From the course: Writing a Resume

How to follow up without stalking

From the course: Writing a Resume

How to follow up without stalking

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- You believe you just had an excellent interview and you are nervously waiting to hear from your future employer. You realize you have to wait at least 24 hours, or is it 48 hours? How long is too long? When can you follow up? Should you follow up? What do you say? To help you avoid being categorized as overeager or as showing stalker tendencies, remember there is a fine line between a professional followup and being placed on someone's do not call list. Recruiters are notorious for not returning calls, but there is a valid and obvious reason for this. They have hundreds of nervous applicants that want to know the status of their application, their interview, or their job offer. I would have an excess of 20 voicemail messages each day because applicants would call while I was in an interview, or while I was on the phone with an employer or another candidate. I would attempt to return the call of every person who called me, but it would take an hour or two each day simply to return phone calls. To help cut down on your need for followup, there are a few things you can do. First, get a sense of their process. Ask if all candidates will be contacted. If the answer's no, then set a future time that would be appropriate for you to follow up. If the answer's yes, then you can ask for an estimate of when they expect to contact everyone, then ask if it would be okay to follow up if you haven't heard anything by that time. The best time to ask questions is while you are in the room and have the person's attention. So find out if they need additional information from you. Ask them, "What are the next steps in the hiring process?" Ask when they expect to begin making hiring decisions. Ask if they're on LinkedIn and if they accept connection requests from candidates. If they don't provide you with a business card, request one. If they don't want to provide one or don't have one readily available, ask them how they would prefer you follow up with them. Once you've committed to following up, actually do it. In your voicemail or email, remind the person who you are, so they don't have to wonder, and be explicit. Mention that you discussed the followup during the interview, that you were told you should contact them if you had not received a response within a couple of weeks, and so you're reaching out today to determine the next steps. If you don't receive a response to your followup, wait three to four business days and then try again. Unfortunately, there are times when a followup is unnecessary. It may be evident during the interview that you don't have the right qualifications or just wouldn't be a good fit. If that happens, don't spend time asking what if or do they make exceptions? Say thank you for your time and move on. By setting the parameters upfront and asking for permission to follow up, you should receive a response to your inquiry within a timely manner. This process decreases the anxiety that comes with trying to arbitrarily decide when to follow up, and by agreeing on the process with the interviewer, you have set an expectation with them that they will respond.

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