Following up after a job interview

In this job searching tip, we address a question sent in to us recently by a job seeker who had a telephone interview but did not hear back from the employer. Whether an interview was over the phone or in-person, more or less the same rules apply. Most people are at a disadvantage during the process of a phone interview because, as studies have shown, people remember only 20% of what they hear. But combine hearing with a visual experience (such as meeting the interviewer in person), and their recall rate jumps to 52%. For more information about maximizing impact in phone interviews, see this article:
http://www.jobsearchinfo.com/phoneinterviews.htm

Interviewing and follow-up skills are important, but they're what you use once you're getting interview requests from employers. If you don't have employers calling you yet, you should first work on generating leads. We recommend getting your resume on all the job boards as a good first step in getting noticed. If you sign up for ResumeDirector, they will put your resume on over 90 job sites for you. Even if you want to post your resume on all the job boards yourself, you should check out the list of job boards under the "Sites We Post You To" option on the ResumeDirector home page just to be sure you have posted your resume on all the relevant sites. To get to the site, visit this address:
http://www.jobsearchinfo.com/rd.htm


QUESTION FROM ONE OF OUR READERS:

What advice would you give me about how to follow up for a position that I interviewed for over the phone, but would like to get the employers thoughts on when I will be invited in for an in-person interview. It has been a week today since there was any communication, what is the best way to follow-up?

-J.S.

Dear J.S.,

Unless there was some basis established in the phone call for you to follow up later, I think there is a risk in your calling of coming across as pushy or needy. This is assuming you interviewed with the direct employer (not a third party recruiting agency). If you spoke to an agency and not a recruiter, calling to follow up with them is fine. These people don't make hiring decisions; they just refer job candidates to the hiring managers who do make the decisions.

I can tell you from my experience as a hiring manager that I found it a turn-off when people I interviewed called to "follow up." As the person trying to make a decision, I was busy enough trying to schedule interviews to meet qualified people while juggling my other job responsibilities.

Generally, when I was interviewing people, if I met someone who I thought would be a good fit, I would make the decision right at that point. Sometimes I would continue interviewing people to make sure there wasn't someone better out there. But that wouldn't go on for more than a few more days because I wouldn't want to lose my first choice.

There were also times when I met someone who could probably do the job but I wasn't 100% sure about them. Those peoples' resumes would go in a follow-up pile. This was back in 1997-2000 when I would do that. Now with there being so many qualified people looking for work, I am doubtful that most interviewers would have the need for a follow-up pile like that.

If you were really excited about the job and really want to follow up in some way, I would recommend doing so by postal mail. The tone I would take in the letter would be one of expressing how much you enjoyed meeting the person and how interesting you found the company/job. But without asking when a decision would be made or giving any pressure for the person to follow up.

The tone should be something like a thank-you letter. It should be a letter that the employer gets and that makes their day less stressful because someone expressed appreciation for the time they spent with them and/or information they provided. The goal of the letter should be to get the employer to associate positive feelings with you and with the time you spent with them in the interview. If you get the person to reminisce fondly about the 10-15 minutes they took out of their day to meet with you, chances are they'll give your resume a second look and maybe increase the chance they would consider you for the position.

The best situation is to master the interview on the first try so follow-up isn't necessary. For access to an interview guide with the 201 most frequently asked interview questions and their ideal answers, visit this link:
http://www.jobsearchinfo.com/ebook.htm

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