The "Follow-Up" After an Interview

Interviews, in general, are a challenge for most individuals. The follow-up activity after the interview can have meaningful impact on the final outcome.

Most interviews are not a slam dunk. There is data and "feelings" gathered after the interview with team debriefs on what the team thought and there is information shared with how and with what information you followed up with.

Professional and appropriate follow-up is a blind spot in many people's interview process. It can tilt a decision one way or another.

The Thank You

Deliver a thank you message to every person you met with during the interview process. Be sure to either touch base with HR on the way out for the emails of the people, or if you are working with a search consultant ask them.

Make sure each message is different. Please do not cut and paste the same message to each person. In the case that the emails are shared with each other on the interview team it will be embarrassing and unprofessional if you make the messages carbon copies of each other. Be thoughtful, demonstrate initiative and touch on a specific subject discussed during the interview.

Don't try and solve a problem in the follow-up messaging that the employer shared with you during the interview process. I have seen this too often. You won't have enough information and you will wreak of "trying too hard" and being a rookie.

Control Your Cadence

There is a fine line between being professional and being a stalker. Send the follow-up email and wait a few days. Don't send an email AND call.

I remind people that part of the interview process should include understanding the timing of the hire. I coach people to get an understanding of the interview process and the timing of the decision for the hire.

While it is very challenging to nail that down, you should at a minimum ask at the end of the interview with the hiring manager what their sense of timing is in order to make a decision.

Manage your follow-up actions as if it were a dating situation, don't be the "stalker".

It is here where you can let the hiring manager know that you are interested in the position and also respectfully share your timeline with them. As an example:

"Mr. Hiring Manager, I really enjoyed the meeting today and I believe I could be effective in the position you shared with me as well as successfully addressing some of the challenges that you are having. I want to share with you that I am looking at a few opportunities and am relatively far along with the process with those as well. I am hoping to make a decision by the end of March. I respectfully share that in case you think I might be a person you may be interested in for the role"

This is a critical part of the interview process as it sets up a potential deadline with the hiring manager and if they are interested in your candidacy it allows them to expedite it in their process.

If they are not interested in you for the role, your follow-up letter with them should remind them of your timeline and give them total permission to let you know that you are not a fit in their eyes.

Here is an example:

"Mr. Hiring Manager, I am following up on our meeting last week and I remain very interested. I had mentioned in our meeting that I am expecting to make a decision by the end of March. If at this point in your process you would continue to consider me for the role discussed I would like to respectfully request to secure some calendar dates for the next visit. If not, no worries, I totally understand and would only ask for you to let me know and I can move forward focusing on my next role. I wish you and XYZ company all the best."

This simple follow-up allows the hiring manager the opportunity to expedite you in their process or it cuts you loose out of the process in a respectful and professional way. Either way, it is best for all.

Follow-up Phone Calls

I do recommend phone calls in some cases but they are very risky. Most hiring managers are not very good at hiring and most candidates are not very good at managing the "do you want me?" phone calls. It usually ends up like a first date gone really bad. It is very rare that this approach works out well.

The biggest offenders of this are the sales people. Sure, I know some of you are reading this and are thinking "It shows desire, diligence, the ability to follow-up and the ability to not take "no" as an answer".....No, it doesn't, it is just annoying.

If a company wants to pursue you after an interview and you set the scenario appropriately with an "I would like to make a decision by" conversation, you will likely have better results.