The Ultimate Guide: What to Do After the Job Interview
You just left the interview and feel eager, excited, and nervous. You think it went great. Now what?
Now is not the time to let up. Everything you’ve done up to this point is moving you forward in your job search. Keep the momentum going.
First, send a thank you.
You can send a thank you email (quick but not as personal as a handwritten card). You can mail one (it takes a few days, so it doesn’t have the immediacy of an email, but it has a more significant impact due to the perceived time and care it took to handwrite a note). Or you can drop off a handwritten note the next day (a good strategy for big companies when you can hand the envelope to the receptionist).
Most hiring managers appreciate the follow-up, which will set you apart from other candidates. Did you realize that nearly one-third of the people surveyed said they do not send a thank you correspondence after every interview? We’ve read that some hiring managers will not consider the interviewee a serious contender until a thank you email or note is received.
When I was an HR Director, I always liked getting handwritten thank you cards. I would keep them in the person’s personnel file. Emails can be deleted with a click, and paper cards seem to hang around longer. But if there is a quick turnaround, send a thank you email so it gets there right away!
You want to remind the hiring manager that you are a great candidate, care about their mission and challenges, and are ready to hit the ground running.
What should you say?
Thank the interviewer for the opportunity to talk with them about the job. (If you interviewed with multiple people, send each person a personalized thank you note.) Reiterate your interest in the position. Mention something specific from the interview or shine a spotlight on any information you may still need to mention. Promise a follow-up at a specific date.
For example:
Thank you for meeting with me today about the Marketing Coordinator role. It was great learning more about the team and position, and I’m very excited about the opportunity to join [company name] and help [what will you accomplish if you excel in your role?] I also enjoyed meeting Amy, Pete, and Bob.
My experience planning and executing large-scale events would make me a solid contributing member of the marketing team. As I mentioned, I’ve planned events ranging from an employee recognition luncheon for 15 people to a 500-person conference that had a budget of $475,000. I’d love to put my expertise to use to help Acme Company plan and execute spectacular events that surpass all expectations.
If you would like me to prepare an event planning timeline for a hypothetical event before the second round of interviews, I would be happy to do that. Just let me know!
I will call you next Monday to follow up. If you need anything in the meantime, you can reach me at 555-555-0000 or email Jane.Jobseeker@gmail.com.
Sincerely,
Jane Jobseeker
At the end of each job interview, one question you always need to ask is, “What is the next step, and when do you expect to make a decision?” If you were given a specific timeframe as an answer, that will guide your follow-up. Perhaps the interviewer outlined the next step in the process (for example, a second interview or a reference check). But if not, things usually take some time before the interview process can continue or a job offer is extended. Patience — and persistence — are essential.
What else can you be doing?
Keep applying for other positions while waiting to hear back on this one. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. It will give you more leverage in negotiating compensation if you have multiple job offers.
There could be various reasons for a delay in hearing back from the company. The budget for the new position might need to be approved. Or the responsibilities of the open position may be distributed to one or more existing employees. Or an internal candidate may have suddenly become available, and the position is offered to them. There are many reasons why the position may never be filled at all. But that’s not comforting if you were the leading candidate for the job.
Sometimes you could be the best candidate they had interviewed so far, but someone whose skills and experience were an even better fit came through the door. Even if your job interview went well, you might not be offered the role. That’s why it’s important to keep applying for other jobs. If you put your job search on hold while you wait to hear back on a specific position, you will lose valuable time if that offer doesn’t come through – or if the salary they offer is so low that even negotiating won’t bring it into the range of something you’d accept.
This is the perfect time to strengthen specific skills mentioned in the job interview— for example, specific software platforms. This will give you something to do, and it’s also an opportunity to demonstrate your interest in the position because you can mention what you’re doing to build your skills in your follow-up with the interviewer.
Reach out to your network. If someone you knew at the company had passed your resume along to the hiring manager, be sure to check in with them after the interview. Your contact can provide insight into the number of candidates interviewed, how your candidacy was perceived, and other valuable information about the hiring process and the company culture.
Also, contact your references. Tell them you’ve interviewed for the position (give them the job title and company name) and that they may be contacted. Make sure they have an updated copy of your resume. Ask them to let you know if they hear from the company.
Finally, if this was a first interview, start preparing for the second round of interviews. Do more research about the company. If you anticipate being asked about a specific project you worked on, put together a brag book or career portfolio to use in the second interview. Google the company, find out what they are working on, and show how you will contribute to helping them reach their goals and positively impact their plans.
How and when to follow-up
If the interviewer didn’t mention a timeframe for making a hiring decision — or you didn’t ask — you have a couple of options. The first is to wait a few days (more than three; usually no more than seven) and then reach out to inquire.
How should you follow up? Unless the interviewer has stated otherwise, a phone call is usually the best method for follow-up. Try to reach the person directly; only leave a voice message if you can’t reach them after several tries.
Before making the call, use some of the following strategies to ensure you come across as confident, not desperate. Research shows that your voice accounts for 84 percent of your effectiveness in phone conversations. Here’s how to warm up for that call:
Stretch. Stand up with your legs slightly apart from each other. Reach up towards the sky (or ceiling) with your palms flat. Breathe out slowly. Repeat 2-3 times.
Smile. When you smile on the phone, the listener can “hear” your smile. If you can, place a mirror where you can see yourself talking. This will remind you to smile.
Stand up. Stand when you call the interviewer. When you stand up, it increases your blood flow, which gives you more energy. That energy comes through in your voice.
If you’re following up directly with the interviewer, don’t say, “I’m calling to see if you made a hiring decision.” Instead, remind them of who you are (including a five-second blurb that can act as an audio clue to help the interviewer remember who you are — “I’m the candidate who helped plan the President’s visit to Acme Company”), and say, “I just wanted to reach out to you and make sure you had everything you needed from me to consider me for the (job title) job. Do you need anything else from me at this time?”
That makes it easy for the interviewer to say, “No, we have everything we need” (which will be the usual response), but it can lead you to your follow-up questions. These can include:
Am I still a candidate for this job?
Have you decided on candidates for the second interview yet?
Has the timeframe changed for making a hiring decision?
Is the next step still (whatever the interviewer had outlined as the next step in the process)
Would it be okay if I checked back in with you (and be sure to ask when you should do that)
If the interviewer did mention a time frame — and that time and date have passed — don’t panic. It is widespread for the hiring process to take much longer than the interviewer anticipated. People get busy with other work, get sick, go on vacation, and have family emergencies. Sometimes the company’s priorities change, and an urgent hiring situation may become less urgent. These can lengthen the hiring timeframe — and may not necessarily be communicated to you.
The opportunity may not be lost even if you wait to hear back after a second or third interview. The company may be checking your references, and it’s not uncommon for it to take several days — or even weeks — to reach references. Or the job may have even been offered to another candidate, but the offer was rejected. The second choice doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve finished last!
This is where persistence comes into play. Follow up with every job application — and interview — until you are told the position has been filled. Then, mark it as “closed” on your job tracking worksheet or database. But until you hear that it’s been filled, keep following up.
“But I don’t want to be a pest!”
During the interview, if you established permission from the interviewer on how and when to follow up — by asking if it’s okay to check in (and if they would prefer you to do so by phone or email) — they’ll expect you to follow up.
In that situation, they will be expecting your call. When you call to check in, you can say, “You said to call today.”
However, the hiring process will sometimes take longer than the hiring manager or recruiter initially told you. After calling to follow up two or three times, you may wonder if your follow-up is being seen as “too much” or “too aggressive.”
The key is asking the interviewer when they would like you to make contact again. It’s perfectly fine to ask that question — but then make sure you don’t follow up more frequently than you were told. Remember to ask how they’d prefer you to contact them — by phone or email? Some hiring managers don’t want phone calls but will respond to emails.
If the process is taking a long time — and you’re not getting any information from the person you interviewed with — reach out to your network and see if they can help you find out why. This is when having a contact at the company can be extremely valuable. If you don’t already have a contact when you conduct the interview, use your existing network of contacts to see if you can identify a friend-of-a-friend who works there.
LinkedIn can be a great avenue because it allows you to see these second-degree connections. Search for the company on LinkedIn, then look who comes up as employees you have “Shared Connections” with. Click on the “Shared Connections” link to show you the existing LinkedIn contacts you have in common with those employees.
If you haven’t heard back after you’ve reached out a few times (left voice mail messages or sent email messages that weren’t answered), it’s probably time to move on to other opportunities. You may still hear back from the company, but your time is better spent following up on other jobs you’ve been applying for.
Remember, many companies keep your application and resume on file even if you aren't selected for the job. You might be contacted later about another opening.
The process doesn’t stop with the job offer.
Once you have a job offer — even a written one — things could change until you start the job. So, until you start your new job, act like you’re still between interviews. Keep interviewing, following up on your applications, and working on developing your skills.
Ask Life Working® interview experts if you need more clarification on anything related to your job interviews or job search!
For more information about Life Working® services, check out our interview coaching services and schedule your free consultation.