Job Interview Follow-Up Do's and Don'ts
Don’t just sit back and wait for that job offer after you’ve done the interview. Consider these key rules and strategies for following-up your interviews, writes Debbie O'Halloran.
- Do ask at the end of the interview when the employer expects to make the hiring decision.
- Do be proactive and consider follow-up a strategic part of your job search process. Follow-up can give you just the edge you need to get the job offer over others who interviewed for the position.
- Do obtain the correct titles and names of all the people who interviewed you. (It’s always a good idea to get each person’s business card.)
- Do write individual thank you notes or letters to each person who interviewed you - within two business days. Each letter can be essentially the same, but try to vary each a bit in case recipients compare notes.
- Don’t ever fail to send a thank you - even if you are sure the job is not for you. And do write thank you notes after every interview.
- Do alert your references - if you have not done so already - that they may be getting a phone call from the employer.
- Don't stop job-hunting, even if you feel confident that you will get a job offer. Do continue to interview and attempt to find other opportunities.
- Do follow-up with a telephone call to the employer. If you are not called at the time the employer set, you should make a follow-up call to him or her. If no arrangement has been made and you have not heard back from the employer within a week to ten days, you can give him or her a call to find out the status of the hiring process. Many employers will only call back the successful candidate, so this may be your only way to find out for sure that you did not get the job.
- Do continue to build rapport and sell your strengths during the phone call.
- Do be patient. The hiring process often takes longer than the employer expects.
- Do continue following-up, especially if the employer asks you to. Just don’t go overboard and annoy or bother the employer.
- Don't place too much importance on one job or one interview; there will be other opportunities for you.
- Do use other job offers as leverage in your follow-up - to get the offer you really want.
- Don't burn any bridges if you do not get a job offer. The person they decide to hire may decline for some reason, or the employer might be hiring again in the near future. And do try and turn the situation into a positive by bringing the interviewer(s) into your network, possibly even asking them for referrals to other contacts.
- Do use these follow-up techniques to continue to show your enthusiasm and desire for the position, but don’t make it seem as though you are desperate.