It’s pretty normal for a company to extend the job offer to you verbally (just like how it’s normal for you to verbally agree with the job offer). However, there are times when the promised offer letter gets delayed by some unforeseen circumstances (or maybe just carelessness). Here are some of the things that you can do when faced with such a situation.

Don’t resign! Not yet anyway

Never ever resign until you have the physical offer letter with you. It can be a softcopy, as long as there’s a signature at the bottom of the document. Because at that point, what separates you from that job is just your own signature. And if you don’t have this, the company can always break its verbal promise and withdraw the offer to you by giving you all sorts of excuses such as they found a better candidate or they cannot pay you, etc.

Continue to go for other interviews

As long as you have not joined the new company (or if you’re nicer, have not signed the offer letter), it is okay for you to go for other opportunities or job interviews. No harm to explore more. Who knows, maybe there’s a better job opportunity out there than the one which you have been verbally offered. And if you really get another job offer, you can always compare and see which is more suitable.

Wait

Supposedly, the new company will tell you how they will deliver the offer letter to you and by when will it be delivered. If they expect you to go and take it yourself, then they will inform you when it will be ready. Once you know the date or the time you’re supposed to wait, the other thing you can do is to …wait. Just wait for them until that particular date. Remember, being eager and interested is good, but being desperate is not. Never show your desperation of landing the job. Just give them “that” much time to prepare.

Call them

If the offer letter has not reached you even after you’ve waited for that amount of time, then you better call them up. For example, if it is supposed to be ready on Monday but it’s not, it’s better for you to call them up. You need to show you’re concerned and interested. It might help also if you tell them you have another pending offer. This is what happened to my friend who has one “physical” offer letter, and another verbally agreed offer letter. She prefers the latter so she called the company up and informed them about the truth. The new company, if they’re still interested, will explain to you about the delay and will give you another time/date for the offer letter to be ready. That should give them a slight “push” towards the right direction. But be careful with your words as not to sound too pushy.

I know it’s a bit hard to remain calm and patient when a company verbally agrees to extend a very good job offer to you….but the actual offer letter is yet to be seen. I know how it feels but there is really nothing much you can do here. Don’t ever push them too much. You need to be professional, and NOT a nuisance to the Human Resource department.

Good luck and happy hunting.