Ask Vicki: How can I ask a recruiter to expedite the hiring process?

Each week, Monster’s career expert Vicki Salemi—a former recruiter who utilizes 15-plus years of experience in recruiting and human resources to empower job seekers—answers user questions on Quora. We’ll be republishing the answers here. If you have a question for Vicki, send it to socialmedia@monster.com.

Q. How can I ask a recruiter to expedite the hiring process ?

A. No matter how impatient you’re getting, you can’t ask a recruiter to expedite the hiring process—things are done on their timeframe, not yours.

All you can do is put a reminder on your calendar to follow up in a few weeks. If you’re no longer available and in a new job, then the recruiter will hopefully realize that when they’re interested in a candidate, they need to move quickly.

Going forward though, keep in mind that if you tell a recruiter you’re the only company you’re interviewing with, they may indeed feel like they can take their sweet time with you.

When I worked in corporate recruiting, I saw job offers get dragged out, but the moment a candidate said they had another offer and needed to make a decision by the end of the week, lo and behold, I got an offer approved and was able to extend one to the candidate.

While you should never lie and say you have received another offer when you haven’t, it’s OK to say you’re immersed in a full-blown job search and are exploring all of your options. You can’t control the recruiter’s actions, but you can continue to look for and apply to jobs on Monster and go on interviews, so as to not spend too much time thinking about one particular company.

Read Vicki Salemi's answer to "How can I ask a recruiter to expedite the hiring process?" on Quora.