Why haven’t I heard anything since my job interview?

So, you met a recruiter or a firm before Christmas but you haven’t heard anything from them, despite everyone getting back to work. Should you be patient? Are they ‘ghosting’ you? Should you chase them and if so, who should you contact ? These are questions that often come up and how to deal with this tricky situation is the subject of this short blog.

The urge to reach out to the hiring firm or the recruiters working for them is understandable. After all, they reached out to you in the first instance and opened up the possibility of improving your career or job situation. It would be great to have the validation that comes from them continuing to engage with you. This may also hint that you lack an abundance of choice and have potentially put all of your eggs in one basket.

Indeed, I once went on a very good sales course where the instructor asked participants about what they considered the most important part of the sales process. The most common answer was closing the sale, which seemed fairly self-evident. However, he said that it was neither this nor the sales opportunities in the sales funnel. In fact, he said the answer was without a doubt putting more options in at the top of the sales funnel. He argued that although sales skills are important, success is to an extent just a numbers again. There are any number of things that you simply cannot control or really influence during a sales process. You can, however, mitigate the failures that will inevitably happen by sheer volume of opportunity. Give yourself the feeling and reality of having choice and being abundant.

The same goes for a job search process, which you should think of in a similar light. In any job search, you likely hope to find a firm that matches closely with that which you are looking for, and in an ideal world, you match what they are looking for. You do your best to interview well with all of the firms that you are engaged with. All of this is in your hands. You can only control the controllable! There is, however, little point is fretting about what you cannot control or influence; namely, if the hiring firm follows up in a timely and professional manner. That is, in my view, wasted emotional energy and time. They will call you if it suits them and if you are what they are looking for. Instead, spend your resources on finding new job opportunities that match your requirements and then open conversations with them.

Take a leaf out of the books of actors and actresses. Imagine going to audition after audition. You say your piece, or sing your song, and all you hear is ‘ Thank you …next!’ This is a tough profession where handling rejection is a basic requirement. Job searchers do well to approach interviews and the job search process in a similar vein.

In summary, focus on what you can control and perhaps influence. That includes being super well prepared for interviews, on finding more job opportunities, honing your CV and LinkedIn profile, ensuring that you are findable. Beyond that, let the hiring firm and recruiters get back you if they will. If they don’t, it was likely not the right job anyway.