Follow Up After a Job Interview Secrets

To guarantee that you make the most of your job interview, you should master the secrets of how to follow up after a job interview. Though most people assume that there is nothing that they can do to help their chances after the job interview is over, this is not exactly correct.

For most positions, especially positions with multiple candidates, the decision to hire or not hire does not come immediately after the interview. Instead the hiring decision makers get together at some point, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the various candidates and make a decision on who they hire. Sometimes, if there have been complications in the company, such as difficulty scheduling the discussion or confusion about budgets and projects, this conversation at the company may not happen for weeks or months.

You need to have a strong plan for how to follow up after a job interview because you do not want to simply disappear and wait around during the days, weeks or months before the company decision makers finally make their final hiring decision. During that time the company will be seeing other candidates. If you are not around or otherwise reminding the company of how good you are, those new candidates will be fresher on the decision maker's minds and get the job offer. For your job interview follow up strategy, the first stage is the thank you letter after the job interview. In this letter, you should tell the interviewer a number of items. First that you appreciate the interview, that you are still interested in the job, why you are a great fit, and that you are available for another interview whenever the interviewer would like.

More Follow Up After Job Interview Strategy
Additionally, your follow up after job interview letter should have an extra element that the other thank you letters the interviewer receives do not. A good addition is an informational gift. This is a piece of knowledge or information that you believe that the interviewer will appreciate based on your conversation with him or her. This could be a website, an attached article, a list of restaurant names or contact details for a person or organization the interviewer would appreciate getting to know. The letter should also let the interviewer know what he or she said to inspire you send this gift.

Adding the informational gift to the follow up after job interview letter accomplishes a couple of tasks. In the first place, it allows the interviewer to know that you are different from the other candidates and hopefully remember you positively. Second, it teaches the interviewer to read and value the communications that you send him or her. Most of the thank you letters that the interviewer receives are all about the candidate. What the candidate wants, why the candidate is a good fit, what the candidate wants to do next. By contrast, your letter is about yourself but also about the interviewer and what he or she would be interested in. When he or she receives this, he becomes more likely to read or pay attention to follow up communication from you. This is important because you will need to continue respectfully following up with the employer until you have either been hired or officially eliminated from the job consideration.

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