Wednesday 29 February 2012

Dude Where’s My Job? Episode 6 – The Follow-Up


A lot of people think that once you've finished the interview it’s all up to the employer. Wrong! You need to make sure the employer remembers your name and stays engaged with you until they make their decision. This isn't even limited to after the interview. You can keep them engaged from the time you submit your application to let them know you are still interested. You just have to make sure you don’t cross the line and become the annoying person who they can’t wait to be rid of.


Step 1

This is a repeat of Episode 2, where I told you to follow the company’s Twitter account or Like their Facebook page. If this is new information to you, go back and read these from the beginning. Why would you start reading from the Episode 6? This isn’t Star Wars, where Episodes 4 – 6 were awesome and then you watched Episode 1 and it immediately made you want to rant about it online….all my Episodes were equally awesome. Keep them engaged through the recruitment process by retweeting, liking, and commenting on their posts. This is done either before or immediately after submitting your application, and continues until you’ve been hired…..or rejected.

Step 2

Keep track of all the positions you apply for. You need to decide, based on each individual position, what would be an appropriate length of time to wait before contacting to check on the status of the competition. Larger companies will have a longer lag time between soliciting applications to the interview stage. A rough heuristic would be one to two weeks from the deadline to submit applications if they haven’t already given you a timeline. Once you have received a timeline, you should avoid asking questions until a couple days after they said they would get back to you. They will get annoyed and start to hate you.

Step 3

Following an interview, some people will instruct you to one or all of the following;
  • ·         Send a thank you email immediately following the interview
  • ·         Send a handwritten thank you note immediately following the interview
  • ·         Call the interviewer after the interview to thank them for the interview


Warning: Doing all of these things lets the employer know that you are not only enthusiastic and excited about the position, but also just a little bit crazy. If you’re applying for anything other than a stalker position, this is not recommended.

Choose which course of action best suits your personal style. You should probably only do one of those things. In the interview, you should ask what the anticipated timeline is for finding out if you were the successful candidate. After the interview, thank the interviewer for their time using one of the three methods above and then after the date they give you, ask if a decision has been made.

Step 4

If you didn’t get the job, ask for feedback. What was it that eliminated me? Most companies won’t tell you what it is, but every now and then you get lucky and they say exactly what it was. Some companies will be as specific as telling you exactly which question you answered incorrectly or insufficiently. You don’t want to keep making the same mistake if it’s something you can help. Don’t wait to get an interview to ask this question. If you don’t get an interview, ask them why you were eliminated. A wise man once told me that “knowing is half the battle.”

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