Effective interview followup (that won't turn you into a stalker!)

Ok...we've all seen the cringe-filled scene from the movie Swingers where poor, desperate "Mikey" overdoes it with the voicemail messages to his girlfriend watch the clip. Many job seekers can relate to his situation and could benefit greatly from learning the "art of the follow up". 

You just came out of an interview and really like the job. The manager gave you a positive vibe back and said "you'll be hearing from us". You're excited! But a day turns into a week which turns into a few weeks and you have not heard anything back from the manager. You leave a voicemail message. A few days later, you leave another. Then you send an email. Then you call the company and ask the receptionist if maybe he's been out of town or on vacation. She says "no" and asks if you want to leave another message. You do.

This is a common scenario and before you know it, a perfectly normal, rationale candidate becomes poor "Mikey" chalking up 4-5 different attempts to reach the hiring manager. And just like in the video, you can bet you will get the same reaction he did from his girlfriend...rejection.

I understand your situation... the job market is really competitive right now and if you are lucky enough to find a job that you actually like, you'll feel compelled to be aggressive to get what you want. You're probably thinking...

• "If I can just get the hiring manager on the phone, I'll get another window to sell myself into this job"
• "Why isn't he calling me back, he said he liked me?!"
• "Did he change his mind about me? If so I want to know"

The problem is that if you follow up TOO SOON or TOO MUCH, it can come off as overzealous and/ or desperate. It's very similar to the dating scene. So follow the same general advice... which is to "play it cool".

Remember, your call or email is NOT going to remind them or convince them to hire you.

The only real benefit following up with them serves is to curb your own curiosity/ anxiety over where things stand. You need to contain yourself and be smart about how you follow up. Also, understand that the manager has a lot going on in their universe and is under a lot of pressure. There are many logical reasons for a delayed response from a manager (ex: an open job could get pulled or could go on hold). So don't always assume no reaction to you is a blow off. Here's what you should do:

• After the first interview, send an email/ handwritten thank you note within 24 hours
• Phone the manager ONLY after 5 days has gone by without hearing from them. Any earlier then this seems a little overly eager and could end up being an imposition to the company since they won't have an answer for you yet; most companies don't react all that quickly. Give them a little bit of space and then go ahead and leave them a quick, brief message (don't ramble):
  • "Hi Bob, It's Beth Gilfeather. I just wanted to quickly follow up to tell you how much I enjoyed our meeting last Monday. I'm extremely interested in this position and would really appreciate it if you could give me an update on your process so that I can manage my job search effectively. Please give me a call or shoot me an email when you get a chance to let me know where things stand. Thanks again...bye"
• Sometimes email is an easier communication vehicle for them. So, as your second attempt, send an email ONLY after 10 more days has gone by where you have still not heard anything.  I would phrase things in a similar way to the voicemail you left, but maybe qualify your question with some empathy for the manager's situation.

• "Hi Bob, How are you?  I am sure things are hectic for you at work. But I was wondering if you could please provide me with an update on where things stand with your hiring process and if I am still being considered as I am quite interested in this position. Please give me a call or shoot me an email at your earliest convenience to let me know what's happening. Thanks so much ..."

IMPORTANT: If you are using a recruiter, let THEM do the follow up. Managers get extremely annoyed when they have double the amount of follow up to deal with. Besides sending the thank you letter, let your recruiter do their job and handle the rest of this important follow up. Let them be the persistent one. This way, that stigma won't rub off on you.

EVEN MORE IMPORTANT: If you have taken our good advice to heart and used thoughtful, balanced follow up techniques to gather a status update from the manager and they still have not gotten back to you in over a month, then move on! We all understand how busy managers can be. But there is also such a thing as "common courtesy". If the manager doesn't have this, you really shouldn't want to work for this company anyway...right?

Comments

[PanicAway]

Thanks alot for the information. Really appreciate it. I've Subscribed to your RSS feed for Further updated. Stalkers sucks :)

Best Regards,
Debra@Panic Away