What You Shouldn’t Do While Waiting to Hear Back from a Job

You had the interview and you think you were very good, but there's no feedback. In this situation, impatience is your worst enemy because it leads to wrong decisions. Just remember that you were not the only person interviewed for the role and that a hiring decision is not made overnight. Sometimes administrative or internal policy issues delay hiring decisions.

Here's what you shouldn't be doing while you're waiting to hear back from a job:

Do not send too many follow-up messages.

Being impatient and insisting on receiving feedback after an interview is neither helpful nor rash in the decision-making process. In some companies, the recruitment and selection process can take 6 months or even a full year.

If you are aggressive towards recruiters or hiring managers, this will affect your professional image. Typically, interviewers tell candidates when to expect to hear from them. If they don't come back with a decision, you can ask about the status of the position in the week after that date. If they don't give information on this aspect, you can follow up a week after the interview.

You can ask at the end of the interview how long the recruitment process will take. You can also ask permission to follow up. You would be surprised if you found out that some employees don't like this approach.

Don't tell your current employer that you might get a job offer somewhere else.

The golden rule when looking for a job or changing careers is not to announce your new option until you have received a job offer from your future employer. Also, be careful not to spread the word to colleagues or on social media.

The first reason is that you may not receive a job offer or that you do not like the terms of this offer. Second, your current employer may contact your potential future employer before making the hiring decision and incorrectly influencing the process. As a result, your integrity and loyalty will be compromised and you are likely to lose a good job offer.

Don’t lie about having multiple job offers.

Depending on the industry and competition in the labor market, the employer may react differently to this type of situation. Don't lie to recruiters or hiring managers that you have another or multiple jobs offer if you don't, because some will interpret this as a strategy to speed up the hiring decision, but others will consider that you may be bluffing.

Finding out that you lied means rethinking your application and is certainly seen as a lack of honesty and no one wants liars in their teams. The result will be that you will lose credibility and probably a good job offer.

Job seekers, be aware of these traps and avoid them.