[abalone]

Red flag for me is “next week”. That’s a really long space in between contacts. Ideally the whole interview marathon at multiple companies should be packed into a couple weeks so you can drive a bidding war so to speak.

If they know you are interviewing elsewhere then it should be closer to 2-3 days max contact gap. Tip: If you don’t hear back from A, maybe you’ll have an on-site scheduled with B, and then you can ping A with that info “for scheduling purposes” and trust me you will suddenly hear back if they are interested. Again, urgency is your friend here.

[itronitron]

yeah, I'm not going to play mind games with companies. I only apply to positions for which I am qualified and actually interested in having for at least two years. I don't do the 'multiple companies/competing offers' thing as I already know the value of my time and attention.

[abalone]

I’m not following your logic here. How does driving a bidding war constitute “mind games”? How does your own internal sense of value affect the offers you get? This is just Negotiation 101.