Employment Advice Column: Following Up After The Job Interview

Dear Joanna

I am a new grad with Autism who has just returned from a fantastic job interview for a part-time receptionist position with my Reena job coach from the Summer Employment Transitions (SET) program. I really want this job. The employer said he will get back to me with his decision in a couple of weeks. Is there anything I can do to influence the interviewer’s decision? What do I do after the interview?

Signed: A Hopeful Candidate

Dear Hopeful,

Other than doing the best interview that you can, in the end, you don’t really have any control over the final hiring decisions of employers. However, there are some follow up actions that you can do that might influence the interviewers or at least help your application look good. The advice below is a combination of my discussions with employers as well as the RSES/SET coordinator/job coaches Toni Ekunah and Victor Lam as well as Badawi’s blog in https://www.monster.ca/career-advice/article/Top-ways-to-sabotage-your-interview-follow-up and Cavazos’ blog https://www.ziprecruiter.com/blog/the-right-way-to-follow-up-after-a-job-interview/

1. Write and email a thank-you note. This is a MUST. Email the note to the all interviewers in the body within 24 hours from the interview. The suggested email template is to keep it simple, and have someone proofread the email to make sure the grammar and spelling are correct. Don’t rush it. Run spell-check as well. Don’t risk having a mistake in your email. There are many examples of thank you notes on the internet. Here is one:

EMAIL SUBJECT: Follow up from job interview on ____ for receptionist

EMAIL BODY:

Hi <NAME>,

Thank you for your time to interview me today. I enjoyed meeting you and learning about the exciting position as a receptionist with your company.  I’m very interested in this role and I have all the qualifications required including excellent customer service skills as well as  organizational skills and MS Office. I look forward to hearing any updates you can share at your convenience.

Thank you again.

YOUR FULL NAME

TELEPHONE / EMAIL

2. Follow up/Check-in. There is always a danger of following up too often and becoming annoying to the employer. Figuring out when—and how often—to check in with a hiring manager is tricky. You don’t want to sound desperate, pushy or anxious to the employer because this could turn them off. Unless the interviewer has agreed in your meeting or given you a specific date to follow up and/or receive a final decision, hold off. Some articles suggest that you you’re your first follow-up email five business days after the interview if you were not told when to expect feedback. Remember – delays do happen and the decision-making process takes time.
3. Talking about the interview on social media. It’s important to keep your references informed about your interview, your job coaches and anyone else who is helping you with your job search. And, if you were referred by an employee at the company, then keep him or her updated. Otherwise, I would keep it confidential and I would definitely not post anything on social media. You never know if an employee including the interviewers are looking at your social media accounts after the interview, especially on LinkedIn.
4. Don’t stop your job search. Just because your interview went well doesn’t mean you will get a job offer. That means your job search isn’t finished. Cavazos warns that “no matter how well you write your interview follow up email, it isn’t going to get a company to move its process faster, bypass delays, skip over other candidates, etc. This is why you should keep applying for jobs, because you never know if a company is interviewing 10 other people, considering promoting an internal candidate, or any number of other things that could cost you the job.” Remember – delays do happen and the decision-making process takes time. So the best thing to do while waiting for a status update is apply for more jobs and try to get more interviews scheduled. You shouldn’t stop doing this until you’ve signed a job offer!

Joanna

To submit your questions and comments to this column IN CONFIDENCE, please email jsamuels@reena.org