Following Up On Interview

[laveritecestla]

I reached out to a PI at a program that I've gotten an interview for already to see if it would be possible to informally interview with him (he is part of the department but not on the list of people doing the interviews that weekend), and he replied that he'd be happy to talk to be and to make an appointment with his admin assistant, who was cc'ed. This was on Thursday, however, the admin assistant will be out of the office (got her auto-reply) from Friday until this coming Monday, and has not responded to his email on Thursday or my follow-up on Monday. Should I go back to the professor and see if we can schedule something without the admin assistant, or wait until next week? I don't want to come off as needy or annoying, but I'd also really like the chance to interview and do not want to get buried in her inbox. 

[fuzzylogician]

It's Tuesday morning. You've already emailed twice despite the out of office notice. For now, you wait. You didn't mention when the actual interview would be, but unless there is some urgency to do it right now, check back in in about a week, if necessary. 

[TakeruK]

The prof instructed you to make an appointment with their admin assistant, so that's what you should do. If the admin assistant is away for some time then so be it. Note: If a prof has an assistant to help manage their schedule, it is a good sign that their schedule is already very full and it is unlikely you will get an interview within a week anyways. So wait until the admin assistant returns and schedules your appointment.

[laveritecestla]

On 1/30/2018 at 11:39 AM, fuzzylogician said:

It's Tuesday morning. You've already emailed twice despite the out of office notice. For now, you wait. You didn't mention when the actual interview would be, but unless there is some urgency to do it right now, check back in in about a week, if necessary. 

@fuzzylogician The out of office response was to my second email that the PI was not cc'ed on, hence the question of whether I should do something. My main concern was that he wanted to talk before my interview on campus, which left this week and next week, and I got the impression that his schedule was busy already, but the general feedback that I'm getting is to wait it out so I'm going with that. Thanks! 

Edited January 31, 2018 by laveritecestla

[TakeruK]

3 hours ago, laveritecestla said:

The out of office response was to my second email that the PI was not cc'ed on, hence the question of whether I should do something. 

Generally, profs know when their own admin assistants will be out of the office!