exactly 2 weeks ago i sent my application for an acadmic post at a university. on monday they contacted my referrees. they havent called me yet for an interview and im worried that one of my referres might have said something :/ although im totally positive that they didnt they have been referrees of mine before.

My question is... after 2 weeks waiting and having contacted my referres.. should I send an email asking them where my application is at? Please help

Hi there, my advice would definitely be to wait for them to contact you. The fact that they've contacted your references is a really good sign and I'm sure an interview will be on the cards but it takes time to gather references from every short-listed candidate - a week isn't much time to achieve that. Also, it could be that the people on the interview panel are busy with other commitments at the moment - might be busy dealing with exams etc. I waited over 6 weeks before being invited to interview at a university recently and it was apparently because the panel were very busy and couldn't find a date that suited them all. In fact, so much time had gone past that I'd forgotten I'd applied for it! Hold tight & good luck!!

thanks for your reply :) woww 6 weeks .. true they might be busy during this period due to exams probably thats why its taking so long. I´ll just wait see what happens.

But some institutions are still using hard-copy letters to inform candidates. I received one a few weeks ago (to my surprise); there was no email only a letter. So I don't mean to give you wrong advice but what if they contacted you by post and you haven't received? Or the email went to your junk folder by accident? Perhaps wait til Monday and call?

For all the academic posts I've been interviewed for so far they contacted my referees pretty much at the same time as they contacted me about the interview (apart from one where they only asked for references after the interview). I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask....

Yes, I agree with Claudia. I suggested to call Monday for the same reasons. But if you call now at least it will give you peace of mind. Good luck whatever you decide to do; I hope you'll get a positive response from them soon.

many thanks for your replies .. i will contact them Monday .. see whats taking them so long lol thanks a million for your replies! :)

Before considering a PhD I applied for quite a few jobs at my local universities (technician jobs etc), and had a few interviews. They all took so long to contact me that I always lost hope! Usually about a month after the closing date, and they contacted me by letter or email with only a few days notice for the interviews. I think a lot of it is down to their HR departments, they have to put all communications through them and that usually delays everything by at least couple of days! I've even had to wait about a month after an interview to find out the outcome, and I've heard the same about people who actually got the job having to wait that long! No harm in calling them up or emailing though!

You have to be very much cautious in giving the name of your referrer. Because their one wrong comment about you can hamper your chance of getting the job to a great extent. But if you are confident that they cannot say anything wrong about you then there might be some other reasons for not contacting you. They may be taking some time to decide.
 
The employers have called the referrer on Monday and it's hardly 3-4 days. I would suggest you to wait for few more days. After that you can write a polite mail asking your concern.