  Therefore,
>they don't officially reject the rest of the short list until they know for
>sure the "backups" won't be needed.  I'm not saying this is right or wrong,
>just that it's a very common practice in industry.
>

A letter can still be written in this case however.  I had an interview a
few weeks ago and received a letter three days later informing me that I
was not successful but that I was a reserve candidate and they would
contact me to see if I was still interested in the event that the first
choice did not take up the post.  That is exactly how it should be done.
Perhaps things are different here in the UK, as I have found large museums
are generally pretty good at the prompt contact side of recruitment.

Jackie




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Jackie Britton
Head of Collections Storage and Access
Science Museum, London SW7 2DD, UK

phone: 020 7942 4155         email: [log in to unmask]
Science Museum home page:  http://www.nmsi.ac.uk
Jackie's Architectural Pages:  http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4350
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