Job interview process?

How soon do you contact an in-house recruiter to ask what the next steps are in the job interview process?

• I had what seemed to be a "good" job interview with a company on Friday. During the conversation the hiring manager was "leaning towards" me going to the next step in the process (face to face meeting). Interestingly enough a person (I don't know who) from that company checked out my profile on LinkedIn on Monday. In general, I already feel like I have reached out to the recruiter too much already. When would it make sense to reach out to the recruiter about the next steps in the process or should I just wait? Today is Tuesday of the following week meaning he has had the weekend and a full day to think about it. If I were him, I already would have decided, but I don't want to appear pushy/desperate. Thanks!

• Answer:

  Hiring can be an insanely slow process, depending on all kinds of internal political and budgetary issues, even if they love you. One hire I made took 11 months from posting to starting. That said, if they didn't communicate clearly what the process was going forward, I think it's usually acceptable to check in after 5-7 days (sooner if you have or are expecting a competing offer), and inquire about what the process and next steps are. They could be leaning towards you, but need to interview phone screen all the initial candidates first based on some internal policy (and there can be hundreds of applicants for some jobs, even if none appear to be qualified - and some places still want every candidate "considered"). Or maybe they know they want to bring you in, but need to figure out something that works on somebody else's schedule so you don't have to come in 3 times, but that person is really busy or slow to respond to e-mails. I know it's frustrating to hear, but there's almost nothing you can read into an extended delay in the hiring process - there are so many things that could be going on that have nothing to do with you.