“We’ll Get Back to You by the End of the Week.” Here’s What’s Actually Happening

The Secret Language of Hiring, Part 19

The timeline sounds real…and sometimes – it is. But after enough hiring cycles from the inside, you start to understand what that phrase is actually doing – and why the follow-up you’re waiting for often says more about the organization than the outcome.

Most candidates hear “we’ll get back to you by end of week” and do exactly what the phrase is designed to make them do: they wait. They check their email Thursday afternoon. They tell themselves Friday is still possible. And by the following Monday, the silence has taken on a shape of its own.

After more than two decades on the inside of this process, I want to tell you something about that phrase that very few people ever hear directly: it does not always mean what it implies. Knowing the difference between the three versions of it will save you days of wasted energy and, more importantly, stop you from putting your search on hold while you wait for an answer that may never come on the schedule you were given.

What “End of Week” Is Actually Doing

There are three versions of this phrase, and only one of them reflects a real internal timeline.

Version One: It Is Completely True

Some hiring teams operate with genuine urgency. The headcount is approved, the hiring manager has a real deadline, and the committee is aligned and ready to move. In this version, “end of week” reflects an actual internal checkpoint. You will hear back. If you do not, a single professional follow-up is entirely appropriate.

You can often identify this version early. When the timeline is real, recruiters tend to be specific: they name a day, describe the next step clearly, and treat the follow-up commitment as something they are accountable for rather than something designed to manage your expectations. As I described in “We’ll Move Quickly on the Right Candidate”, urgency from a company is a very different thing from a deadline that belongs to you, and learning to tell the difference is one of the most practical skills you can develop during a search.

Version Two: It Was Accurate When They Said It and Then Stopped Being True

This is the most common version, and it produces the most confusion because the recruiter was not being deceptive. The timeline was real at the moment it was given. Then something changed.

A hiring manager got pulled into a competing priority. A committee member traveled. A budget conversation was reopened. An internal candidate was reconsidered. LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends research has found that hiring timelines are consistently longer than companies communicate, and the gap between what is said and what is true is almost never the candidate’s fault. The recruiter who told you “end of week” may not even know the timeline has shifted. They are waiting on information they do not yet have, and reaching back out before they have something concrete to share is a conversation most recruiters will avoid.

If the week passes with no contact, one brief and professional follow-up is appropriate. Something direct: “I wanted to check in on the timeline we discussed and see whether there are any updates.” That is professionalism, not pressure. What happens next tells you a great deal about where things actually stand.

Version Three: It Was Always a Placeholder

“We’ll get back to you by end of week” is also used, more often than candidates realize, as a way to close a conversation gracefully when the recruiter has nothing specific to offer. There is no real internal deadline. There is no scheduled debrief. The phrase fills the space that would otherwise be occupied by silence, and it is chosen because it sounds more purposeful than “we’ll let you know.”

This version is not always dishonest. Sometimes it reflects genuine optimism that the process will move faster than it does. But it is also used when a recruiter wants to end a call on a forward-looking note rather than admit they are waiting on a hiring manager who has not prioritized this decision. As I described in “When a Recruiter Goes Silent”, recruiter silence is almost always a reflection of what is happening inside the organization rather than a judgment on your candidacy. The placeholder version of “end of week” is cut from the same cloth.

What to Do While You Are Waiting

The single most important thing I can tell you is this: do not stop your search. Not for a day, not for a week, not for a timeline that may not reflect any real internal process. Fast Company has documented how candidates who treat a single promising process as a reason to narrow their search consistently end up in a worse negotiating position than those who kept all their conversations active throughout.

If you have interviewed well and the timeline passes, follow up once. Wait five to seven business days and follow up one more time if you still have not heard. After that, the most productive use of your energy is the opportunity in front of you, not the one behind you. As I covered in “The Position Has Been Put on Hold”, some holds are real and some are not, and the only way to protect yourself from either is to treat your search as ongoing until you have a signed offer letter in hand.

My Closing Thoughts

“We’ll get back to you by end of week” is one of the most frequently used phrases in the hiring process and one of the least scrutinized. Sometimes it is exactly what it sounds like. More often it is a best-case estimate, a professional filler, or a timeline that has already moved without anyone telling you.

Follow up once when the week passes. Keep your search fully active. And measure your progress by the opportunities you are actively building, not the ones you are waiting on.

Let’s Talk About This

Have you ever received a “we’ll get back to you by end of week” that turned into days of silence? What did you do? Drop a comment below. These experiences are impactful, and they are worth sharing with the people still navigating this market.

My free Secret Language of Hiring workbook decodes the phrases you hear throughout the hiring process, including the ones designed to buy time more than deliver information.

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