What Causes Casting Schedules to Fall Behind?
This article was automatically translated from the Japanese original. Read the original in Japanese
The main cause of schedules falling behind isn't spending too much time on candidate selection—it's the back-and-forth of waiting for replies after the initial offer and negotiating terms. As these delays accumulate, the overall schedule keeps slipping. Reaching out to multiple candidates in parallel is the practical approach to avoiding this kind of delay.
What is the main cause of delays?
It's easy to assume that the candidate selection stage is what takes the most time, but in practice, the main cause of delay tends to be waiting for a reply after sending an offer, followed by the back-and-forth of negotiating terms. If you wait for each person's reply before moving on to the next, this waiting time accumulates, pushing the overall schedule further back.
Why does waiting for replies tend to cause delays?
How long it takes to get a reply depends on the other party's circumstances and is out of your control. If you wait for the outcome of an offer to one candidate before reaching out to the next, a string of declines will cause the waiting time to pile up directly.
What does reaching out in parallel actually involve?
Rather than narrowing down to one candidate at a time, reach out to multiple candidates simultaneously and wait for their replies in parallel. Move forward with terms negotiation for whichever candidate responds first, while continuing to reach out to the other candidates at the same time. This way, waiting for any one person's reply doesn't bring the whole process to a halt.
What can be done to reduce back-and-forth in terms negotiation?
Presenting the key terms—schedule, number of posts, compensation, and so on—all together at the time of the initial offer reduces the back-and-forth caused by additional confirmations later on. Communicating terms piecemeal triggers a round of confirmation and reply each time, which leads to delays.
Scope of this article
This article covers the main causes of and countermeasures for casting schedule delays. For how to respond when an offer is declined, see What to Do Next When Your Offer Is Declined. For the importance of building a candidate list, see Casting Success Is Largely Determined at the List-Building Stage.
Conclusion
Schedules falling behind stems less from candidate selection than from accumulated waiting for replies. Reaching out to multiple candidates in parallel and drafting offer messages that present terms all together are the practical approach to preventing delays.