Lateral Offer - Timeline for formal offer?
Received a verbal offer from a BB and its been ~a week since and no formal offer. Should this be a cause for concern?
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HR is always slow (approvals and what not) so I would just follow up in the morning if it has been a week since your last contact.
My inclination is no, you shouldn’t worry. Often there are internal processes that require attention before a formal offer can be released. Hiring offcycle at a large bank requires signatures from a number of people, likely with some more senior than you’d expect.
While there are instances when an offer is pre-approved and things move quickly, or the bank is highly efficient, the average group isn’t like this. Some positions can’t even be posted to schools/general job sites due to headcount approvals not being finalized (hence the touted benefits of a ‘contact on the inside’).
HR is incompetent. For my BB offer, HR emailed me once a day saying the offer should be ready by end of day. This went on for two weeks.
*Incompetent :)
thanks everyone, anyone else with experience and can comment?
Recently lateraled myself. It took exactly 14 calendar days from verbal to written offer. The hold up is the senior level sign off required - believe it or not, often the global head of IB. Sign off is just a formality at this point so let HR chase the appropriate parties and sit tight. After sign off, it may still take several days for the legal department to draft your specific offer letter, edit the clauses, etc.
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