Following Up After an Interview

So, you’ve had an interview, and you are really excited and nervous about the prospect in front of you. The suspense is killing you, but the phone isn’t ringing, and your inbox doesn’t have any new e-mails from  your contact at the hiring institution. How should you follow up?

Here are some simple tips:

• E-mail a brief thank-you to the hiring  coordinator and/or members of the interview  team. Don’t try too hard to be creative or memorable. “Thanks for taking the time to interview me. It was a pleasure learning more about the position and the department. I appreciated the opportunity.” Going further than that may seem like you are attempting to continue the interview and make your argument. If you didn’t make a good argument in the interview, a card isn’t going to change that. And if you “lay it on too thick,” you risk annoying the interviewer and/or coming across as desperate.
• If you didn’t get to ask about timeline before or during the interview, inquire  about it in an e-mail to your main contact within the organization.
• For the first week or two, e-mail contact is best.
• After two weeks, if you’ve heard nothing, call  the hiring coordinator. Reiterate your interest  and ask about the timeline (or if they told you  one, if it had changed as the process went on.)

Frequently Asked Questions:

• What’s the typical timeframe for a candidate to hear back after an interview?
  • Bad news, folks. There isn’t one. So many variables go into an institution’s timeline for following up. Some might include:
    • Getting in touch with references/having them call back.
    • Following up on concerns
    • Conducting a background check
    • Getting approval from Human Resources
• If I don’t hear back about the position, will calling or e-mailing improve my chances (by showing I am motivated and interested?)
  • While possible, it’s not likely. In most cases, the general impression of your viability as a candidate is set well before the end of the interviewer. So, if you are out of the running, calling or e-mailing won’t help. If you are in the running, and you fumble the interactions with an employer during the follow-up stage, you may actually hurt your chances. In short, it’s easier to get cut from a process than it is to get into (or stay in) one. So be judicious in your follow-ups. Don’t call more than once a week, and every time you do call, ask when would be a good time to call back. If at any point, you are told “We’ll call you,” take that as a signal to move on.
• If I don’t get the job, what’s the best way to ask for feedback?
  • First, and foremost, ask for it only if you can take it gracefully.
  • Second, go in with the understanding that many employers will not give feedback, or that it will be very minimal, because some legal departments and human resources departments advises against it.
  • Call your primary point of contact and ask if you could get some feedback on your performance in the interview, how your skills and experience stood up to the finalist, or what factors went into the decision.
  • One final thought on getting feedback: only ask for it if you are going to use it to better yourself and improve your job search strategy, materials or approach to interviewing.

If you would like to get more information about job-search communications after the interview, check out a presentation I did for BreakDrink.Com.

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