[estebank]

It depends on where you are. In Germany it is by default a month, but your contract could specify for example 3 months notice for both parties. In places like that, everyone knows this, so a company trying to hire will account for this. Also it's been my experience that most of the times when companies are hiring for "NOW", the start times ends up slipping for months.

If you're in California, where you can leave your company and start working in the next one in a matter of hours, there'll likely be an expectation by the company hiring of a fast start.

At the same time, depending on the company, the hiring process can stretch for months before getting an actual offer.

I want to believe that most employers you'd like to work for are understanding that "life" might happen and you can't start two weeks from the moment you first met them.