Proper and effective follow up after an interview - informational, phone, or in-person - is incredibly important. Without it you will easily be taken out of consideration for the position. As a hiring manager, I purposely looked for the thank-you notes. If I did not receive one, they were off the list, no matter how qualified they were. Do you know why? Because as a manager, I would think, “If they can’t effectively follow up with something as personally important as a job interview, what will they do as far as follow up in the workplace?” Past behavior is a predictor for future behavior. You get the point. Send thank-you notes and e-mails within 24 hours of your interview! Never miss this step. Send notes to all the individuals with which you had a conversation. Do not send one note to just the hiring manager. You will miss out on all the other contacts that you made. Even a note to the receptionist / office manager is appropriate and helpful but only if you had more of a conversation not just a “hello.” Make the notes unique to each individual based on the conversation you had with them. Remind them of the conversation you had. In each note, remind the contact why you bring value to the company/ team / position and show your enthusiasm. As the hiring process progresses or slows, stay in touch with your contacts, as appropriate. If the process has slowed begin to follow up about every two business weeks. Too soon and it will be considered over-kill. Much later that two weeks and you’ll be forgotten. Follow up with an e-mail and include a value add. A value add may be an article you read since you last spoke that made you think of them or a topic you discussed in your interview. It's a piece of information you thought would be helpful to them. This helps to keep the conversation going and shows you are willing to help others. You’ll be seen as that all important “team player.” Later, after you have given the hiring process time, reach out to each individual on LinkedIn and add them as a connections. Even if this job does not work out, you never know, by staying in touch, what could happen down the road. A client of mine was super excited about a position last fall. Unfortunately, a former employee came back and filled the opening. Although the interviews went well. She did her follow-up communications after the interviews and after she learned of the no-offer. She followed up again in a couple of months with a value added article and to say hello. By doing this, a few weeks later when a position opened up, she was the one who got the call. She is now happily enjoying her new job. Photo Credit: Shutterstock
