Help Your Chances by Following Up Properly After the Job Interview
You’ve impressed a hiring manger with both your resume and interview performance, but now you’re waiting for them to let you know if you got the job, are still in the running or the job has gone to someone else.
How and when should you reach out? Have they been too busy to move the hiring process along, and your email or phone call will only annoy them?
Generally speaking, the best policy is to follow the company’s lead, yet be assertive about your interest in the job.
Setting up the follow-up in the interview
Every follow-up correspondence should be set up even before the interview ends.
Take copious notes during the interview, and focus particularly on the names of the people you meet and their place in the organization. At the end of the interview, find out the next steps in the hiring process, a loose time frame for those steps, and if it is acceptable to contact someone regarding the status of the open position. Include those details in your notes.
Many experts recommend sending a short thank-you note via snail mail the day after your interview. The note doesn’t ask for anything, but it just expresses your appreciation and keeps you at the top hiring managers’ minds.
Sending the follow-up email
If you were given a time frame for the company to contact your regarding the hiring process, allow that time to pass, plus another day or two. If you still haven’t heard anything, it’s perfectly acceptable at this point to send a follow-up email. Email is preferable to a phone call because it is less intrusive and it doesn’t put anyone on the spot to come up with a response to your inquiry.
The email should simply thank the hiring manager, or managers, by name and ask if there has been a change of status for the open position. In addition to finding out what’s going on with the job, the tone of the response to your email should clue you into whether hiring personnel are appreciative of you reaching out to them, or not.
If the company gives you another timeline, follow that and send another follow-up email at the appropriate time.
What if they don’t respond?
Experts recommend following a ‘three strikes’ rule when trying get a response from hiring personnel. If they don’t respond to your email in two complete business days – that is ‘strike one.’
After two business days, call the person you interviewed with or the human resources department to politely ask the same question: What is the status of the open position? Leave a polite and professional voice mail if no one picks up. If you don’t get a response from the appropriate personnel after two more business days – that’s ‘strike two.’
Finally, send another email or make another phone call. If this doesn’t get you an acceptable response, give the company its ‘third strike.’ At this point, the ball is in the hands of your interviewers and it’s up to them to determine the next move.
If at any point during this ‘pitching’ process the company gives you another timeline, follow that and follow-up at the appropriate time.
When you conduct your job search through ZDA, you can rest assured we’ll constantly be keeping you abreast of any job-related developments during the hiring process. Reach out to our great team today to get started on finding supply chain jobs.
