In early September, I was approached by the hiring manager to apply for an open role in his team. The position was posted both internally and externally. I interviewed for the role last Wednesday and Thursday, which was also the last day for all interviews. I noticed that on Friday, my application status updated to 10/16, leading me to believe that the panel had debriefed and made their decision after the final interviews. I sent thank you emails to everyone involved and received very positive responses back, which was encouraging. However, my application status still shows as 'in progress,' and I haven't heard any updates yet. I'm curious if the hiring manager is required to wait for approvals before they can verbally extend an offer, or if they could inform me of the decision sooner. I've read that typically, top candidates are notified within three days, but I've also seen that internal hires often take longer due to additional processes.