Tips for Follow-Up After an Interview
Whew! You can take a sigh of relief. The excruciating portion of landing a job is behind you. Interview completed!
So—what now?! It’s a “waiting game” from this point on. However, there’s still work to do following the interview. Your responsibility as the candidate doesn’t end when you shake hands with the hiring manager when you exit the room. During this time, there are follow-up items that are key to help increase the chance of an offer.
Haven’t had an the interview yet? Check out out five questions to ask in your next interview here!
During the Interview
1. Take Notes
During the interview, take notes of similar interests you share with the hiring manager and pay attention to key traits the interviewer looks for in a new hire. Keep track of the names and positions of those involved conducting your interview. Typically, the in-person assessment will involve a variation of employees, team leads and managers. You may interview with five or more people or be in a board room with a large group. It’s hard to keep your conversations straight.
Within 24 Hours after the Interview
2. Figure Out Contact Information
Option 1 – A safe first step is trying the email domain of the internal recruiter who made initial contact. For example, the recruiter, Jane Doe, emailed you using jane.doe@company.com – there is a good chance John Smith’s email is john.smith@business.com.
**The only tricky part can be if they go by a nickname or have a very common name where there may be more than one at the office.
Option 2 – If the spoke with a contracted external recruiter use LinkedIn to search the company name. Then you can find anyone associated within the network. It may take more time, but you can scroll through anyone who ever listed themselves as part of the company network. Regardless, we recommend looking up each interviewer on LinkedIn to learn more about their professional history and uncover any mutual connections that exist to create further talking points. It is also nice to reestablish a face with a name for future interactions.
Option 3 – As a last resort, email the recruiter and say that you would like to thank “John Smith” for the interview today. You don’t have their email so you would appreciate their email to thank them for their time.
3. Writing A“Thank You” Email
In order to stand out, it’s imperative to send the thank you email within 24 hours of the interview while the conversations are fresh in everyone’s mind. This would be a great introduction to hep trigger their memory about your conversation. Here are items to consider while drafting your message:
Show personal connections you made with each person that interviewed you (maybe you went to the same University and connected on your Alma Mater, possibly you discussed your kids or a local bar, park, restaurant, etc. you both frequent).
Change your language/tone when sending multiple individual thank you notes (what you write to the Vice President should be different from an employee on that team or the HR hiring manager.
Go back to your notes and pick out highlights of your conversations.
Something you learned about the role/company that excited you.
A sample thank you letter is below:
Dear (Name of interviewer),
Thank you for taking the time to speak with me about name of position. I really enjoyed our conversation about personal connection statement here. Learning more about how the name of position role add in information about something you learned from the interview excites me for the possibility of the future with company name. Thanks again for your time.
Best Regards,
Your Name
A Week after the Interview
3. Following-Up
Best case scenario, hiring managers or recruiters will follow back-up on the job within a few days to a week, but sometimes it can take weeks or up to a month to hear anything back. It’s appropriate to follow back up on a weekly basis with the recruiter or hiring manager in the HR department to check-in on the status of the job. Keep the email concise and to the point. Make sure to list the name of the position you interviewed for, as they interview people on a regular basis and may not remember.
If you have any questions or uncertainty about how to find a new job whether updating your resume, writing a cover letter or the entire interview process—ResumeHub is here to help! Check out our services here!